Re: I smell the whiff of decay : Mon Feb 18, 2013 12:15 pm  

Agree with much of what's already been said.

I don't think I've ever seen a rugby team look so totally lost, and lacking in ideas, as we did yesterday. With ball in hand, we were hopeless - we didn't make Wakefield work at all. There seems to me to be an inherent laziness with some of the playing staff. Gower is left to do everything in attack, which just won't work. People aren't backing him up or reading his plays, and we become ponderous and predictable.

In defence, it's just shambolic. Wakefield were disciplined and organised but most teams would have been able to comfortably deal with their attacking threat (that said, whoever was kicking for them, left-footed fella - Sykes? - kicked tactically extremely well). Players like Kaufusi amble about, looking slow and out of condition.

Even under Powell, scoring was not a problem, it was defence. Now both seem to be broken. I just can't see how, with the benefit of a full pre-season with a largely unchanged squad, Rea hasn't been able to organise the team better than how it finished at the end of last season. It is baffling and upsetting.

Prepare for the attendances to get worse, by the way.

Re: I smell the whiff of decay : Mon Feb 18, 2013 12:33 pm  

I apologise for my earlier misjudgements.......Witt is a better model than RL player and Dorn was indeed dropped! Hard to imagine why Teffers would drop one of our (only) 2 strike players!

It's getting harder and harder to sit through this torture....and it's not the Stoop that is the problem, jaybs, its the rubbish that's being played on the pitch!

Jeez, we thought we had hit rock bottom last year....our only success so far has been finding a new all-time low!

Re: I smell the whiff of decay : Mon Feb 18, 2013 12:41 pm  

Dan Stains woz God wrote:

our only success so far has been finding a new all-time low!

Someone has to finish bottom of the pile & Broncos are probably due a wooden spoon.

That said David Hughes unerring ability to make the wrong decision in any given situation does buck statistical trends.

Re: I smell the whiff of decay : Mon Feb 18, 2013 1:20 pm  

All kinds of problems.

I'll focus on one. Player recruitment/squad management. It was very clear where last year's squad was weak - no settled centres, defenders at third man in who either avoided contact (Howell/Witt) or shot out of the line too aggressively (Gower). Broncos were very easy to coach against.

Now, there was little room to manoeuvre with many contracts running through to 2013 but a grip should have been taken and players like Howell, Witt and Randall should have started this year outside the 17 with a clear indication that they either pushed hard for a place or were left to wither. Sadly, Robertson should never have been re-signed - I like him but this was yet another emotionally easy re-signing (Randall over Ellis anyone?) - when a top-class right centre was required. Instead, we start the year with tried-and-trusted failures all over the place - individuals and combinations.

A massive fail so far for Rea IMO - I'm struggling to think of any difference in personnel/combinations between Powell's Broncos and his. We are almost shot in terms of centre options whilst we have plenty of options at full-back/wing - get this addressed for 2014! The odd thing is that Rea went with Dorn and Gower at the end of 2012 but seems to regard Witt and Gower (zero points against Widnes and Wakefield with these two running things!) as the way to go.

All change for Wigan next week - Dorn and Lee starting please; Witt and Randall watching. Witt, especially, is like Seymour at Hull FC; the team go better when he's in the stand.

[brian2]

Re: I smell the whiff of decay : Mon Feb 18, 2013 2:39 pm  

Anyone who saw the game yesterday will know the issue right now is not the coach. Absolutely disgraceful performance, probably the worst I have ever witnessed supporting the club for 15 years.

Very difficult to argue with that (i saw my first game in 1997 the wembley year) or any of the other comments on the post. I was utterly deptessed, i spent a small fortune in getting to the game - money and time, bought another shirt (god help me) and then had to sit through a totally pathetic display. Dorn dropped? on what basis did that happen? As lots of others have commented, our right side is wide open - widnes used to and any team will. Lovell may be a lovely led, may make it as a second row at some point but a centre he is not. in attack we were equally witless. in truth Wakefield could/should have been 24-40 points ahead at half-time and could/should have won by 60+, we were that poor

Apart from Dixon - everyone looked either unfit, uninterested or out of their depth. Gower is a great player and could move the team around, but he needs some support and some go forward from the pack, none of which was evident today. Dixon will be gone at the end of the seasdon at this rate.

Actually - the club might as well wave the white flag and sut up shop if this is waht is going to be dished up as entertainment - no defence, no attack and much worse no real passion. the atmosphere is awful, i despair....................................

An as i am from the North, fish rather than coal - lets stop the flat caps, whippets and pits jokes, they are not funny and they (rightly) annoy people. And they do us no favours.

i really feel as low as i have ever done about this team, worse than last year! our decline since our last couple of years at Brentford has been steady and painful to watch, team getting poorer year on year, experience worse, crowds smaller.............................................. Luckily i have a house about 45mins from Perpignan and i think i might start brushing up my catalan/French and turn into a dragon.................................

Re: I smell the whiff of decay : Mon Feb 18, 2013 3:13 pm  

Dave Lister wrote:

Anyone who saw the game yesterday will know the issue right now is not the coach.

I don't want to lay the blame with Tony, but as good as a coach he CAN be, I think he's probably sending the wrong messages at the moment.

He strikes me as a "confidence" coach- if the team are playing well then he has the nous tactically to keep things ticking over and is good at keeping feet on the ground and players looking ahead and focusing on their next performance.

If however things are going the other way, I don't think he's "hard" enough to really get into the team. After yesterday you want a coach to rip the sh*t out of the players- in fact you would have wanted that at half time. In fact, you would have wanted that after the Widnes and Huddersfield games. I don't think he's the sort of coach for that's likely to do that.

Having said that, I still think he was the right hire, no question. His hiring certainly rekindled a lot of the optimism from us in the offseason that was missing last didn't it? A return to the "good old days" when he was in charge at Brentford (at least the last good old days that I can remember) and we had a team playing exciting attacking rugby and always with their hearts, win or lose. Why that optimism hasn't been reflected in attendances who can say, separate issue of course.

Re: I smell the whiff of decay : Mon Feb 18, 2013 4:43 pm  

Dan Stains woz God wrote:

It's getting harder and harder to sit through this torture....and it's not the Stoop that is the problem, jaybs, its the rubbish that's being played on the pitch!

My point was in one thread if you read it currently the way we are playing it is a total waste of money marketing the team, because anyone who came new yesterday will never come again! the Stoop is just a factor!

Re: I smell the whiff of decay : Mon Feb 18, 2013 5:50 pm  

jaybs wrote:

My point was in one thread if you read it currently the way we are playing it is a total waste of money marketing the team, because anyone who came new yesterday will never come again! the Stoop is just a factor!

I brought 2 mates yesterday and strangely enough, they're both keen to come back

edit- I think I should get Gus' job!

Re: I smell the whiff of decay : Mon Feb 18, 2013 8:50 pm  

rob13 wrote:

I brought 2 mates yesterday and strangely enough, they're both keen to come back

edit- I think I should get Gus' job!

They're from Wakefield?

If you can find out why, you may be on to something.

Re: I smell the whiff of decay : Mon Feb 18, 2013 8:51 pm  

They come just for the laugh