Blackmore caused Mayhem all night. Thought it was poor decision to play a plodder at 13, I don't like this practice at any level. Rather have seen somebody more mobile and a big engine in there. Minchella or Garside would have been a good option, or anybody that can move sideways.

Milnes should his skill, but put in some weak kicks, to be expected though but I do like his attacking play.

Clearly the dismissal put us under increased pressure.

so it looks like your not allowed to hand off now are we, just because the hand went into his face doesn't mean it gives him the right to swing the elbow round this happens in every game and he shouldn't of lost his temper he could now be looking at another two games ban,
kear needs to work on that defense it was awful at times leaving gaps here and there, I had thought Bradford might of been a contender up the league but on that game proves you have a lot of new players to find
as for not playing Webster it baffles me that you don't consider Sheffield as a threat to promotion, he should of put his strongest team out there even if it meant playing someone at risk
not surprised Lilley was binned for chelping he did learn his trade from maguire

Pretty much agree with what everyone says about discipline costing them the game. They completely lost it and when you have a ref as clueless as that, you really need to be on your best behaviour. Whilst the ref wasn't wrong at all with the cards he showed, there were truly some baffling decisions, and I actually think Bradford got the better of those crazy calls as a few of them he gave against Sheffield were just unbelievable.

I said earlier in the week that I didn't understand why Magrin was signed again and my opinion didn't change in this game. He is not good enough for Championship level, he should be down at Skolars or somewhere similar.

I would also like to say that I don't think Brandon Pickersgill is a fullback. The kid obviously has some skill and yes he's still young. But his defence is nowhere near good enough for a fullback. You need to have confidence that if someone breaks the line, the fullback is likely to bring him down, but I saw none of that last night. For me, Pickersgill looks like a halfback.

I said this last night and would chance Ryan at full back. He is very good defensively plus hes an attacking threat. He did well when he played there under Toovey

Literally nobody in this thread is condoning what Green did so not really sure who your first sentence is aimed at?
I don't know why Webster didn't play but I don't think our squad selection was disrespectful or showed complacency at all.
As for contending at the top, we've only just been promoted and it will take us time again in this division.
I think you also need to remember that we were missing half a dozen first team players last night, including both of our first choice halfbacks and our two best props. There isn't a team throughout all divisions that wouldn't feel the effects of that.

I thought Magrin was poor. Looked unfit and very tired. His work from marker was shocking too.

there was some very unusual decisions last night, all his effort in trying to keep the game flowing he gave some bad ones to both sides

some how the game has to improve if new refs are to be bought in and at some point a little leniency is required but hopefully not at the cost of a game like what Ganson did

Was Knowles as close as Chisholm was last week?!

I thought Sheffield always looked more dangerous than us, even in the 1st half when we were leading. They destroyed us round the ruck where our marker defence was shocking. Only our strong line defence and scrambling back saved a bigger scoreline. Once again I will say I don't think Kirk is good enough. As much as I like him and he is a tireless worker he simply does not offer enough going forward. He looks like he is ready to drop as soon as he meets the first line of defence. Has anyone ever seen him bust a tackle? If he has it's very rare. This is not a pop at him as I say he has a great attitude but it takes more than that.

Kirk will be a very good player in time. When he puts some bulk on he will be a monster.

I'm not acquainted with the facts but is it because he's put in the Early Guilty Plea and the ban starts from when the hearing would have been ?

???
Chizzy didnt score last week

I think it’s sarcasm from a Leeds reserves fan

Kirk is a grafter, finds his front and gets a quick play the ball so our hookers can get the next pass out quicker and catch the defence out. Wood also does this very well. They may not bust the tackles but they do not get turned on their backs often like some of our larger forwards which slows down the play. Don’t know why Wood and Hallas were left out of the team as they are our best defensive middles by a long way. Magrin’s defence was dire especially around the ruck. Onto York next week!

Poor discipline from the Bulls cost us the points in a match we had a good chance of winning until the sending off. Can’t argue with the red card, Green swung his elbow and deserved to walk. I guess the frustrating thing is how often antics such as that or worse go unpunished in the Championship. But that’s sport and if we had been a bit smarter we might well have had a few more points on the board by that point.

It’s a long season though and this performance whilst disappointing won’t define our entire season. It’s our first season back and the club is still rebuilding so we will certainly won’t have it all our own way this year, we will need to fight for every victory. You cannot lose a player halfway through the game at this level when there is nothing in it. A settled partnership at 6/7 would be a big help!

York absolutely annihilated Barrow today, so its not going to get any easier next week...

