Pre-season I'd have taken 9th/10th as a finish. As the season wore on I thought we had a good chance of the play-offs if home form improved. Bonus was making the play-offs even without the home form improvement.
The disappointment was we could/should have won last night but once again TM tinkers with the starting line up (IMHO) to accomadate our biggest liability McGoldrick. Previous 2 games Chase & Sherwin have
1. Ruled the game away to Quins
2. Worked to get us back & on top against Celtic

So why mess to have someone who is not a HB, will never make even a mediocre FB, Loose foward if all other options are used but is supposed to be a centre when his tackling, especially 1on1, is suspect at best looked great when we where in NL 1 but not SL standard.

Putting Chase in at starting hooker was a big mistake imo. He just seemed to spend his time tackling in the middle of the park rather than making things happen.

McGoldrick, I've said the same for about 3 years, we should get rid. His best position here has been at FB. Richie Owen is a better FB so unless we put Richie out on the wing, we have nowhere to play one of our highest earners (and quota spots).

Sure do seem to be a lot of Goldy knockers on here.

Didnt Goldy fire out the passes that got us two or three of the tries we scored against Celtic? Very short memories some of our fans.

We are a better attacking team with Goldy in the side, yes he is not defensively brilliant, and yes he does make mistakes, but at the end of the day he is an attacking player, always looking to create gaps for himself and others, this will ensure that he makes more mistakes that a forward whose job is to catch and run.

Yes he's been out of form this season, does continually beeing moved from position to position effect his form, I thonk you would have to say yes it does. Did he have an exceptional game last night, no and neither did the majority of the side. Was he a liability and the reason we played badly, no he wasnt. Did he give away a couple of penalties for high tackles yes, so did Liam Higgins, dont see anybody asking for us to tear up his contract.

Think a few 'Cas Fans' need a bit of perspective here, he is one of our best attacking 'flair' players who by his own admission has been out of form for the best part of the season. I for one hope he will return next year and display some of the form that we know he is capable of.

Given the nature of McGoldrick's contract, we're gonna have to find somewhere for him to play.

I think everyone wants to see him perform well because he's a likeable character, but he needs to put this season behind him and once we find a position for him, he needs to make it his own.

I was hoping for a fairy tale finish to the game yesterday with Goldy going over for a try but it wasn't to be.

How quickly things change. At the start of this season we were chanting his name at all opportunities, singing his praises and laughing off interest from Wigan and now everyone is wanting to get rid of him.

I agree!! The thing that surprises me is all the talk about 'where shall we play him???'......said as if we've got to fit him in somewhere. Only because we've got to get sort of value for money out of him??

At the beginning of year shirt presentation, Matterson wasn't sure where to fit McGoldrick in, on the 1st team line up........if the problem was that he's so good he ought to be first choice in every position...then fine!! However sadly, that isn't the case. In the majority opinion he isn't good enough to be a first consideration in any position at Suprleague level. A utility player that comes on...only if we have to...then maybe!

Can we.....Cas as a club.... afford to pay a mediocre player so much money? Personally I'd rather invest in the development of 3 or 4 of our more promising juniors.

What he did on Sam Tomkins was unacceptable in our game like him or not!

He had him on the floor with his hand around his throat! Thats not allowed in boxing or UFC I dont think!

I sometimes wonder if fans think we can just tear up 4 year deals and say "sorry Ryan, but you're out" and he's just going to say "oh, ok, thanks" and leave without complaint.

We've made the decision as a club to sign him on for as long as we have and it's unlikely that after this season we've got clubs battering down the doors to steal him away from us.

On form, he can be a fantastic player and we have seen this in the past so there is no reason why he can't get back to his best next season.

What exactly triggered this incident? I didn't see it.

And chokeholds are perfectly legal in UFC I believe.

It was Phelps mate. There was an article about Mcgoldrick (SP?) a few weeks back regarding his lifestyle and about he wanted a grand final tattoo if they got there but there weren't much space to put one. He also mentioned nobody tells him what to do and that he is a loose cannon in the changing rooms and even TM can't control him and lets him do what he wants. After every tackle last night he wanted some biff.

