if you are finger pointing at me to give an explanation I cant ... *see accurate location and sig and has been for over a decade*

I would love to know how much we're paying Brough. I see he's already up to his usual tricks and was shown a yellow card today.
Our squad just looks really unbalanced. Alarm bells should have been ringing when Peltier left for a league 1 club and then Kirk did the same thing. Pay peanuts and you get monkeys.

Peltier left because we couldn’t commit to sign him due to the transfer ban in 2019 at the end of the Chambers shambles that ended up with us having to sell 5 players to HKR to survive

No idea why Kirk left as in our choice or his but even on today’s performance he would still be behind the props we currently have, you can’t keep everyone

My concerns about players not being fit and Kear's concerns about complacency and not respecting the opposition are obviously well founded.

That side wasn't far off full strength. They'll get relegated on this form.

Perhaps league 1 is where we belong.

We lost
We wasn’t on it today
We move on
End of

The next game needs to see us drop Brown. Move Hamlett into the centres where he was brilliant in the first friendly. Lilley back. And to be fair, include Walker, he hasn’t put a foot wrong, can take a few in the tackle. Drop Rooks as well. Turnstile. My team for next game:

Pickersgill
Sanderson
Hamlett
Oakes
Wallis/DFJ
Lilley
Brough
Crossley
Doyle
Walker
Murphy
Gallagher
B. Evans

Jowitt
Nzoungou
Scurr
Fleming

EDIT - Or Berry for Jowitt to have a proper hooker on the bench.

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/ ... l-display/ Doesn't seem like the coach is making excuses!

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/ ... l-display/ Doesn't seem like the coach is making excuses!

Walker hasn't put a foot wrong



He's been training with us for a year apparently and barely lasted 10 mins vs Fev before he was blowing out if his backside.

Think fundamental things are wrong. Attitude seems to be that it's OK to just go through the motions. Warning signs have been there since the Keighley friendly and even Kear admits that so not sure why he didn't see this coming. Other clubs are going to be looking forward to playing us now. Can't see us turning it around quickly as they simply aren't fit enough to compete. What a mess.

And yet when he had the ball he made metres. Took 2-3 defenders with him, ended up on his front ensuring a slightly quicker PTB. Even ran it in well for his try. Don’t remember him missing basic tackles either. He has SL experience (at a good level) and to be honest he’d offer more than what Nzoungou and Fleming offered today.

I’d find a place for him. Even if it’s 10 at the start of the half and 10 at the emd of the half. From what I have seen. He does the basics right. Nothing flash or fancy. Makes his yards. His fitness will come the more he plays.

He was looking for a rest at marker after 5mins versus Fev despite apparently being in training with us for a year. You're deluding yourself.

No need to panic.

Dont forget only a few weeks ago, the majority on here were saying we had a good squad.

Others dared to question that opinion but were shot down in flames.

You keep saying this, but I don't think anyone has actually said we've an amazing squad.

Most have been sensible. I think it's an a squad thats CAPABLE of getting into the top 6. Especially when London got hammered and Widnes drew with Newcastle. There is an opportunity there for us on paper.

You can have a squad of amazing players, it's irrelevant if they aren't fit, have zero muscle + strength and most importantly, turn up with the attitude we did today.

I don't think that's true. It was a small minority that thought we would be credible playoff material. And now that shall minority may well have dropped to zero.

Guess you’ll be happy to just stick with the side that just got pumped by a not so great Sheffield then? That’s okay, everyone has an opinion. Those boys out there were looking for a rest behind the sticks every 5 mins. I personally would like to see Walker in the side even if he only plays 10 mins a half.

And the rest of the lads have been training for a year too. What’s their excuse for being knackered and not looking sharp/fit/lethargic?

Something similar against Fax and Kear has to go.
Pre-season conditioning has been a disaster. I've never seen anything as bad. Kear's interviews now look embarrassing. Young players have gone backwards to an alarming degree.
If the attitude has turned sour, then the only difference to last year that we know of, is Brough. I just can't see blokes like Crossley sulking for nothing.
Something has gone dramatically wrong.
The pre-season recruitment of SL loan signings hasn't happened, even though they were 'lined up.'
The chairman's interview is one of sustainable managed decline.

Nail on head!!!