Any one know how Keyes and bustin got on yesterday?. If they came through reserves game plus Webster and Chisholm back will be a decent boost for York game.

Unless they played without being on the teamsheet, they didn't play. Team sheet was announced as:

Stephenson, Rickett, Culling, Gibson, Foggin-Johnston, Milton, Green, O'Sullivan, Doyle, Foster, Hodgson, Storton, Wood
Subs: Butterworth, Littlewood, Lightowler, McGill, Scurr, Gallagher

Thought that was a really immature performance from us. We seemed to be playing the ref more that the opposition. Whining and waving your arms around and getting aggrieved at perceived injustices won't help win the game.

TBH I thought we were just about staying in it until Green got sent off. After that we went to pieces. Before he got sent off we struggled for decent ball and were well beaten up front. I liked the play for our two tries but after that we rarely looked like repeating it.

Green is obviously going to be taking a long rest. Hopefully Magrin will too as he was rubbish. The halfbacks were too young an inexperienced for this game when we started to lose it up front. Lilley needs to stop running across the field, at one stage in the second half he was even running more towards our own line than the opposition's.

I noticed Keyes and Bustin didn't play vs Hunslet. No Wilson either. That's a shame as it leaves us with Crossley, Kirk, Wood, Krasniqi (who for me didn't do much) and unfortunately Magrin for next week. If we don't improve 100% York will have a field day.

I think some of the criticism aimed at Magrin is a bit harsh here. For starters it was his first game so match fitness will have been an issue. Secondly he's a prop and was asked to play LF. Not sure he's ever played there before in his career and it was a decision JK made which didn't work out. My guess is JK was concerned about losing the forwards battle so decided to throw another large body in there to try and help. The downside to that is what you lose with ball in hand.
I don't recall Magrin making any handling errors and he was very harshly done to by the ref for the penalty he gave away while in possession of the ball right on Sheffield's line in the first half.

The most frustrating thing for me from Friday is that despite playing on a surface perfect for RL, we still stuck to our boring, one out style of rugby that we always seem to play. Why are we obsessed with trying to steamroll every team we play? We have some of the best backs in the league and they are starved of the ball every week almost! Hitchcox should be scoring tries for fun in this division, Ryan too, but the only way they ever seem to get a sniff is through kicks. Our attacking structure just isn't there at all for me and we still look like we're waiting for a piece of individual skill to create something (Milnes on Friday) rather than set plays or offloading/decent support play. We're a very frustrating team to watch imo.

Be nice to get some info on the long term injured. What is the issue with Keyes back? It's plainly a major concern. He has a long life after rugby to live so hopefully this is not a long term condition.
Grant was apparently injured playing in the World Cup. That was back in October. Four months on and still no sighting of him. It's plainly a very serious injury indeed.

It doesn't matter what surface you're playing on if your forwards aren't making ground and dominating. If you're not managing that then your play the ball is slow which means the halfbacks are getting the ball with a defence already in their faces and it's then much harder to put plays on for the threequarters. That's exactly what happened. Our forwards lost the game up front so too often we weren't able to put in an attacking kick. As a result Sheffield got the ball in better positions and forced us to play off our own line - not the place for throwing the ball about either.

I do agree our attacking play is poor at times but Friday night it was made more difficult because we were out-muscled and out enthused up front. I heard that Aston used Chalmers column as extra motivation. That could be bollox but it wouldn't surprise me.

Keyes back problem wasn't diagnosed until recently. He's hopefully going to be back soon as he knows how to take the line on and we've missed his combination with Minchella.

Just on that point. If we give him the benefit of the doubt and the things that he did that people accused him of being lazy (not moving from marker etc.) were actually just him not being fit, then one wonders why Mikey Wood was playing for the reserves on Saturday and the unfit one needing match practice was starting for the first team.

They should all be match fit if they've had a full pre season.

Magrin can cart the ball up and make ground. I've seen him do it. He seemed to be playing as an extra prop but it didn't work. We seemed to lack speed and agility around the ruck and got caught out there a few times. You can't be leaving defenders on the ground when they're playing the ball. Wood's gone well so far this season for me so dropping him seemed a bit of a head scratcher.

Fitness wise I think we're as good as anyone in the division. We just lacked the power and technique to win the middle on Friday. Crossley is working his way back from injury and was never going to be as effective as he was versus L1 opposition. Kirk for me is a work in progress, he's getting better but when all are fit he's not in my starting line up. Green let the side down. Magrin was poor.

The sooner we get the likes of Peltier and Bustin back the better. Peltier was immense for us last year and really gets us rolling forward. We've nobody who takes the gas out of the opposition like that at the moment with him and Bustin out injured.