Re: Pre Season - 2025 : Sun Feb 02, 2025 2:42 am  

Here’s the rub
NRL is so high level competitive that
Coaches work on the smallest details to win games.
Cartwright is truly in that model.

We will focus on the absolute basics for at least 2 seasons.
Attrition rugby, waiting for errors from the other side and make no errors yourself. High completion rates etc

So it may well be boring but it’s what we need to win and grind out results.
The pack has to get on top of other packs and that’s non negotiable.

I’m happy to watch hard working lads try and grind an opposition down and win games 16-10 rather than 32-18

Re: Pre Season - 2025 : Sun Feb 02, 2025 5:15 am  

Echo, what most people have put, we looked rusty first half and was a great effort particularly by the kids to keep Cas scoreless.

We do lack pace and maybe some creativity, but think our pack will do enough to win us games and we will have alot more Steel than previous years.

Let's be honest very few fans expect us to get close to the play offs, but do think we should be aiming for 8th/9th, the advantage we have over every club except, the top sides is our youth depth, we have players who are SL ready to fill in just about every position. If we can slowly improve the next couple of seasons and our fans still we us, I could see us challenging in a couple of seasons time.

Re: Pre Season - 2025 : Sun Feb 02, 2025 8:52 am  

How did big John and zac go? I don’t expect chamberlain or holmes to play too much for you guys

Re: Pre Season - 2025 : Sun Feb 02, 2025 9:40 am  

oggy123 wrote:

How did big John and zac go? I don’t expect chamberlain or holmes to play too much for you guys

Jon played well and was running things down the middle, played about 60 mins too. Zak had some nice touches but was well marked by Cas and dropped the ball a few times, Chamberlain suffered a leg injury and it looked quite serious tbh

Re: Pre Season - 2025 : Sun Feb 02, 2025 10:16 am  

Glad to hear about John, guy oozes class! He will carry you through games if he’s fit!

Re: Pre Season - 2025 : Sun Feb 02, 2025 10:16 am  

Is holmes injured already? He seems barely to have played the last couple of years

Re: Pre Season - 2025 : Sun Feb 02, 2025 10:29 am  

Jake the Peg wrote:

Is holmes injured already? He seems barely to have played the last couple of years

"Oliver Holmes will be monitoring having taken a precautionary stance on a knee injury from his time at Leigh Leopards this pre-season."

Taken from HDM article this morn

[Chris71]

Re: Pre Season - 2025 : Sun Feb 02, 2025 11:32 am  

Yesterday was a run out that was needed to put some of the things done in training into practice in game time pure and simple. Some stuff they’ll be pleased with and other stuff not so pleased and under Cartwright it does appear the ‘not so pleasing’ stuff will be worked on.
Still a long road ahead, don’t think any of us are or will be getting giddy for some time yet.
What I will say is that whilst we were clunky and timings a little hit & miss as you’d expect, it does look for the first time in years we actually seem to have structure about our play particularly defence. While it was still only a pre season game was pleasing to see the young players didn’t look too out of place which bodes well for the future.

Re: Pre Season - 2025 : Sun Feb 02, 2025 1:35 pm  

These young players must now be properly nurtured and not over exposed. I have far more confidence that the club is better placed to do that now both from a financial point of view, the coaching set up and the fact that in Myler we have a knowledgeable rugby man at the helm. Something we haven't had for a long long time.
Great start but nothing to get too excited about.

Re: Pre Season - 2025 : Sun Feb 02, 2025 4:07 pm  

Jake the Peg wrote:

Is holmes injured already? He seems barely to have played the last couple of years

Thats why we signed him so he is fresh for 2026 season