Personally I think Elliot is looking quite tired and he’s not 100% fit. Carrying a knock on his shoulder for last couple of games now, he’s hoping for a week off this week

Listening to Craig Harrison co commentating on FB and Proper Sport when replaying the last 2 matches after seeing them live has been very interesting. He repeatedly pointed out where we had numbers over but drove the ball in again - or kicked it. Am sure we could move it out more often and surprise teams. They must all expect 5 drives and a kick from us now.
John Keyes also begs the team to calm down and complete our procedures rather than a panic pass or kick which also happens.
I enjoy watching these replays, great idea from Chalmers to live stream.

Also known as John 'Complete the processes' Keyes

What happened with the red card in the Keighley game then? Did someone punch your lad in the scrum? I didn't see it but assume that's what happened.

It was after the scrum broke and the ball had gone. The Keighley punched him in the face, Elliot asked the linesman if he saw it which luckily he did, don’t think anybody else did. We were all wondering what he came on for, I was thinking Elliot had done something, or rather hoping he hadn’t

Have John Keyes and Craig Harrison got their badges,, maybe no not maybe,,, could deffo do a better job

He did really well to keep his head and not retaliate.

Just seen the answer to my question on the match thread. I assumed this was the case and Elliot did well to not get drawn in. The red sorted out the indiscipline immediately. This was missed in the Workington game when it should have been a sin binning each. I’m not saying it would have changed the result but purely on playing rugby we beat Workington especially if we use a proper bench. I think we will get it right in the playoffs to be honest

Dont know about top line coaching. John was a coach and mentor in the academy at London when Joe played there, also done extensive community work. He also has done a lot of work with youngsters and in the community at Arsenal. I think his expertise in this type of thing should be something the club should look at

I personally don’t think John Kear has a clue about coaching,, he certainly isn’t teaching them to play the expansive game, like people have said how often does the wingers get the ball passed to them or even egodo

I find it incredible that you can say that about JK. His record certainly doesn't in any way suggest he doesn't have a clue about coaching. Admittedly the team can and should do better but it's a bit over the top to cast aspersions on his coaching credentials.

Ok don't want to get into a slinging match.. but tell me last time you walked away from a game this season thinking God how good did they play today

Kear is a very good defensive coach, however I feel he lacks in attacking style and that is shown by how we play games.

Start with simple drives and then and kick, as the game goes on we open up a little more cos we get the feel of the game.

Agreed no slanging match. I just thought that your comment was a bit over the top but you are right it's not often I come away wholly satisfied with the performance.

I think part of the issue is the youth of the team. Particularly in the halfbacks, hooker and fullback. You read the game and control the game better as you get more experienced. We've at times looked slow and lacking in ideas around the ruck, so Kear brought Flanagan in but the times he's not on the field we look a bit lacking. Same at fullback. While Pickers has done well and improved he doesn't offer the same in attack as McNally has shown fleetingly. I put that mainly down to experience and knowing where and when to back up.

Some of our 'off the cuff' stuff has been quite breathtaking, so we can attack - but why do we seem lost sometimes when on the opposition line? Do we never look at how the opposition is lined up and decide appropriately? " I did my best. I kicked it towards Ethan" just isn't good enough for every situation. I do feel things will be better when we have a decision on the halfbacks - we, (ie JK) needs to workout which pairing is best and then let that partnership 'gel', imo. The idea of using three in bits and bobs through a game definitely didn't work against Worky, though admittedly, that wasn't helped by us never getting any 'roll-on' in the forwards.

I accept that games are fluid and roles within any particular game may have to change from time to time due to circumstances, but that doesn't change the fact that players will usually be better if their role [idoesn't [/ikeep changing during a match, particularly when we're talking about young players still finding their way in the game. I also feel we'll improve when Callum Bustin returns as his influence has been a large part of our better displays.

