I never said the squad was not "thin". I said it failed with the basics. That is nothing to do with Sky money. Unless of course you are trying to suggest that a wee bit of coin from Murdoch and his mob would suddenly turn Whitehead into a tackling machine and ensure Sammut could catch the ball more frequently?

I ACCEPT (there - your favourite word) that the less funding leads to less quality in the side (fact) but it does not excuse the inability to do the basics correctly. (excuse)

It was a crap performance. But there are reasons behind it. We're capable of better as results have shown. We need our best 17 fit and in form to compete with the top teams. We are 7th and are still getting results against the teams below us. This is good considering the weaker squad we have this year compared with last year.

I think you might be running into the same problem we had last year.

A lightweight pack which when fit and fresh can tackle and work hard and looks exciting when on the front foot.
But when injuries bite and forwards become fatigued and battle weary they cannot keep up the intensity.

Last year we looked great for a dozen games but then just got overpowered in the forwards and really struggled.
The worst thing was that then everyone got on the players backs which made it worse when it was not really their fault.

That is why Anderson went out and bought Koppy, Taai, Mullally and Fielden.

I think some of our fans need to manage their expectations a bit. We can't simply just go out and buy 4 top forwards. We knew our squad was light at the beginning of the season but there was nothing we could do about it so a rough patch like our current one was always on the cards.

There's no lack of effort on the part of the players so I hope people don't get on their backs too much. There are some individuals that can undoubtedly improve but I think our bad performances are mainly down to the effect of injury.

Who said anywhere that we should? The only mention I recall was by DG.

I think it is fair to say that we DO accept that our quality is not as good as it could be. It is also fair to say that the inability to do the very basics by our side at the moment is a major concern.

That's who I was addressing Eddie! But for the record I do think you and others need to reign in the criticism a tad. There's lots of effort out there, it's just not going in the right directions for a number of reasons (injuries to key players, inexperience etc) and it's disappointing but it's not like the bad old days of McBanana yet.



In terms of current quality on the field we can improve but I think that'll come when we get the likes of Kearney, Manoakafoa, Gale and Bateman back from injury and some others into some form. It is a problem but I'm not majorly concerned. Unlike you I probably expected a period like this given the small squad we have in comparison with last year.

:3jhsj5j0

Course you should have started it Eddie, I'd have been amazed if you, or someone else, amongst those those who think the year is just one long summer with never a dark cloud to spoil the view, hadn't done so. Though, I have to laugh at you, above many, complaining that [i:3jhsj5j0others[/i:3jhsj5j0 can't see the wood for the trees - jesus wept

,don't let anything positive ever spoil that dark dismal world, eh?



What I'm trying to say, is that we [i:3jhsj5j0can[/i without it being some kind of disaster. You do remember the club went belly up less than a year ago? We actually used to get the same kind of posts when we had a star studded line up, back in the early to middle noughties, there was less excuse back then for 'poor' performances then though.

But he is not one of "our" fans.

So?

This was your quote. Apologies if I mis-read it. It looked like you were going on about OUR fans clambouring for new props.

No, but could have separated those two sentences into 2 paragraphs. Fancy helping me draft my annual report to the Board of Directors here at my work?

Oooooft. Sounds dire. Lead on MacDuff and I'll follow.

Just watched the tries from Sunday on super league full time,I'm speechless about that defence

It's Sky money to blame though Roger. Had we got our full money we would have made those tackles in defence.

First time I have seen the tries from Sunday,so apologies for joining the debate/ argument couple of days late.That defence was nothing to do with lack of sky money,all them players apart from Ben Evans were super league players before the Bulls were robbed of half of their sky money

There was more turnstiles in that defence than there is on the rooley ave end of the ground

The voice of reason strikes again.

Thank you Edward

Rather than money being the problem, I think the fact that we couldn't put a squad together until Sept was more of an issue.

We played 3 props. 1 experienced, 2 inexperienced and on loan. 1 only been training with us for 11 days.

2 back row guys covered the other prop rotation slot.

Markers & middle defence were one problem.

Brough with time & space was the other.

We just do not have the squad (due to time rather than money) to cope with the loss of 2/3 of our experienced props.

I accept that a lightweight pack is going to struggle at times, especially making the hard yards, but a lot of the tries conceded were purely down to lack of commitment to make the tackle, which is mental rather than physical.

Do you want a cuddle bullseye

That's a reasonable assessment of the playing problems imo.

On the field, this season is just as much about time as money since even if we had had more cash, the opportunity to spend wasn't there, though there are things other than players to spend money on. The money angle comes more to the fore next season though as far as the players are concerned, when we haven't sufficient funds to make significant improvements. FC has already ruled out 'marquee' signings for next season so, whilst hopefully we'll get a few new faces, they certainly won't be big money new faces.

Naturally that won't prevent me from demanding success and castigating everyone involved when we don't win the league!

Missed tackles:
Walker:51
Whitehead :51
Addy: 49
Top 3 in SL

Errors:
Sammut:39 - highest in SL
Whitehead:22 - 8th highest in S

If we want to be a strong side we can't be having this & I think Huddersfield put us in our place this weekend. Need a massive improvement for KR who I think are our biggest rivals for 8th

If you have a squad which is both small in numbers and size and then couple that to several injuries then a consequence is underperforming players don't get dropped and told to work on their game. I think in the top teams anyone featuring in the above stats would certainly find their names off the 1st team list. I thought Whitehead looked very promising a few years ago but you don't want a player near the top of the missed tackle and error list. With stats like Walker, Whitehead and Addy's it is almost the same as standing to one side and pointing the opposition to the line. I am old enough to remember the gasps of astonishment go round the ground when Sir Keith missed a tackle, and I doubt he missed 51 tackles in his whole career let alone half a season.
Bring back the tackle bags!