Concentration can be coached to a certain extent, just as players can be made faster or stronger, but "natural ability" is also important.

I just think certain players are naturally more consistent than others and that we have more than our fair share of the inconsistent ones. I think this is because MacNamara is drawn to players that have underperformed in the past. He thinks he can turn them into into better, more consistent players.

When we've signed players such as Solomona, Platt, Sherrife, Jeffries, Sykes, Godwin, Tupou the message from the fans of their former clubs has always been "they're talented but inconsistent". MacNamara thinks he can overcome this, he might with one or two but most will remain agonisingly inconsistent.

Nail on head. af for Dave Cravens job

What actually makes the lapses worse is the fact that in some games, against the best attacking teams in SL, we`ve defended superbly for virtually the whole match, and to be fair no team is going to stop sides like Saints and Leeds from scoring at some point in the game. The defensive patterns are clearly in place, which makes the shambles of last Sunday (and too many other Sundays) so much harder to understand.

It looks to me that when we have 2 or 3 player off their game defensively and others have to scramble to cover it exposes a real lack of quality, whereas when everyone is playing close to their potential it's good enough to get by.

If the defensive pattern is right but being let down by poor execution I'd expect to this improving over the season and having less collapses, as full time professional players are going to improve even it it takes them a long time. Can anyone point to us getting better or is the set up just wrong?

Its getting worse because the players dont have faith in the guys stood either side of them. Good defense is often about collective self confidense.

Which is fair comment `cos if I were defending alongside some of our players I wouldn`t have a lot of confidence either!