Right then, lets discuss. Tonight we played a Leigh team who tried there best to hand us the game by making error after error yet even with all the repeat sets we could not break them down. Don't get me wrong we had a decent kicking game to build pressure and get some good field possession but with ball in hand we look absolutely clueless. I question what we do in training other than weights because tonight we didn't look to have a set move and looked completely void of ideas. Yes we lost Thackeray early doors but even with him on the pitch all game tonight we would not have won that game, Thackeray thrives off broken play and tonight we hardly broke the line. I dont think there is alot wrong with the team, we just need some CREATIVITY.

Bowman's back on the scene. Mix it up a bit. Nothing to lose.

I suggest you take a look at the league table and note which team have scored the most points before you start a thread entitled "Creativity", Sir Whingealot.

It was mostly 'one man rugby' from Fax tonight...just one of those games, where it was tough, and great defensive effort from both sides. Not pretty at all, but we (Leigh) had a helluva lot of tackling to do, you should have taken advantage of our 15+ handling errors.

Think you have to give Leighs defence a lot of credit TBH, although I have to say you did seem a bit short of ideas at times.
Neither team at their best - both wont be far off come the shake up at the end

Odd game tonight. Fantastic platform but our half backs are utterly WANTING. Ashall and Handforth are simply not good enough. I think we missed Rob tonight personally.

A few tweaks and we could easily be champs again. We had enough ball to win 3 or 4 games there.

Did you go tonight?
If you did then you would see that we are NOT CREATIVE, fact.
We had about 70% of the play in Leighs half in the first half and did not score, we had six sets of six on their line in the second half and we did not score, in fact the try we got was a breakdown in play by them and bless him the one player who looked like doing something and I am not his biggest fan - Wayne Rettie bust a gut in the 77th minute and scored by just pinning his ears back and running to the corner, we did not make that try.
We have no moves especially when we are on the oppositions 10 metre line or try line, we just don't. No switch play, no dummy runners, no planned moves at all so what does Karl coach them on the training pitch?
We are just a team of 'smash em lads' and it aint working.
Teams have us sussed, kick deep and Fax will just get up to the half way line, always. That way we can't score.
We are boring.

Drop Rob for Patto who sadly has no pace and never busts the line, in fact he stops before being tackled.
This on a good wide pitch which he has had a good try scoring ratio on, he has speed which we are lacking yet Karl drops him.
Great move that one - not.

63% possession for 'Fax, I believe. Gives an indication of the defensive effort from Leyth! Hugely disappointed in Handforth and Murrell in particular tonight for what it's worth, no guile or spark whatsoever.

Worrincy wouldn't have made a jot of difference, your wingers would have seen more ball playing rugby union!

If I had (which is none of your business), would that have altered the fact that Fax are the league's highest scorers? Not really. Well, not at all. Eh?




..... and just edited your last sentence for accuracy.

Our wingers have not had much ball all season, we are so predictable its not good to watch.
Yer Leigh tackled well but you can when you know its first receiver or at most second reaceiver who will take it up and run at you so just hit him and the play stops.
We are boring as hell to watch.

No come on as yoiu have made this personal - did you go its a reasonable question???

in fairness, we (Leigh) looked absolutely shattered and the amount of possession you had should have won you 2 games, im with fax 4 life, a better attacking team would have mullered us tonight although i have to say Leigh were commited in defence and looked to really play for each other.

i can honestly say i have never seen a Leigh side (or any other side) drop that much ball and never look like losing!

I was convinced that all Halifax's possession would tell in the end. It just had to in my book. .

However I totally under estimated the amount of spirit in the Leigh team. Granted Leigh made a lot of handling errors in that match but that was some defensive stint to continuously shut out Halifax. The best defence I have seen in a long time.

I cannot believe the title of this thread on this board !!

On their day, Halifax are a joy to watch and play a great brand of Rugby which included a 60 point mullering of the same Leigh side a few months ago.

What was the issue tonight ? Tactics ? conditions ? Underachievement ? Lack of respect for the opposition ?

At this moment, Leigh are a different proposition and are on a good run.

Halifax are a real dangerous side when they are on form, and as already stated, will be well in the mix come the playoffs.

In fact, finishing 3rd or 4th may be the best way in , as we will have nothing to lose at Fev or Sheffield !!

Good luck for the rest of the season.

Leigh's defence was spot on and I do believe Thacks and Heaton off the field had a big impact. Too much pressure on Murrell. Handforth was left to it but the worlds flatest passes are not going to work.

A bench of forwards were not going to help either.

Oh well, I have no doubt KH and BOD know what we need and who we need but we wont see them until 2014.

Why can't you believe the name of the thread? It is glaringly obvious we need a couple of ball players to have some creativity.

What was the issue tonight? Creativity

We mullered you by 60 earlier in the season when you were a club in disarray.

Did you go tonight or the York game? What about fev at the shay? If you went to all of those games you wouldnt be questioning the name of the thread.

Yes Leigh defended well tonight but god we made it easy with 5 drives and a kick.

