I expected is to win nothing as its a rebuilding phase. So many new faces and coach playing in maybe the most competitive league in the world. So well done to all on that score, it certainly was great to see Fax win the cup against for me the best team in the League. Fieldhouse has come on leaps and bounds and Robinson, Barlow, Gannon, Manning and Ambler have done well with I think Manning my man of the season. I also feel the club have made some positive steps forward off the field with Ambler playing a key role in developments and the continued backing from Tony Abbott and others. The volunteer work from many people both who do work directly for the club and others who have helped raise thousands is much appreciated by myself and likely many others. The club keeps making a profit and is well run though there are areas that it really still needs to improve on.

I must say I feel a bit letdown this year despite the cup win. Very inconsistant performances and we have been very boring to watch and for me have not improved at all in many areas from when Calland was coach. The poor defence is still there as is the ability to be brilliant and then poor within minutes. We still look as disorganized as before which in all these areas i thought we would improve in when Rhino came in. I simply dont rate our halfbacks who for me have had a poor season overall and not really got the team going forward that well. Some players arrived with Rhino singing their praises-I think a number really have let him and us down most of the season. Hesketh has done nothing, same as Reittie, Casey, Chandler..Handforth and Thackray play really well for 20 minutes and then disappear from the games I have seen. Our backs dont get enough quality ball and Rob and White when played just dont look as happy and confident as previous seasons. We just often seemed to concentrate attacking in the middle and not from wide out for me and I found us boring and frustrating to watch at times and often you could read our attacks which often came from the forwards rather than the plays coming too much from our ball players like Handforth, Penky, Thackray etc.

My fears for next season is we will see much the same with us trying to smash our way through instead of being creative. Penky is a massive loss and I feel very sad that White has left. He and Rob should be our wingers for me as Reittie is not good or fast enough. I hope we have a few good signings still to come and not just forwards!

Overall i've been fairly pleased with the season, last weekends game put a downer on it all but again overall i've been fairly pleased. We completely revamped our squad and brought in a new coach which is always going to make it very unlikely that we'll click first time.

BUT, the season has made it clear what areas we need to look at/improve:

Defence - Our actual tackling has certainly improved in comparison to the Calland era, however our defensive line is not moving up to the attacking line at all, we sit back and wait for the opposition. You watch teams like Fev and Leigh and they're on you in seconds whereas we just can't be bothered to make the effort. Needs sorting!

Attacking Style - I appreciate Karl likes play in the forwards and he's improved our forwards dramatically in comparison to previous years. Again however, it's become way too focused on forward play and we're neglecting our flanks where we have some really talented players. One thing Calland certainly got right was throwing the ball around and exploiting the flanks.

Also, basic running lines and moves have gone a miss this year which has made us unbelievably predictable and when defenses like Fev's etc move up at the speed they do we're going to get crushed!

Half backs - We need more, simple as that. We've pretty much only had Thacks and Tiger in the halves and Thacks isn't a half back who creates and Tiger hasn't clicked properly so we've been completely stuck. Again in previous years we've had numerous half backs on the go who're creating, they're leading and they're proving alternatives and new ideas so we have plan B's and can change if we're not getting anywhere in attack.

I think I posted on the other thread, we need:

6 - New Signing/Tiger
7 - New Signing
9 - New Signing (Live wire player like Penky) Rotating with Tiger/Ashall
13 - Thacks

14 - New Signing (Half-Back/Hooker like Beswick)

That's the ideal, it gives us lots of pivots and lots of creative players to run our attack, I know it's probably not possible but that's the idea i'd be moving for.

Anyway lets see what happens!

We need some X factor players that can get us some good field position and when we get in the oposition 20 ask some questions of their defence.
Too many times do we fail to complete an attacking set by turning over the ball early in the tackle count or we just run out of ideas and end up headless chickens with cheap turnover and never build any pressure.

Defensively we have been largely very poor, even against some of the so called lesser opostion we never look comfortable and more often than not let them score on the first forray into our half.

100% agree on the fact that we no longer use our centres and wingers effectively. We never create space for them to attack which makes for a very boring game to watch.
We use our forwards far too much.
Most teams use tackles 1,2 and most of the time 3 to go through the forwards giving one halfback time to sort out a move for play 4. After that a kick is usually utilised.
However this season we seem to just use the forwards the majority of the time.


