OK, we're all weekend RL coaches who have opinions on how our team should be playing, who should be selected etc etc etc but after the first five league results of the new season Matt & his staff have copped a fair bit of stick on this particular messageboard ( this is the only RL one I read ) rightly or wrongly.
My own view is that MC has stated publicly a few weeks ago that he'd be selecting "horses for courses" teams this season, which he's able to do with the size of the squad we now have and for the purpose of disciplinary measures or loss of form, the benefit of a reserves side to utilise.
So, after his gameplan & team selections for the Dewsbury game, which apart from the last five minutes, looked to have worked pretty much perfectly, what, if any changes would any of our posters make to the team selections for the Barrow fixture tomorrow ?
If you study the team we put out against Widnes and compare it to the Dewsbury team I think I read somewhere there were six changes, OK some of them may have been forced through injury but there were some glaringly obvious omissions for my money.
It's worth adding at this point that I thought Calland had cracked the whip somewhat prior to the Dewsbury game & the selections earned their winning money and for me, I'd go with a very similar line up. The position & gametime at hooker was particularly crucial. So, as the players earned their righteous plaudits, I reckon MC and his coaching team deserve theirs too !

I dont think you can read too much into the Dewsbury result and tommorows will give us a much clearer idea of where we are and can be. How many sets did they complete in the first half? No team can fail to do well on the back of that just by playing basic rugby. Im not sure team selection is all that important when you come up against a team that performs like that.

If Aizue is missing tommorow then obviously we will struggle against their big pack and theres a chance they could run riot. We have to put the biggest pack we can on the field to at least try and match them so for me that means no Beswick again and Barlow at Loose. Penky can comfortably do 80 minutes at a high standard, i can never understand having the best hooker in the league only playing for 40 minutes. It would be a suprise to see Black playing so it looks like Holly and Jones in the halfs so these two will have to be on the top of their games because we will miss Blacks spark. The backs dont really matter, we have good enough backs whoever plays for us to be strong all over there. Its down to the pack, this is a massive weak link for us this season and they need to over perform if we are to beat Barrow.

Perform for 80 minutes and it will be close, play for 1 half we could get hammered.

I would agree with that summary and add that IMHO we need Frank to do more than 10 minute stints, Big Sam to consentrate his efforts on going foreward and not his apparent self imposed role of "enforcer" and a big defence stint from the pack in general

A big pack helps BUT dont forget the away game at Barrow (on SKY) where we got the tactics perfect and took them on out wide and won.

A big pack will also suffer in the hot conditions particularly if Holly gets them moving...

it'll come down to good old fashioned desire, discipline and commitment

Blacks spark so far has been a fizzle this season IMO. To me he does'nt warrant a place in the 17.Horses for courses, what a load of tosh. The best team available should go on the pitch EVERY week, never mind wether they have to rotate players because some-one is not getting game time to suppliment their wages.

To be honest all our halfs have struggled this season but that is par for the course playing behind a beaten pack. Like you say you have to pick the best team and the best team means Black and Holly teaming up.

One game does not change much. We need to string a couple of good performances together and get back to playing the basics correctly. Thats not saying MC and the players have not worked on things. But before we start thinking that we are now OK after one Performance we need to show that it was not a one off and that we need to work on the excellent things done this past few days

We dont need an enforcer and that role has changed so much that its more or less a punishment having somebody going around trying to be a hardman. What we want is players that give 100%, Run hard and tackle hard. Somebody throwing a strop, throwing a punch etc is not the way the games is now played. We need Forwards to work to the strengths. Barlow needs to play to his strengths and not try and act as a hardman.

I'm reserving judgement until after tomorrow. Dewsbury were very poor IMO and probably that was their worst performance for a while. Personally one ok performance doesnt change much for me. If and I mean IF we put in a decent performance tomorrow we can then talk about turning a corner.

Dewsbury were ruddy awful, Brambani had the worst kicking game i have seen in years and they had no strike threat at all. For us Makka, Rob and Penky played with enthusiasm.
We all know that when our lads are fired up they can take apart any team in this league.
MC was quoted as saying they had targets in defence, it showed, its rare for us too to cary these out.
We have to back it up, just like we shouldn't be judged on one bad game, nor can we be over lauded for sticking one over on a poorly performing Dewsbury team. The jurys out, the atmosphere last sunday said it all, people sounded fed and disullusioned, we never know what were gonna get.

Sounds like his options are limited, I hope we can kick on and beat Barrow as we need some confidence before THAT cup match!
Come on lads the club need this big time.

Was Beswick dropped last week or injured?

Penky certainly made the difference last week and you do get the feeling that he is more effective the longer he is on the pitch. If Beswick was injured, but now available for selection, what does MC do?

Without wanting to sound positive, as seems to be abhorrent to most on here...we 'defended' dewsbury out of the game last week. It's obvious our goal line D is garbage, so we defended stronger upfield. As for barlow...he may have a hot head, but Ive not seen a lad play with such pride in the blue and white for years.

Well said, although "goal line D" is a bit technical for me. We will win today.





p.s wizard only has one z in it.

Ah, I've explained myself several times about the extra z. I wanted the correctly spelt version on Lycos, but it was gone. The suggestion was 2 zs, its stuck ever since. I like the irony.

Up the fax

Well, there has to be a twist.

Two more players who won't or can't be bothered to bend their backs or get down and last ditch tackle

2 new half backs on todays performance wouldnt be far off the mark. They were very poor today.