That said all the best for the rest of the season

I completely agree and I'm confident Harrison and co will get the play making issue sorted.

Like you say that wont help us this season though.

I honestly think with Thackeray and Heaton on the pitch lastnight it wouldn't have changed the result

I really hope you are right but many are starting to wonder about Karl's style and tactics. This is his second season in charge and although we are 3rd and have had some big wins we are caught short when we have played the better teams and lack that ability to break down defences especially when on their line, like last night!
My worry is that we have a coach that we all worship but who has not got the attacking style that a top team needs.

I will be happy to come back late next season and eat my words! There is just that nagging doubt and I aint alone, we want to remember Karl as a good player AND coach but this may end in tears.

To be accurate Tony apart from the freak home win against leigh we have struggled to score a lot of points against our better rivals.
It's okay scoring a bagfull against some of the lower teams but not much use when you struggle to do so against the better sides.
On creativity if it turns out as rumoured that we are going to be making changes / additions in and to the 6,7 and 9 posiitons for next year then it looks like the club and coaching staff agree that we are not quite there yet.

Supporters are mearly echoing the declared ambitions of the club and to match these ambitions there is still some work to do in these positions.

It's not about being critical or negative, more like being honest and realistic.

It will be sorted, i'm sure about that.

Here here. Top post, sums it up perfectly.

Ive watched Halifax nearly 30 years and given the talent in our team last night I must say that was one of the most inept attacking performances I have seen in all the time I have watched us.

Our pack was well on top and we do have players that can score trys but they wont score trys when they never see the ball. Dropping Tyrer and Worrincy was a horrible tactical decision by KH leaving us with 2 players out there that are anything but prolific try scorers.

The only break we made in the whole game was off a bad pass by a Leigh player. Yes our defence was fantastic but we had enough of the ball to win the game 3 times over.

I know people are saying we will see next year when we make some changes to key positions how good we are but we knew at the end of the last season that Thackery(Not sure he would have made any difference), and Handforth were not good enough. Add to that we release one of this levels best hookers and dont replace him and its easy to see where the problems lie.Penky on one leg last night looked more creative than most of our players put together.

I didnt think that Hewer had the best of games missing Penky`s blatant knock on that lead to Leighs first try. Also penalizing us for offside seemed a bit harsh seen as though he didnt pin Leigh for it all night given the fact that they were offside nearly every set of the game(One of the reasons I hate sitting side on because the offsides are so obvious). Im not even kidding about the offsides at times when we had them close to their line some of their players were as far as 5 yards in front of the ref without him apparently noticing.

Still I dont want to blame the ref because I think most teams would have beaten Leigh last night given that amount of ball but once again we came up short in a big game which has become the theme of our season. It wouldnt be as bad if we were exciting to watch but we really arnt and it has me questioning whether to bother going up to Barrow or not(Obviously will do

).

Tony you can't have it both ways. When I suggested Murells kicking wasn't as good towards the end of the York game your main comment was "did you go to the game", now you are saying that question is none of any ones business, but it is obviously you business.
I think you will find that most people who did go last night thought our side lacked creativity, even Greg Florimo (who unnecessarily questioned my attendance at the York game) felt we were lacking in the creative department.
We are all entitled to our opinion without the need for your vitriol.

You also edited my spelling of Murrell in my previous post, forget other peoples spelling and try for a little accuracy in your own posts.

p.s feel free to come back with your usual withering comments.
Nothing you can say will offend me.

Have a great day.

you can never write the season off until the fat lady sings this is the one of the most important things in sport. however if we are to basically get past the first hurdle in the playoffs we definately need much more ideas in attack or we'll come off 2nd best again. come on kh attacking play is what puts bums on seats.

The problem with the lack of creativity in our team is not just down to having players that aren't good enough, the coach has to hold his hand up as well. To score trys you have to pull players in the defensive line out of position and the best way to do this is to have lots of players in motion on the same play offerring the the halfback a number of options. I'll give a crude example, we seem for some reason to like the drop off, on it's own, as a play! A drop off on it's own for a good defensive unit is easy to defend against, there is basically only two options for the attacking team, the drop off or the halfback dummies and goes himself. Just by adding two wider runners outside the man dropping under the halfback already you have doubled your options and therefore given the defence twice as much to think about. It is possible to play quite expansive rugby under a very rigid coached structure. Take Wigan as an example they play a very structured way but are very expansive because the man with the ball has at least 3 options at anyone time often more. It is then up to the man with the ball to pick the right option. If we had three or four men giving the halfbacks lots of options on each attacking play but the halfbacks keep taking the wrong option, I could then say that halfback is poor/ can't read whats in front of him. From what I've witnessed we don't have that, much of the time we only have one or two men in motion on an attacking play which means unless you can run over the top of someone you are going to struggle against good sides. I have to put some of the blame on the coaching staff, if we can't play off the cuff rugby, then don't let us, give us some structure so that players know where they should be running, what lines they should be running and when they should be running them! Lol anyway B*llSh*t rant over with, I apologise if this made little sense to anyone!lol Come ON The Fax!