Brough is a fine player but is a rotten egg and has proven it wherever he has played.

I have a contact that was part of the England set up when Brough was being tagged as the best half in the league. England wouldnt take him as they felt he would bring a negative attitude and effect the entire squad

That is a bit of leap! Is Brough our only new signing or just a convenient scapegoat? I mean if you have some credible information that all isn’t well in camp in terms of morale then fair enough? I’m not sure that blaming Danny Brough quite covers the shortfalls out on the pitch though.

I mean I can imagine Brough not being backwards in coming forwards with his opinion, but looking at the performance and condition of some of the players there has to be a collective responsibility.

The Fax game will be very telling, if we get another half d performance then the alarm bells will be well and truly sounding,

Can’t blame Brough. Bloody hell. He looked like he was one of the only ones trying. Blame the individual errors, the missed one on ones. Unfortunately you can’t blame Brough (or Kear) for that.

YES, I have 100% credible information that all is not well in the camp. It's Sheffield 50 - Bulls 12.

I'm not blaming Brough at all, but there's something seriously wrong. The conditioning was shocking against Fev but that does not explain why we got worse with 2 weeks training.

I do blame Kear. We're not a hippy commune, we're a club with a coach whose task is prepare the players for the season ahead. And in that he's failed.

I don't think we will go down or even come close.
I don't think we will go up or even close so you can probably guess what sort of season we could get.
My concern is the finances. Last year the furlough money helped pay the bills but that has stopped and we pay everything ourselves.
I don't see many extra paying for streaming and if we carry on under performing that will dwindle to next to nothing.
If we continue to get well beaten in the next month or so how many people will pay at the gate when it all opens again. People get out of habbits over time and it will be a big shock to pay £20+ to watch a poor team after you have managed without it for 18 months especially when everyone will be happy just to get out and be able to go for lunch and a pint so spending many tens of pounds at a poor game could be out of the question for this summer.
As for Kear, we will not sack him but I did say before Covid came that I don't expect him to be given a new lengthy contract.
There are some very good "younger" coaches about and I think kear was brought in to save us in our lowest point but is he the man to build us.
I suspect everyone has different views on this but mine is it may be time for someone else next year if we and other clubs are still here.

I didn't pay for the game yesterday, which sounds like a good choice as it turned out!

Still, I think there is a fair bit of overreaction, especially on FB about this game. Sheffield are a better side than a lot of people give credit for, and will likely be at least challenging for the playoffs by the end of the season. I'm not saying getting smashed by 50 is acceptable, because it clearly isn't - but I, for one, expected a loss yesterday after the Featherstone showing.

Our next games are Halifax away - which I expect will be another defeat (hopefully a much better performance though). Then we have an interesting run of games - Dewsbury (H), Whitehaven (A), Swinton (A). With all due respect to those three teams, they are likely to be at the bottom end of the table, so this will tell us much more about whether we should be pressing a panic button. If we lose all those three matches, then I'll be seriously worried. Get two or three wins, and I think we've something to build on.

The next game after that is home to Newcastle, win that and we could be 3 from 6 which is surely where we'd probably expect to be at that stage? (Unless you are one of those folk who think we're going to get promoted this season!!)

I always think you have to be careful what you wish for, for those wanting Kear gone. If Kear wasn't coaching he'd be first choice on our list to sort out the rabble we saw on Sunday. That said there's obviously issues he needs to address but I don't think changing just the coach will solve everything we saw. The conditioning would be my number one priority. Then the attitude, again which coach would we be all saying is the best motivator in the country? But to be honest, the coach shouldn't have had to have done any motivation for the opening game of the league season after a year out.

There’s been no luck either - the loss of Lilley, Hallas and Dawson-Jones has made a difference.
The two games had two different issues. And I would say there’s a difference between conditioning and tiredness.
Fev - we had desire, we tackled, first 15 minutes we went set for set and Fev broke first. Lost Hallas, then we dropped the ball all the time and defended about 30 (exaggerated for effect) sets back to back and looked knackered.
Don’t know what changed in the next 2 weeks, but against Sheffield we had no desire, no workrate, didn’t tackle. Cant comment on conditioning from yesterday’s game as we didn’t work hard enough to get tired. There’s two weeks again to fix it.