You should have finished your post there..........or added with a high powered rifle.

Incidently no-one has mention how utterly useless feather was when he came on, widders would have been a much more useful impact sub

I just cannot believe he was not sent off!

Feather was a complete waste of time yesterday, was shown up by Wainwright in terms of driving the ball in and his defending was non-existent.

I could never understand why he got a 4 year contract anyway.
I think this has been his best season, and it's not been great.

If the rumours are right....and I do say IF!, then the Cas Board could have got rid on of him on the many times that he's failed to turn up for training...or turned up still drunk from the night before. It's about having the balls to make a hard decision that is in the best interest of the club. There are countless ways, and grounds upon which to terminate a contract.

For me Goldy did play well in NL1....but I can't recall much from him in the way of 'Fantastic' in Superleague.

Go steady you will have the three amigos after you

IT I just think the guy is being played in completly the wrong part of the ball park. He was originally brought over as a 'Goal Kicking' centre. How many games has he actually played in the centre postion? And how many goal kicks has he taken? (This one's easy).

For me Sherwin yesterday didn't seem to be interested until the final 20 mins, he didn't take on the line before passing, decided it was more fun to hit his own team mates with the ball rather than let them catch it!

I'm not knocking the effort for this season as with most fans I agree its been a good season in comparison to the last 5/6 years.

Lets hope we bring in few decent signings to replace those that are leaving us, and heres to an even better season next year!

Regards Goldy I said it at the time and incurred criticism and I will say it again. That being that the contract we gave him was absolutely stupid and one of the worst we have given.

He was fully committed to the club, giving his all and certainly not without a modicum of ability, despite some obvious flaws also. He was definitely worth a contract. However put it into context. He was a squad player in Australia, no more and was hardly, and never will be anywhere near international standard.

So what do we do, we go give him an international type contract way above what he is worth, but even worse for an unbelievable stupid four years, putting him smack bang into the comfort zone. And unfortunately he is one of the last players you want to put in the comfort zone.

Look carefully and you will see he has developed a little paunch, his fitness levels have dropped as stated by a few at the club and he is no longer the best trainer, which he was prior to his new contract. I think you will find he is doing quite a bit of 'boozing' since.

I honestly think if we had given him a two year contract and one more in keeping with his true worth, we would have been seeing a much better and committed player right now.

Unfortunately too many fell for his off field hype and personna rather than his actual on field playing worth.

A very good post.

spot on mate. been saying that for 2 years but he is one of tm's favoured few

dont know for certain but i bet the mcgoldrick four year deal was more to do with richard wright than matterson. no doubt about it in a lot of games last season and before. mcgoldrick was consistently good and became a favourite with the fans so to keep us happy he ended up with deal he has got, but now with the rangi chase signing we appear to have a problem how to accommodate goldy. it appears this season that most of the other teams have sussed out his style of play or when he is on the field with rangi, sherwin, they appear to get in each others way. the signings we have made for next season, snitch and jackson, i hope i am wrong but i can not see them improving us a great deal. what we really need is a quality player similar to darren lockyer when we are camped in the opposition 25 to get us over the try line, if not i think it will be very similar out come next season, keep do the graft up to the 25 and little finesse at the end of it.

Good post! I agree. We need someone who has unstoppable power to drive over, or someone who can quickly exploit gaps in the oppositions defence to break over the line. We need a hard working opportunist like Widders, but with a few extra yards of pace.

Think 4 year deals in RL are stupid, unlike foorball, most rugby league players dont have or only have a small sell on value.

4 year deals for our young talent are superb but when it comes to quota spots and average aussies forget it.
With the Quota spots being so few and generally so expensive to a club, they have to be the right deals.
I don't think 4 years for McG was the right deal, 2 years would of kept him hungry and given the club more options.

bullets post earlier was spot on.

Only because you never got into the clique, Korki!