Crossley.

The game was disappointing and the bench did lack forwards, however I think you are wrong about Wood, I thought he was one of the better forwards today, particularly in defense, he must be involved in at least 4 tackles during a set, also he seems to be the one who sets the line speed and travels defensively. I thought during the second half we had a period of real intensity and everyone seemed fired up, this all went to pot when subs were made and it started getting messy again. Also, I think Kirk tries to find the floor for a quick play the ball. A lot of the errors today were not made by the forwards but by poor decision making from the halves and hookers. They also clearly targeted
Lilley defensively.

If we see them again in the playoffs JK should use this to fire the team up: https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/ ... 06464?s=21

If we see them again in the playoffs JK should use this to fire the team up: https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/ ... 06464?s=21

Quote ="dddooommm"If we see them again in the playoffs JK should use this to fire the team up: https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/ ... 06464?s=21'" That is the gayest thing I have ever seen

Quote ="dddooommm"If we see them again in the playoffs JK should use this to fire the team up: https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/ ... 06464?s=21'" That is the gayest thing I have ever seen

Very disappointed today. It seemed like it was one of those games we were never going to win.I think they should have taken Chizzy off he looked shattered after his try. I know Kirk is learning the ropes but I wish when he has the ball he would keep pumping his legs like Ferguson did. Rant over.

Chisholm is so predictable at times. Not to mention all for himself.

He’s another very average Aussie happy to get a wage in uk.

For a large part of the season I have been saying we are poor. Having watched the Northern for about 48 years now I know a little bit about one man charge rugby and this is what we have been playing far too much of late. We do actually have a very, very decent back line but they seem to have forgotten what open, expansive flowing rugby is.
I still stand by Kear and believe he is the man to get us back to the SL but I think his reputation is starting to take a knock as his first season is coming to a frustrating end. Who is the best coach right now between Kear and Ford? Fair question!
I expect us to go up but as I said two weeks ago that two play off games will be very nervy as we all know the Bulls can blow big games.
Yesterday our halves were abysmal. Keys and Lilley are still young so no real blame aimed at them. I believe I was the first one about a month ago to say Chizzy is very poor and we should look at Lilley one week before we went for him. Others then started to question him after I had broached the touchy topic. Chizzy is not good enough for this league the way he is currently playing. One flash of brilliance and many fans are wetting themselves with excitement and ignore the other 78 minutes of nothing. The halves are there to organise and take the line on when a gap opens. I will say now that he will not get another contract as Kear must see that we need an experienced play maker who is in the game for most of those 80 minutes.
We will go up but a large number of new players and playing ideas will be needed come February next year. It is not all doom and gloom but rather a realisation that we are not as good as we hoped we would be in this division. I will say again, we are not a fluent rugby team and look very disjointed and rudderless at times.

I'm not sure we will go up

We've shown time and time again in recent years that we cannot win those 'must win' games. For some reason, however much the playing roster changes, we always seem to lack the 'smarts', the 'nous', the 'know how' - whatever you want to call it - to get the job done

Would I be confident about beating Workington in a 'must win' play off match at the end of this season? I don't think I would..

But I certainly agree we need a massive clear out if we do go up, because this squad will get just as easily bullied in the Championship as the last time we were there.

Regarding Chisholm. I don't think he was great (too many times he kicked dead) his body language also doesn't do him any favours. HOWEVER he still was the only one to do anything. His intercept try and the only clean break were made by him (another scandalous decision by the way, the ref not sin-binning the Town player. I'd be damanding why he ignored the rules of the game on that occasion)

You can't let Keyes off any blame and lay it all on Chisholm (wrong decision to go for 2 from half way when he didn't make the ball dead either, not going for the 1 point when he was perfectly set up for it! Although if Grant wasn't stood 2m in front of Egodo maybe we would be calling him a hero)
Grant again was poor and its worrying that we're not learning from our mistakes. We must be the highest placed team for giving the ball away fron kick-offs and yet again Grant no where to be seen to defend a 40-20.

Also if You watch the game, the amount of times our left handside were all going in the same direction making it so easy to defend against. Garisde basically ran Pownall and Ryan into touch all game. Garside needs to straighten his line running or come inside more.

