Really? Are you watching any Rugby at present? You keep banging on about the coach being the most important role at the club as if it's some fundamental truth. I couldn't disagree more. The most important people are the ones who take the field and actually play the game, always. Coaches aren't wizards. Our current playing staff (certainly todays) just doesn't measure up. That's far and away the biggest problem we have, and hopefully we'll take some big strides in that direction in the coming weeks. If we get some real quality and Smith can't get results he'll be judged accordingly. Until then patience is required.

When some Wigan fans I've known for a while come into my work and tell me it was a waste of money going to the game and watching that precession it speaks volumes. It feks me off (and I dare say a lot of others) when I think back to how many classics we've had with Wigan in a bygone era and it has now turned to this. I've no love loss for Rohan, I doubt things will improve next season either. Mid
-table obscurity beckons again. Sorry, can't see any positives even with our signings.

It was very hot and tempers flare easily.

We have all also had a lot of frustration this year and frustrating performances. And that’s off the back of years of underperformance from Leeds.

But it’s not right to take it out on the players. They try their best. We have some cavalry on the horizon and more to come - hopefully RS has as much say in who as possible.

A 50-0 spanking at home by the auld enemy is terrible. But… we move on. I do think next year will be better.

Did he say that when we spanked them with 12 men earlier in the year?

Great idea. let's sign world class players and get wetherby bulldogs coach as the coach doesn't matter.
and let's judge smith on a full season. this season and his abject pre season.

This is how far we are behind.
50-0
A bang average Goon side has just walloped us into next week.

Completely unacceptable but will be passed off as a fluke.
We have truly and completely phoned it in.a terrifyingly e capitulation.

Bang average? They’re joint top

but its not a fluke. its happened time after time. pre season was treated as a joke and its told during the season.
tes, there are mitigating circumstances at times but it's been shambolic. embaressing and

true.
wakey and cas wernt though

Agree don't take it out on the players you support through thick and thin. I don't think we lack effort as have been in games all season but lost most of them!
We have no leaders in the team and any recruitment needs to address this. We need a top class player who is also a leader in one of the spine positions. I don't care which but that should be what we are paying marquee for whether it is a half a prop or a hooker. Cam Smith long term has the potential but we need a Buderus / Peacock level signing that can walk in and claim immediate respect.

And I’m not saying they are but neither of those beat us 50-0

They’re not bang average at all.

Bit Hull got walloped by Cas last night and as you've said, they’ve taken steps forward

Back to my original question.
Does anyone have the 21 man squad for last years semifinal and GF and is able to compare it to our strongest 21 man squad this season?
I`m interested to see how it compares.

You could Google it?

World class players? We don't have the money. I never said coaches don't matter, I just believe players matter a whole lot more. What about having the loyalty and the patience to stick with what we we were clearly told was a long term project when Smith was appointed. The easy alternative is to sack him, but then what, or who? Do you have any ideas?

Where are you going with this?

We got well beaten in the GF really.

This year’s team has beaten all the top sides and we’ve had a couple of really gutsy performances.

Those of you that have knives out for RS will use today as per of that you’re right, fair enough. In the vast majority of games we have been close. The standard of the whole league isn’t what it used to be but I still think RS can take us up the ladder if given support and resources.

Funnily enough I watched last years playoff game against Wigan last night!

Briscoe and Tindall were on the wings

I’d forgotten Martin was banned for hardly anything! So Hardaker was kicking the goals.

We were outstanding that night, Bentley and OConnervthe standouts.

Smith is a strategist and I do think he’s been brought in to bottom out the restructure. Yes, it should all have been done by now and the handover from the Goldens was a catastrophe but we are where we are.

Thought experiment: put me as coach of Brisbane Broncos and I’ll beat the pants of the world’s #1 coach taking charge of Lock Lane. Even given a year or two to work with those players. Yes coaches can bind and improve players but you have to be without shouting distance for that to come into play.

You talk some rubbish to put it kindly

That just about sums up the attitude at Headingley , even some supporters are accepting the below average performances

So with the players we have and the garbage we are signing you expect a play off place , well maybe we will ,but sneaking in to 6th place in this league is hardly a success story

He signed his mate Nene as well , how has that finished up

Well its felt like the wheels were going to fall off for a while, and they have. Next week likely to see a similar result and scoreline as well. Lots of injuries but also the players who have left without being replaced have caused chaos.

We'll no doubt bring in some more signings, but Smith will start next season in the opposite position to this one, with almost a negative goodwill balance. I hope he learns from his mistakes this year, starting with the messing about in pre season and starting the season way off the pace. He'll be under pressure from the first game, as nobody is going to have any illusions about a mid-season turnaround which probably a fair few of us imagined would happen this year.

I hope that our one or two remaining signings will be big names as well. While accepting this is still a transition (and that Smith wasn't responsible for the previous years of that), we need a sign that the club has drawn a line in the sand. I like Miller, and from now on in will give Frawley a chance, but neither of them or Goudemand move the dial much. Without signings to get excited about I wouldn't be surprised if crowds drop off next year.

While Smith (and others) rightly say that the market is tight etc, the fact is that right now Sts and Wigan have far better players on their books than we do. No doubt some of them (especially at Sts) might be on slight unders as they want to win things, but we are fundamentally playing to the same cap. There is no excuse other than poor cap management to not have a team that has the ability to compete with them. Yet I look at the players they have vs us and its night and day in some positions.

Not sure you can say I have the knives out for Smith as I have ben prepared to give him a chance right up to around the 10th game of next season.
My question on the squads is to find if we have a better squad now than we did last year and if we do have a better squad then why are we not doing better?
On the other hand if our squad now is inferior then it goes some way to explaining why we failed to qualify for the playoffs which by our standard should be the minimum one should expect.