Easy meters when returning a kick off...

But Wakey conceding all the points they have recently means they are constantly kicking off, not the other way round

Hmmm, being 2nd highest in the tackle count isnt exactly the number 1 priority for a stand off.

Passing, organising attacking structure, putting men through gaps, setting up plays etc etc are what our halves should be doing. Sinfields basic passing skills and pass selection currently (and for the past 18 months) leave alot to be desired!

As for being a 'great captain' - In the past maybe, at the moment I feel his attitude is a part of the problem. He is one of our most petulant players at the moment - up there with Webb and JJB. He should be having a word with those that are giving away the silly penalties or back chatting the ref - not joining them, or instigating the poor attitude. Mr Sinfield currently appears to have a chip on his shoulder and seems to think that the team are being hard done to, rather than accepting that the team are not doing things right.

I dont know whats happening in training, but we seem incapable of winning any collision. Delaney is the only player who consistantly finds his front in attack, the rest end up turtled on their back, leading to a slow play the ball and minimal yardage. In defence, we look clueless in technique. The players dont seem to know what they are doing wrong, the attack find their front, so we either give a second effort or lay on, leading to penalties, leading to back chat, because the players dont know what they're doing wrong. Practically every team we play against seem to be running harder and faster than us, in part they probably are, but alot of this is because arent winning the collision in either defence or attack. The only way this can improve is with a constant focus on this technique in training - this is where I would then be questioning the ability of the coach - surely he can see these elementary issues.

That's why he put "..." after it

Leuluai and Smith's contributions are dire. Smith made 5 metres and missed 4 tackles? The yardage from the pack is a joke.

He's been like that all season. I posted on another of your stats threads. Kylie Leuleuai is the laziest, most work shy prop ever in Super League. For a starting prop for a club like Leeds he's awful. Can you imagine how bad he'd do if he were playing for Crusaders or Quins?

Why you resigned him is beyond me. He doesn't contribute anywhere near enough.

On Smith's poor meterage, do negative metres count? So if he made 30 metres forward off 4 carries, but was carried back 25 metres on his other two carries would that equate to 5 metres gained on the OPTA stats or do negative carries count as 0?

And yet we have a loanee making metres for fun in a poor team and another prop deemed not good enough taking 12 drives and making 97 metres in 1 stint against one of the top defences in the NRL. Management knows best though. Obviously.

I thought our props had been outstanding this season? They must have been, GH said so....

<Guffaw>

Great tackling effort from Sinfield, JJB and Bailey.

But awful go forward from the pack, all round. The metres stats are actually better than what I was expecting though.

For tantrum Chump Of The Week - who wins this week?

JP - for some cringworthy arguing after the Delaney incident.

Delaney - for the cheap shot, then looking shocked. prick

JJB - for the disgust at when he conceeds needless, obvious penalties.

Kylie - for leaving being the enforcer behind and camply throwing balls in players faces. oooooh errrrrr

You decide.......

Clarkson needs to up his work rate also, still does plenty of tackling but a young lad like him should be more enthusiastic in attack.

I think he's under the instruction just to tackle. The way he sets himself in the attacking line seems to back that up. But he does run neat angles at speed, so this area of his game should be encouraged.

Unfortunately that seems to be the case for a number of players. I'd put Kirke in that category, and to some extent JJB. the problem is that we have very few metre makes in the team. Not many people who offer a threat to the line, and who look like they'll bust a tackle

Question for TVOC, how many of the Cats metres were made after the tackle, moving forward on their knees from the mark?

I'd say 20%.

Last season he did seem to run some good angles and back up play smartly, resulting in a fair few tries. He was a reliable, if not punishing, tackler, and he had no offload game whatsoever, although that could come in time. He's regressed not progressed from that. Coaching.

Not many = None.

Not one player on Sunday looked anything remotely like a threat. I'm not saying some didn't work hard, some did. But none looked a threat.

We used to look dangerous even in our own half. There was a time it was possible, perhaps even considered 'likely', that this same group of players could pull back a 3 try win with 10 minutes to go. Now, we look hard pushed to even score once.

Not one player in that team works has hard as JJB, not one. His work rate is immense. He runs his blood to water for the cause.

That said, he is put simply not that great. It is like comparing Ratchford with Ellis for example, a non comparison.

JJB does far too much work for this team, and his game becomes so non-effective because of it. Look at his average meter making per carry, it is non existent. That's because his team mates are so damn lazy that he always has to make the carries, and he does not carry the weight and power to win a collission.

I wonder what would happen with him if he was an impact sub and his team mates took on more of the work load. He could very well be the player you were wanting, the big threat.

That's a problem with JJB, sounds daft to say but it's almost as though he takes the weight of the squad on his shoulders far too easily

you take him, peacock, and sinfield out of that team and no one does any work

Agree with this , also we need Ablett back in the SR asap wasted at Centre imo.
I'd have a back row of Delaney ,Ablett with Sinfield at 13 with Jjb and Clarky off the bench.

I would add ablett to that list as well.

I was speaking to Harry Jepson at the weekend and he rates Ablett as one of his top ever players. His words were... "He's sacrificed his career for the sake of this club. In and out of the squad, in and out of position, never in the limelight, all for the sake of playing for the club he loves and 110% every week."

I wholeheartedly agree.

I'm pleased that Abbo is starting to get his praises sung a bit more.

Agreed whole-heartedly.

Using these stats, the ones that stand out are penalties conceded, runs from dummy half and the face Leeds had to make 86 more tackles and 22 more marker tackles than the Dragons meant a fatigue factor would kick in, but Leeds lead in some of the stats and some of the stats some coaches see as important, offloads, tackle busts, clean breaks.

For me, the one area Catalans dominated was in and around the play the ball, the amount of runs from dummy half back that up.

Perhaps TVOC, the stats are lying to us in that the game should have read a lot closer on the score board than actually happened?