We said before the start of the season that we looked light in the forwards. I agree that Patton was poor but any halfback is going to struggle behind a beaten pack.
Our pack is going to come off second best in most games this season so we need to be far better with ball in hand if we want to stand any chance of winning a game.

Holmes isn't a fullback, and he shouldn't play there again after last night. On the few occasions he managed to hold onto the ball, he did nothing with it except kick early and hand possession back to York.

That is a poor York side, playing with only 16 men on the night, and they were completely comfortable for the entire second half. Dunning was outcoached last night, probably won't be the only time that happens this season either.

He’s had 20 games in charge and won 8. Hasn’t beaten any of the teams who finished top 5 last season (Leigh, Fev, Batley, Halifax and Barrow).

Had some shockers in there too. Widnes and Whitehaven last season. And York this season. I know York are usually a good side but for gods sake they lost their main man in Matty Marsh early doors. People kicked off about Kear losing to Fax last season after they were reduced to 12 men in minute one. This is York’s key playmaker. And we were shocking.

I said I’d give Dunning a chance even though I know he’s not fit for the job. But I’ve got to say, we need a proper coach. Because on paper this squad (although a touch light in the pack and a winger and centre short, which again, is Dunning’s fault). The first choice 17 is as good if not better than everyone bar Fev.

I sat and watched it last night on Premier Sports and I have taken the time to sit and digest what I saw so that I cannot be accused of having a knee jerk reaction.

So my overall match report is as follows.

We were utter pish.

We proved all last season that Patten & Lilley don't work well together. But obviously we just had to check & confirm it last night. So hopefully the coach will believe it now. Other than that, we dropped the ball (or otherwise gave possession to York) 8 times on the first tackle Dunning said in the interview. That is shockingly bad and means that 80% of our energy had to go into defence, then you get the mess that was the 2nd half. I don't think we can be that butter fingered again, can we?

Nah. He's had 18 games in charge with last season's squad and 2 games with this squad. I don't think Wayne Bennett could have got many more wins with last season's players.

Problem I think Dunnings got is if we lose against Widnes, we won't beat Toulouse or Featherstone so that will be 1 win in 5. I think it would be very difficult for him to get through that. Don't think the fanbase will put up with it.

I can see glimpses of his stamp on things. But results are decided on the pitch not the training ground (even if things have improved) Think Sunday is massive for Dunning.

Not even necessarily about winning or losing for me, it's the performance. As well as all of the errors last night, our lot were out-enthused which isn't good enough. For the entirety of the second half only a few of them looked interested.

They looked gassed rather than uninterested, which if you've been asking the opposition to attack you continually for 35minutes, that's to be expected.

New faces but same old issues. Pack defensively weak. Dunning needs to decide on his best team so that they can work together. They looked lost last night and not motivated. Dunning was outcoached last night and I have real doubts about the future despite all the fanfare about new signings.

Just seen Dunnings interview hes watched entirely different game to myself.

I think I watched a totally different game to everyone else. I appreciate I'm an eternal optimist but hear me out.

They made zero clean breaks all game. They scored 3 first half tries from us gifting them the ball on tackle 1, and 3 second half conversions, the first of which was following a tackle 2 penalty while we had possession.

We made way more tackles than they did. This is why we looked knackered.

Biggest disappointment for me was the manner in which they scored close to the line.

We lacked discipline with the ball - you just can't give the ball away in your own 20 continually and expect to keep the other team out continuously.

I totally believe we were the masters of our own downfall, and we beat ourselves.

Sorry to be pedantic but the made a clean break when Joe Brown took the quick tap restart in the second half. That might have been the only one tho.

I think this is a good summary of my thoughts. Perhaps harsh on York but I came away thinking we had lost that game rather than York had won it.

York didn’t have to do much due to us surrendering the ball so easily in early tackles. We looked good when using the ball and attacking them but in typical fashion we then made an error deep in our own half giving them easy points for minimal effort and it told although with that York were still kept to a number of penalties rather than put a huge score on us.

Not particularly impressed with the attitude but I’d like to think we cannot possibly drop as much ball again. I’m not pressing the panic button just yet. I’m expecting a few more losses to come but if we do self destruct again then the pressure will start to build on MD

I was expecting dogs abuse so happy for the minor pedantry to be honest!

That was an honest assessment! https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/ ... oach-york/

That was an honest assessment! https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/ ... oach-york/

Its scary that it takes a player to understand more what the issue is than the coach.

I feel incredibly sorry for Mark...he's well out of his depth and been put in a position where he is going to be made scapegoat in 4 or 5 games.

He was the cheap option before investors came on board. I dare say they are probably lining someone else up already.

I think the club knew exactly what they were doing when they appointed MD. I agree, the club took the cheap and easy option hoping that Dunning would get the backing of the fans and string some results together at the end of 2022. That didn't happen. He is now given an opportunity to build his own squad and shape the culture of the club during the offseason. I want him to succeed but if we fall to another defeat this weekend the dark clouds will begin to descend. I'm hopeful that we will get a decent performance to show some of us doubters that he has the capability to get the team firing again after such a poor performance at York.