I don't think Chisholm played well. But like i said, Keyes came up with some poor plays. I honestly think Kear needs to take the majority of the responsibility for that team defeat. Awful team selection and the chopping and changing of half backs/centre/wing partnerships in the middle of the game has cost us.

I still think we'll go up via the play-offs with only Workington offering the only threat. But i'd expect us to win with the right team selection. Put Bustin, Peltier ,hopefully Hytchcox, in place of Kirk, Pownall and Grant, and we win that game.

Yesterday was a real sickener.

What astounds me about Chisolm is that he ran 90 metres and is absolutely cream crackered, he is a full time player and should be fitter than that. When he scored his try I turned to the fans I stand with and jokingly said "that`s him done for the rest of the game". I`m sure Kear doesn`t coach him to run around like a headless chicken most of the time and confuse his team mates. For a half back there is no structure to his game. Why do we start playing around with Lilley who is a playmaker by putting him to hooker so we can accommodate Keyes, Leave either Chisolm or Keyes out and let Lilley run the show.
Our front row replacements yesterday for Crossley and Green (who both got stuckin and had good games) Wood and Kirk are kids who can`t hack it against the like of Moi Moi and Wilkes. When I saw Kirk lining up to come on and Moi Moi was coming on at the same time, I thought Kear what are you doing.
Its still in our hands but if we have to meet Workington in the play offs there is going to have to be a change of plan from 5 drives and a kick to Ryan.

Chisholm is a poor version of sammut

I agree with much of what’s been said.

On Chisholm and the rest of the halfbacks the problem is a lack of organisation. When Chisholm is at first receiver he plays off the cuff and while that’s ok some of the time he too often does his own thing and runs down a blind alley which then screws up any resultant play. He can do the odd inspirational thing but these are outweighed in my view by the negatives in his game. When he was out of the side early on in the season we beat York away and looked very good away at Keighley. Since he’s come back in we’ve looked disjointed against the better teams. It’s all very well racking up the points against the lesser lights but it’s clear in attack we are less organised than most other teams who are far more slick moving the ball. With our back line we should be top of the table.

The other thing that gets me frustrated is that like the confusion at half back it’s the same at hooker. We have three hookers and one on loan that arguably has more potential than any of them. Hallas is too slow although his defence is good. Halafihi is quicker but lacks nous. Flanagan is the best of the lot but lacks discipline. Chopping and changing them and the halfbacks contributes massively to our disjointed attack. One bad pass from dummy half can disrupt an entire move and when you add in Chisholm running down a blind alley you have problems.

Our attack seems now to just consist of a few drives then a kick to Ethan Ryan. Teams are finding it easy to disrupt us by their quick line speed. Referees often don’t police the 10m very strictly and this means the opposition can get in our faces easily.

As for the forwards I hear that Peltier was left out because he’s just become a father and has been sleeping in the hospital all week. He had a stinker last week too. Having said that I thought Kear’s choice of two young kids as the bench forwards was a mistake as it meant when the changes came we had a spell with zero go forward. Surely if you’re resting Peltier then start with Crossley and Kirk and then swap for Green and Wood?

Watching us get dragged into the niggle yesterday was reminiscent of us last year in the championship. We got bullied and put off playing rugby. It was so predictable as it was exactly what happened in the away fixture. Do we not learn? It was so painfully obvious that was going to happen yet we got suckered again. If we do go up, and I can see us blowing that then some changes are needed as we will struggle in the championship with the current squad.

Fully agree about the hookers Bullsye. We're lucky in that we still get another crack via the play-offs and it's time we have a consistency in the halves. Choose 2 and stick with them. Lilley should be the one and then its up to kear to choose Chisholm or Keyes. Flanagan and Halafihi to be the hookers. Hallas works hard but his distribution is awful. Back-row or not at all. We've tried changing the team to fit certain players in the line up and it needs to stop. The fact Butterworth is at Cas when none of the hookers have really been outstanding still leaves a sour taste.

I'd start Keyes and Lilley. Keyes has been our most consistent halfback this season. I'd have Chisholm on the bench and with instructions that if he starts running down blind alleys then he's off.

Hooker I'd go with Halafihi and Flanagan. Hallas to play in the backrow or nowhere. He should be as far away from dummy half as possible.