I would of much preferred White to have stayed and Rettie to go purely to show we are looking to use speed down the wings rather than trying to batter our way though teams. Rettie should be/is a second rower - end of.

Does anyone agree that Patterson isn't a centre also? He should be back on the wing because he is strong and quick and can return the ball well. However he hasn't just got that bit of creativity that a centre needs to shift it out to the wing or do a drop off play with the winger.

Fieldhouse needs to run at gaps not men - prime example - he tried running straight into Menzie Yere last week and got forced back over his own line. He could have easily go round him or even dived to the side of him and found the floor.

Half back
Hooker
And possibly another outside back
Couple of props

I'd be happy with that.

Roll on 2013

Get used to it, remember Harrison was a prop and it's all he knows, seriously folks it's all you'll be seeing.

That's nonsense, obviously. If it was true, you'd just sign up props.

Overall disappointed. Yes we won the NR Cup but the rugby played for most of the season was poor and inconsistent, and not particularly entertaining.
If we won all in our path playing this type of rugby then I may be appeased but I go to be entertained and I found this season more frustrating than previous season under Calland.
Crowds won't get any better with this type of rugby so lets hope the new additions will move us in the right direction.

I can't be done with all this its a transition season and a rebuilding season etc. Its a cop out excuse. They are paid sportsmen and coaches and should be at a standard where they can compete in the first season.

Apart from the NRC final I cant remember us playing well. The Fev away rout was a fluke as they were knackered. We havent beaten any of the top 2 teams home or away apart from that Fev game. I dont count the final as anything can happen in a final.

We dont seem to have any moves or players off the ball running at angles, giving the ball carrier options. Its straight up rugby and besides being boring hasnt really made the season a sucess or made us compete has it.

We have struggled against the so called lower teams and had to rely on last minute wins, York away, Keighley to name but a few.

We badly need a centre and new halfback and hooker I feel. Also an aggresive prop, someone that can break a tackle as we only have Azui and Barlow and one of them is gone now.

You talk tripe Griffy, a prop needs a hooker at least....

Hats off to Fev, with the right coaching it shows how consistent you can be. Each season losing just a few games, maybe 2 or 3 and reaching the grand final 3 years on the trot as well as finishing top 3 years on the trot, thats some feat tbh.

The threads of the majority of the posters many of whom are slightly frustrated but constructive can be summarised as follows

We are all loyal to the cause of a wining Hx team
We recognised that the pack needed stiffening up last year and it has
However we like flowing attacking rugby not boring one man biff and bash
We need half backs that complement the team as a whole bringing into play the backs to score the try's. That has to be the focus to fix
We need a different blend of attacking pivots


The bit that concerns me is the courier quote .....IT'S ALRIGHT WE HAVE COVER IN THAT AREA......Handforth and Ashall and Bowman.....

Anyone else feel slightly uneasy as to our direction?

Yes, didnt work this season that. Bowman aint a centre, tbh Id like to see Bowman go on loan to get 80 minutes week in week out, its no good him here getting a game every now and then, he needs gametime to develop and see if the kids the real deal as he has potential.

I 100% agree with that. Send Bowman out on loan and see if he can come back a 80 minute half back for us in a seasons time.

In 2011 white,worrincy and tyrer (tyrer at widnes) all scored 20+ tries this year they are not past 15, half backs have not got the ball wide enough throughout the season thats not like halifax you normaly play the best attacking rugby in this division,the last two tv games it was very unorganised

Mixed feelings, we came third in the league only on points difference to Leigh and won the NRC which was a terrific achievement and has probably stopped Fev winning the lot (I think they will turn Sheffield over in the GF although it will be much closer this year) BUT we have not been the team I thought we would be, especially after that great defensive effort at Dewsbury in the NRC I thought that would be typical of our season but it wasn't, our defence has been a shock as I believed Karl would have a rock solid defensive team, not so.
Our attack has been blunt at times like most are saying we take 3 and sometimes 4 tackles just driving the ball in one man style, you know one of two runners will get the ball and opposition teams have just read it like a book and knocked us down.
We all thought Karl would make us a hard team to beat but that has not really happened, yer we won some games we would not have under Calland but we should not struggle against Swinton and York for goodnes sake but we did. Maybe the disruption with all the injuries took a bigger toll than we realised, I think that it was the quality of our squad thet we did as well as we did, the last game just caught us out and with Penky knowing he was going we had a passenger for the last few games he was not interested.
My big worry is that Karl seems to like players who 'smash' people like Rettie, when we need centres and wingers that can run round people, when they get the ball!
I feel like we are at a crossroads now as two good signings to replace Penky (we have lost one of our biggest wage earners) and hopefully we will get better, but two average just 'up and smash em types' signings and we will get left behind as Fev, Leigh and now Sheffield seem to have got it right they have backs that can really hurt you.
I am slightly worried but we must have faith and hope Karl knows who he needs to turn a decent team into a very good team, ala Fev.

