Looks like we Bulls did you Royce-baggers a favour then?

Looks like your wishes have been granted. Not as if you've been hammered. Wonder who you will get mid season. A high risk decision IMO

Just because it's a temporary team does not mean they will be replaced mid-season. It maybe that they are in place until the new coach can take over, which maybe October.

I posted yesterday that to sack Royce would be the wrong decision. Ask yourselves will Mike Rush be better than Royce?

Royce Simmons took you to the Grand Final last year, in a season when you had more injuries than an A & E department on a Saturday night.

Super Mc has made a short sighted knee jerk decision.

I agree.

Doing nothing was just as risky a decision.

I have said elsewhere, Eamon delivered a top class stadium, the fans have delivered on season ticket purchases, it is on the pitch where the team have failed with the third piece of the jigsaw.

The players we have signed arent bad players, they may not be exactly what we need but the challenge for any coach is to get players playing better than they think they are capable of producing. The current crop aren't even performing anywhere near their capability and a change was the ONLY option. Eamon could hardly sack half a dozen players, his only option is to hold the coaching staff accountable.

The issue is that there are 14,000 people on the terraces that need to be kept happy just to keep the ship afloat financially in the long term. As a club we can't afford to suddenly drop back to 5000 season ticket renewals, that would be a business catastrophe, and unfortunately, it's not the losses that seem to have caused the most upset, it's been the manner of the performances, lack of cohesion, lack of unpredictability in their plays (take your pick!) which is within the remit of the head coach. I'm not saying the players aren't as responsible, they are, but ultimately they looked like a group of players who weren't playing for the coach, of didn't believe in what they were being asked to do.

It will be interesting to see what kind of response we get from the squad this weekend against Leeds, certainly a good game to test players desire. I suspect the squad have been told that they too are under the microscope and are playing for their futures.

This...

Great post.

Couldn't have put it better myself. During the Hull game myself and those around me ended up talking about everything else but what was happening on the pitch, it was dire. It was certainly unlike me, but if the 'die-hards' are doing it, what must the new season ticket holders be thinking?

McManus had to act, and he was left in a pretty impossible position. Keeping/losing those new fans is the difference between a stable future and a bleak one, he delivered his side of the deal and he needed to make an example to show them that what is currently happening is unacceptable.

I feel bad for Royce, but something had to happen and other than firing half the squad which would be ridiculous, McManus has taken the only other realistic option.

All of which is just a tad worrying...if you're a Rhinos fan. I'm just hoping you save the backlash for Wire and Wigan.

I'm actually now feeling more than a little sorry for Simmons.

I wonder how many of the players could look him in the eye for any serious length of time after the match?

Very few I should imagine.

Rush put it well in his post match interview. He said the shock of losing their coach had been the difference. Too right. Great pity Royce and Purtill had to be the sacrificial lambs.

The problem with this paradigm is it excludes the chairman from all culpability insofar as results are concerned. Not an issue if the signings he makes are up to the aspirations of the fans. But if they are not there are only so many coaches to can before the problem itself becomes self-fuelling.

You are being very naive over this you know. They may say nice things in the press about Royce, but that's because he's a nice man and so are they. The truth is that there must have been more going on behind the scenes that we don't know about. The fact that Rush and Cunningham made so many changes show they didn't agree with Royce's team selection. The back on the bench policy has itself been benched and the players played far, far better tonight. If they were in any way sympathetic with Royce's plight, they would have been feeling sorry for themselves today, but they weren't.

If they were feeling sorry for Royce they would have played like that 1,2,3 weeks ago. There was much more than just a reaction to a sacked coach.

TP was running far wider than he has all season and was devastating. We had set plays from scrums, they did not come off but there were plays. We had tactics rather than 5 drives and then see how far Gaskell can get us down field. We had dummy runners, 13 offloads in the first half. I would not be surprised if we did not have 13 offloads, in the whole of the season till today. Lance was in at first receiver alot, directing the play, something we have lacked in spades. There was no back on the bench, so after our 20 blitz, we had players to soak up the pressure from Leeds when they had the ball and then we could bring back on TP to plough more holes. Even Meli on the wing was a nightmare for the opposition to handle and Wheeler looked very comfy inside of him.

We have not become contenders overnight but that team would never have played under Royce as that team would never have been picked, which could have contributed to the problems. Although there was more to it than just that.

You're right. Don't expect her to pay any attention to that though.

No they wouldn't. They got away with it as the coach ultimately always gets the blame. Why would they be feeling sorry for themselves? They did that last week. I agree that they may have had an issue with Royce, which may be why they didn't play previously, but the fact remains that James Roby returned (we hadn't had him playing for three weeks), the senior players stood up and the errors were gone, but then again, so were the two players who caused them.

They won and that was good. The players did what was expected of them for a change and that too was good. I'm not getting carried away yet though. Being shamed into action is one thing; keeping it going week after week is another entirely. We are still in ninth.

So all our woes, our poor play, our clueless attack, are now to be blamed on Gaskell and Foster so you can justify your previous stance?

A new low for you that one.

Yeah, that's what I wrote. Not.

So you stand by your comment that all our errors were down to Foster and Gaskell? Or have you typed something different to what you meant again?

Lets let it go. Royce is gone

.

It's time to leave the past where it is. There were far more changes than just 2 players being left out. It was an unknown team that hit Leeds , with more plays and more enthusiasm. We will not have that advantage next week. ie naming Meli at centre before the match can't fool a team twice.

I'd expect the same lineup, the same game plan, with the exception of Sia. But Warrington will be ready for it so a tighter game to ensue.

What I was glad about was in the tight parts of the game we held our own.

I know for a fact some of the senior players wasn't to disappointed when Royce got the boot and I think they showed that Sunday.

I don't think anyone in world rugby league agreed with the back on the bench that was lucky to get 8 mins at the end apart from saintsfan. It's just total utter madness to play 16 v 17 so that was a obvious change.

I didn't motive myself but I'm told by a saints lad that they changed the defensive pattern as the players felt more at ease with the one they went with on Sunday.

The was slight tweaks by rush and KC and definite change in attitude with the players and I'm pretty sure we'd have lost if Royce was in charge.

Just because we stuffed Leeds don't make it all ok now, we've still got a hell of a lot of work and more improvement if we are to be serious challengers for old Trafford.

Warrington next week is very important game, we need to play well and compete, give them a game and show we are on the mend. Sure enough I wanna go to Warrington and win but I'll be happy enough if we go there and compete and that should put us in for a great good Friday game!

It was the first thing I noticed when we didn't have the ball, we played spread and didn't pack the middle. At times it left forwards tackling one on one, but we looked much more comfortable when Leeds spread the ball out wide. How many times did they create an overlap? Not often as far as I can rememeber. Such tactics will be perfect against the likes of Warrington and Wigan as long as we can stop the offloads.