The sooner Bustin and Peltier are back the better too.

A pack consisting of Crossley and Bustin as starters and Peltier and Green on the bench gives me a lot more confidence than Kirk and Wood. I do like Kirk but as many have said he's young and learning. He'll get there. He'll be another Kopczak I think.

Why is Lilley getting a free pass for his display yesterday? We conceded two tries because of his errors.

His c0ck up at the end that led to the winning try had an air of inevitability about it didn't it?

Nobody had a good game yesterday except maybe Crossley.

Kear says we were "old manned"--that's not good enough when you are chasing certain promotion as opposed to an end of season bun fight.It really boils down to the same thing,even when we have been winning,NO ORGANISATION in the middle and no,or very little, BIFF up front.Look what's happened to Salford when they have added a bit of quality in the middle through the signing of hastings,different team.I think Lilley has the quality but we need direction and we are still not winning the battle up front,unless you do that combined with the ability to control things when in possession,then you are gonna struggle.It's gonna be hard from here,but we have the players to beat Workington next time if they are properly LED.Just my opinion.

You are correct with that comment.
I predicted that we would go sign him and I like him but he also had a very poor game.
with Leeds signing the supposedly whiz kid from Scottish RU - Ex Castleford plus the Papua half for next year I see no way back for Lilley to Leeds so he could be available to stay with us. If that is the case I would put Lilley as having the most potential as our best half slightly ahead of Kear - but different styles. Chizzy comes third and I don't see him now as long term.

I hadn't thought about the continual mix of hookers and a good point made above. What do people think of our young hooker on loan at Cas? Should we be looking at him now for long term in the way I have said about Keys and Lilley. Flannagan probably only has next year left. Do we give the young hooker a year out like Leeds have done with Lilley to mature a bit or is he ready come next February?
It is a fine line playing too many youngsters or too many older players and getting the mix just right.

Thing is, anyone who knows anything about rugby league could have told you that was what sort of game it was going to be. Wilkes 38, FuiFui MoiMoi 38, Penkywicz 35. Its obvious what it's going its be like. So why did he choose the line up he did.

I think Kear is the best signing we've made and i don't want to sound like i'm bagging him, but this season seems to be mirroring Jimmys first full season. Different HB combinations every week. Trying to fit certain players in the squad and swapping half the team to accomdate him. Coasting along beating teams we're better than. As soon as we come up against a team that gives us a bit back, we fold. We've had 3 real tests this year and only won once and even that was lucky. York at home with a chance to effectively seal promotion and we were 24-0 down after 20 mins (how that happened was a disgrace, and again, questionable tactics from Kear filling the bench with four big men, in sweltering heat against the most expansive team in the league. We had no plan B) and again yesterday, against a rough tough older side, he goes with possibly the lightest bench ever seen with no size at all.

I still believe Kear will get us promotipn via the play-offs with only Workington posing a threat. We'll be at home and surely this time we will choose the right line up and know what to expect and have a competent ref to offer a little protection. Their front row has a combined age of 111, have Crossley, Bustin, Peltier and Green running at them, they won't have the energy to bully us. Unfortunately yesterday we had a winger and kirk running at them once Crossley and Green went off.

Agree in part, but Keyes was the 3rd player to take a shot at goal when asking him to take that penalty thats no fault of his at all. Plus asking him to come into games bit part I think is a bit naff, Keyes has been our most consistent half before his knock but I think he will fall foul of the Lilley deal and Chisholm wont be dropped. Massively agree Kear got it wrong for me end of a lot of that has to lay at his feet. It all has a feel of million pound game/Fev game too much. A completely different side and coach yet same struggles in big games seems to be a massive cloud over the team in massive games that we cant get up for. This is something I certainly didn't expect under Kear

Better for Kear to make this mistake now than in a playoff game I suppose, that's the only positive I can get from yesterday. Oh, and we can all stop overanalysing the points difference now because it's irrelevant

Actually it isn't.......... if York don't beat Workington in their next game...

If York destroy Workington,that really is a reality check.

York are much more fluid than us imo

In attack I'd say a lot of teams are more fluid than us. In recent games I've been far more impressed with how the likes of Hunslet and Newcastle move the ball than us. If we had that level of organisation we'd score loads.