Now the dust has settled Ive decided to do my assessment of how the players have performed this season and my views on who should be here next year.

Ryan Fieldhouse - Potential to be the best FB at this level if he irons out a few of his bad techniques he has in his game.
Paul White - An average winger at this level. Wont really be bothered about him been in an opposition team and that says a lot.
Rob Worrincy - One of the best wingers at this level, once again though the coaching staff should be working with him non stop on the bad things in his game.
Wayne Rettie - Not spectacular like Worrincy but gets through a ton of work and defo worth a shot next year.
Lee Patterson - Not good enough to play centre in a top Championship team and im not sure he is worth a spot on the Wing. Good player to have as cover though.
Ben Heaton - Impressed me at Centre early on in the season and I think he can keep improving in that spot. Needs to work on his passing technique though.
Steve Tyrer - Pretty meh over him to be honest. Good in attack but pretty slack in defence at times. Needs a good year next year.
James Haley - Been a good club man but for me same as White, are we bothered about playing against him?
Mick Nanyn - Hard to say really because he could be a good player for us but its going to depend how he comes back from a year out.
Anthony Bowman - Seems to been at the club for years now without making progress. cant see him making any impact next season either.
Anthony Thackery - On his day has looked good but cant remember him having many of them. Needs to be far more consistent.
Paul Handforth - Same as Thackery and im not sure the pair work well together. We are lacking big style in the half back department compared to other top clubs.
Callum Casey - Thought he was poor for most of the season but the last few weeks looks to have come on leaps and bounds. Probably worth another season.
Mikali Aizue - Frustrating really because he only starts to play when it comes to contract time. I would take a punt next year though if he were cheap.
Penky - Best hooker at this level at the moment and will be badly missed if we go with what we have got.
Sam Barlow - Him and Manning are the best 2 second rows at this level AINEC.
Dane Manning - See above. Outstanding.
Craig Ashall - What has happened to him? Beginning of the season looked really good but has been very poor at the back end. Very predictable and a liability at times.
Ian Morrison - Pay as you play deal and we might get a bargain.
Sean Hesketh - One of the worst players i have seen pull on the blue and white for a few years. Man mountain but plays like a speed bump.
Ross Divorty - Has looked very good when playing, will have to hope he can stay injury free.
Joe Chandler - Not good enough.
Adam Robinson - Has the ability to be very good at this level. Rough diamond who needs a lot of work though.
Josh Barlow - Cant see him ever making the step up.
Jim Gannon - Fancy another year Jim?
Tony Tonks - Looked a shadow of his former self since signing but lets get him fit and see how he goes.

So overall I think next season we could do with a very good Hooker and a very good Half Back although I cant see us signing a Half Back and if we dont sign a hooker we will struggle. Luxury would be signing a good centre and another good prop and we wont be far off next year.

Couldn't agree more with your assessment Greg Florimos boots......Let's hope the coaching staff recognise the consistency of the feed back on this forum particularly around the key positions.

Ive lived in Halifax for all my life and I have supported HXRLFC for most of it but honestly Im not that bothered where players who play for the team come from as long as they give their all and are good enough relative to how we are doing at that time.

Both players remind me of Scott Law in the sense that every year the Courier rolls out the same feature saying how much potential the lad shows and how this could be his year and then before you know it we are 4 years down the line and the lad is still nowhere near cementing a first team spot. As much as im not keen on going with Handforth and Thackery next season, I am still smart enough to realise that Bowman is nowhere near as good as either and Josh is way way way down the pecking order when it comes to forwards.

Fair enough if they dont cost very much then they can make up the numbers in the early stages of the NRC but really thats going to be about it. I guess sending bowman out on loan would be an option but I doubt he gets in any team in this division so would have to be a champ 1 team.