Re: Hull KR (A) : Thu May 25, 2023 9:37 pm  

There's a very, very good side in there somewhere in us. That was a frustrating watch, but what a way to win.

Once we keep hold of the ball and sort the discipline out, we'll be tough to beat. Peet should be so proud of the grit and resilience shown, there was every reason to give in when we went 8 points down.

We'll suffer a few defeats IMO over the next few weeks as the squad is so stretched but we need to aim to peak for the Wire CC tie.

Re: Hull KR (A) : Thu May 25, 2023 9:38 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

Can never quite work out if bad nights for Smith are down to confidence or concentration. I’d guess at the latter because he was absolutely fine last week (leaving the goal kicking nightmare aside) when it was knock out rugby.

One of his best performances was the CC Final so I don't think he's overawed by the bigger occasions. But it feels to me that one mistake early can snowball into a dreadful game. I lost count of the errors in the first 20 minutes - dropped ball, kicks out on the full, misplaced passes. Then another a kick out on the full in golden point. The goalkicking is incredibly frustrating - it's my old man's pet hate. He's been shouting 'sign a goalkicker' since 2014 and he's not wrong - we haven't had a good one since Pat Richards.

But back to Smith - we obviously stick with him as we have no choice atm. How he responds to this poor run could be really integral to our year - hopefully the return of Field will help and maybe Cust can get back in the mix again (Hampshire was pretty anonymous tonight).

Re: Hull KR (A) : Thu May 25, 2023 9:40 pm  

CobraCraig wrote:

Smiths kicking has been poor this year but who else is there? He kicked well last year, I’d rather we stuck with him and hope he gets his eye in than go with someone else, each kick he missed was pretty close and all from out wide.

Highlights the stupidity of our recruitment over the last 7/8 years. He nearly cost us the game with what is an important part that seems to just be brushed aside by many. I’ve zero confidence in his kicking to the point where it’s a surprise he actually lands one. We must have one other player practicing?

Re: Hull KR (A) : Thu May 25, 2023 9:41 pm  

P.S. The TV comments were scarcely believable.

Re: Hull KR (A) : Thu May 25, 2023 9:47 pm  

I’m not getting the negativity, we are pretty depleted at the minute and if you said to me we’d be in the challenge cup and play offs in a months time I’d grab your hand off. The bookies got it right but I thought we were big underdogs today and we managed to turn it around when Hull KR had massive momentum in the second half, we just need to play more expansive as we don’t have the side to dominate in the middle with our injuries.

Re: Hull KR (A) : Thu May 25, 2023 9:49 pm  

Wigg'n wrote:

Maybe not

Let’s see if conversions cost us again.

Two from nine is very poor kicking

Re: Hull KR (A) : Thu May 25, 2023 9:52 pm  

While we didn't play particularly well, we also ought to note, as Willie Peters did (unlike the Sky Sports commentators), that we'd had a quick turnaround and were well-down on bodies. On top of that, HKR played very well, taking it to us for the whole of the game, and yet we were continually able to score from deep, in addition to which, if Smithy had kicked his conversions, our life would have been made a lot easier. There have to be some positives to take from that.

And ... and I'm sorry, but someone has to say this - no way on Earth was that first Ryan Hall effort a try. The way those commentators orgasmed over it was utterly pathetic. Only Tez told the truth. It was very, very dodgy.

Re: Hull KR (A) : Thu May 25, 2023 9:53 pm  

CobraCraig wrote:

I’m not getting the negativity, we are pretty depleted at the minute and if you said to me we’d be in the challenge cup and play offs in a months time I’d grab your hand off. The bookies got it right but I thought we were big underdogs today and we managed to turn it around when Hull KR had massive momentum in the second half, we just need to play more expansive as we don’t have the side to dominate in the middle with our injuries.

Expansive doesn’t have to mean shipping it wide all the time. Parcell plays for us tonight and we win at a canter. 7 and 9 hold us back and have done for too long. We can all see how we need to play but when your 7 is probably not even in the top 6 halves in the league we are going to struggle in that department really, certainly until Field is back.

Re: Hull KR (A) : Thu May 25, 2023 9:55 pm  

DannyT wrote:

Expansive doesn’t have to mean shipping it wide all the time. Parcell plays for us tonight and we win at a canter. 7 and 9 hold us back and have done for too long. We can all see how we need to play but when your 7 is probably not even in the top 6 halves in the league we are going to struggle in that department really, certainly until Field is back.

According to Barrie Mac we're not an expansive team.

Try telling that to Harry Smith.

Re: Hull KR (A) : Thu May 25, 2023 9:56 pm  

MadDogg wrote:

One of his best performances was the CC Final so I don't think he's overawed by the bigger occasions. But it feels to me that one mistake early can snowball into a dreadful game. I lost count of the errors in the first 20 minutes - dropped ball, kicks out on the full, misplaced passes. Then another a kick out on the full in golden point. The goalkicking is incredibly frustrating - it's my old man's pet hate. He's been shouting 'sign a goalkicker' since 2014 and he's not wrong - we haven't had a good one since Pat Richards.

But back to Smith - we obviously stick with him as we have no choice atm. How he responds to this poor run could be really integral to our year - hopefully the return of Field will help and maybe Cust can get back in the mix again (Hampshire was pretty anonymous tonight).

It’s a crazy run we’re on without what you’d call a ‘really good goal kicker’. It’s been a decade since Pat Richards left and as much as we can say ‘recruit a kicker’ you’d have just thought naturally one would pop up from somewhere, be that a signing from outside the club or somebody coming through the academy. We’ve produced loads of good players in that time and signed loads of good ones and not had a single 80%+ kicker out of the lot.

On a side note, Steve Mascord posted a transfer story yesterday saying a new player at Catalans would be moving to a top English club next season. It is one of those stories behind a pay wall but I saw a couple of mentions saying it was us signing Adam Keighran. He’s the slowest goal kicker I think I’ve seen but he’d solve the problem (I just can’t really see the signing though unless somebody is leaving we didn’t expect).