At the end of the day it's difficult to be too critical over 54-4 (and similar) wins. It wouldn't be sport if everything went perfectly - we're not Wigan and it's not the 80s, so we can't expect [ieverything[/i to come off, every time. We've got a good young side who are doing most things pretty well, maybe we should just be happy?

I agree with almost all of that. I agree that having three halfbacks in the 17 doesn’t work. It causes too much confusion as does the amount of changing at dummy half that we’ve had this season. We’ve tried four different players there and each passes the ball differently and at different speeds. It’s hard to read as a first receiver. What the side needs is some stability in key areas so let’s stick to the same halfbacks until injury or loss of form forces one out. We have missed a fit Bustin in recent weeks too. Having him, Crossley, Peltier and Green in the 17 is enough to give us plenty of momentum and I hope they’re all back for the Oldham match.

It is hard to be critical when you win by 50points but this league isn’t like others. Some teams are really poor and the talent we have should be enough to be posting 60 or 70 points, especially when they’re a man up. We have instead looked quite disjointed and made plenty of mistakes. The inability to handle a kick off 5-6 times in row last Sunday is something you certainly can be critical of.

It is the disjointed stuff which is the worst to put up with, true enough. That and the silly mistakes, knocking on under no pressure, letting the ball bounce out. Young as many of these lads are, they are better players than that.

I wonder if it is this 'silly' league? Too many easy games, and thinking it's going to be easy? After all, we'd beaten Keighley on their own midden so there was no competition, was there. Over confidence is one very efficient method of bringing out errors, I guess. Then, bring on York and Workington and cue the panic when someone doesn't just roll over. One thing is for sure though, if we get promoted then all will be forgotten next year.

Having watched the team train last week, the one thing that was immediately obvious was how little the team did on set moves and attacking plays.

Out of the field session (which lasted about an hour), half of it consisted of full contact game scenarios where there was a play of the ball, then a kick followed by two PTB working away from the goal line.

This was repeated over and over, but at no time did they actually complete a full set of six. Now whilst i'm a qualified coach, i'm no professional. But this seemed crazy and explained why the team appear so clueless on the opposition line.

That said, Kear is old school and I remember playing 20yrs ago when most teams philosophies were "defence wins games". This is not something he's going to change whilst he has this particular squad and limited training time.

If you are only going to get 4-5hrs training on the field, I see why you are going to focus on keeping the opposition from scoring.

That's an interesting insight and explains our disjointed attack, assuming that's a typical on field session. Given our defence is already the best in the league then you could say it's time we did some more work on our attacking options than we are doing.

If I had to pick one single thing, out of quite a few, then I would pick the sheer number of times this season when we have given the ball away in "absolutely no excuse" plays.

Quite a few against Keighley - kickoffs being 5 or 6 of them - but stuff like coughing up the ball on the zero or first tackle, letting a kickoff bounce dead, endlessly failing to get anywhere near completing sets, that sort of stuff is what's frustrating the hell out of me especially at this stage of the season.

I offer no clue why it keeps happening, or how you cut it out.

Wakey probably had it right. Kear also did the defensive coaching with Chester and other coaches doing the attack. One day that might happen with us if Kear moves up and a younger coach such as Ford came in. Just throwing that one in for discussion!

Great post!

Well the current mode of play will not sell season tickets for sure. Its utterly depressing to watch.

IF (by hook or crook) we get in the Championship - that may trigger sales - but only based on hope - not performance.

Bullinenemyland referenced the lack of training time in the evening further up the thread, so I'd guess this is something to do with some of the lack of 'well practiced' attacking moves. We are actually the highest scorers in our division (?)though, despite all our perceived failings, so I'd guess that management are fairly happy - though I'm equally sure they must be able to see the same faiings and lack of cohesion as us.

What you guys are saying about Kear rings bells in my head of Jon Sharp at Featherstone. Got them into the Qualifiers last year despite being predicted to just miss out, and immediately left the club with talk from the chairman about getting results but playing boring rugby and not being attractive to fans.