What's going on with Watkins ???? Because he never got the pass he spat his dummy out instead of Getting his head down ????? Is it just me ? Or does he have no fath in the team with all the lads out?

I wish we could just plonk ourselves in 8th position and press the ESC button on this season.

We are still getting marched down the field way too easily. It seemed like no matter how far down the field huddersfield started the set, they were always lining up on our 30/40m line by the last tackle with Brough prancing round, having a cup of tea, then taking measurements and calculating the perfect bomb. Lilley seems to be growing every week, he was taking control on the last and putting in some nice little kicks.

Since Hull kr performances have definitely gotten better, however I can only see losses continuing. Huddersfield next week, then is it cas warrington and wigan?

Even if we get bodies back, they're not going to be match fit because they've got no reserve grade to play in. So it'll be weeks before they get back into any kind of form. Even if Leeds scrape past a pretty mediocre Huddersfield next week, I've seen nothing this season which suggests they'd be able to beat a top side in the next round.

If you want to stick a fiver on Leeds winning the Challenge Cup go ahead. You may as well give it to charity though because you won't be seeing it back.

Season goes into hibernation now, starts again with the Middle 8s. Next ten weeks should be treated like an extended pre-season with the aim of hitting the ground running first week after the split.

Argh well, the good thing to come out of this disaster of a season will be the likes of Handley, Lilley, Golding, Sutcliffe and maybe Smith getting plenty of game time.It's what lots of people have whinged about needs to happen on here for years and now it is in full swing. You can certainly see Lilley and Handley are growing in stature by the week right now.

Well i see it as a free shot at the cup and put all our eggs in that basket, its all we have and i'd wager the team see it that way too.Beat Huddersfield and then a favourable home draw in the quarters and you never know. Other than that i agree, season is a zzzzzzzzzz.... from here.

I agree Sutcliffe cost us 6 points by not passing to Watkins and some other passes should have been better but that doesn't absolve Watkins from another poor display. John Wells demonstrated at half time how Watkins does not run good lines and is often in the wrong position to help the young stand off. He showed why this contrasted with Keinhorst who positioned much better deeper and wider so he could run into space. Watkins may have good feet but he has become a lazy player with suspect handling and not very good at reading a game.

Yup.

Got used to having silver service from McGuire and Sinfield putting him into gaps. Without them, he looks half the player. Struggling to think of a less effective centre in SL at the moment, even Keinhorst is outplaying him with the ball.

Not necessarily disagreeing about Watkins going backwards...but I seem to remember much criticism of our former esteemed half back pairing in being too slow and incapable of putting our 'best back line in SL' into space

We may not end up beating a top side in further rounds but I remember hearing the same line after the 2014 season ended that we wouldn't beat the top sides in 2015.....when we did then the inevitable line was "well the quality of the other sides is poor"

I was quite worried after the 4 game debacle around Easter but TBH even though the last three weeks have only heralded one win out of three I'm now very confident of this group heading into 2017 and beyond....yes we'll have to eat a sh*t sandwich a bit between then but then again for all those who love giving us their Last of The Summer Wine tales of the 80's, I recall many games in 2001/2002 when those youngsters lost games like that.

Yes but wasn't it mostly from you though? Wasn't "ponderous" the word?

Watkins should be sent to Fev on dual reg for mine.

Tbf I was saying this about Watkins in 2013 and was getting shot down on here by everyone blaming the halfbacks and the coach for not getting him ball.

Think that was mainly from you.

Maybe it was...don't think I was the only one though. I certainly wish we had our 'ponderous' pair now though (although Lilley does seem to be getting better and better; pity about the other half)

Yet another flip flop

Not the only one but certainly the main one....at least if we put Golding to HB he won't have to drop so many bombs though



And definitely about Sutcliffe....it's one of the few times me and Gotcha have been on the same page since day one so it must be correct

Probably

.... Think I was spoilt

Lilley has the most clue for Leeds ball in hand and on the foot (not difficult in McGuire's absence) but if I were an opposition coach I'd find wherever Lilley/Sutcliffe or Lilley/Burrow are defending and keep going at them every set. Then on the last any sort of high kick will find Golding/Handley spilling around half of them.

After the Hull game it was said Golding clearly isn't going to be a winger, I think we can add full-back to that assessment. What's his actually position supposed to be?

I think also the excuse of Watkins being overworked in defence can be lessened tonight, because whilst they were times he had both Lilley and Sutcliffe over there (although Sutcliffe did 4th man in at times) plenty of time tonight (and other games) it was Lilley and Burrow out on the left which meant it was Keinhorst (Moon in other games) having to defend further in and he again had a good game I think.

So now Lilley is proving he's every bit a SL yer writing off Golding as a FB after an average game?

Tbf just to add also, how many fullbacks have we seen suffer in that swirling wind at Huddersfield, it's not an easy place to go for a fullback

If Mac drops Handley or Kind Horse (SL Pod Ref) before Watkins he will lose my support.

I think it was after the Cas game I said something along the lines of "if Lilley is the future then we are fooked!" I have done a total 180 on that one already. Now i think he can't/shouldn't be dropped.

I will reserve judgment on Golding, let's see if Zak does much better next week!

Cas fan here, I've been more and more impressed with Lilley and Keinhorst every week whilst Watkins seems to go from bad to worse.

If you were completely injury free how would you fit these two into the team.

The break that Sutty made when he passed inside rather than to Watkins wasn't a bad option. It looked as if Lilley would probably made it to the posts if Walters hadn't impeded him.

He won't drop Keinhorst but he'll move him back into 2nd row duties (was Achurch injured again? He spent ages off, 25min until 70min wasn't it before being dragged back on?) The interesting decision comes next week (maybe) if McGuire is fit. He'd obviously start but who would his partner be....Sutcliffe or Lilley.....surely it should be the latter.