Discuss the match and avoid slagging each other off here.

Big test for us I think, especially with our continued trouble creating in attack. I'll be submerged in mud at Glastonbury so will be checking for updates.

QFT

Hopefully we get some bodies back. Thomas, Addy and Ferguson would all give us a boost.
As usual there's no injury news from the club so we're only guessing, but hopefully Clark is ok to play.

Rohan seems reluctant to do it but I'd like to see Clare move to centre with either Caro or Ryan outside him. All three of Batley's tries came down Walshaw's flank so I guess it's either second row or nothing for him.

Be a tough game, seem to struggle vs Fax as they up their game and play with real intensity which we seem to lack.

Strong squad should be avaiable (not heard anything much about Clark id rest him if 50/50 for leigh) really need to start well and hit them hard play with a big squad and Thomas/Charnock in the halves should give us some creativity, need to have a good showing especially with Leigh the week after two huge games in 2 weeks.

Thing the players prefer to play away from Odsal as the atmosphere is flat compared to away, need to get behind them but we need them to show us something to get behind last few home games we have been dire and nothing has sparked the fans into voice.

Big possitive is our goal line defence which i think has impreved greatly but we are still crap in open field with broken runners can seem to make a decison was very evident on sunday when we where borken we had bodies back but they didnt seem like making a tackle just tracked the player and they made a lot of meters that way.

Well we haven't beaten Fax in our last 3 attempts and have been out enthused in every one. If we win this one i think it will secure our top 4 spot. (providing we don't have a repeat of the Dewsbury cock-up against Haven or Oldham) So as we never make it easy for ourselves, i'm going for a fax win!!

All about attitude for me. Come out firing. Hit Richard Moore and Scott Murrell just as hard as they hit us, and i think we have that little more quality to sneak. Won't be much in it though.

I'd rather nothing, the bloke is rubbish. Only thing he's half useful for is having the height on people to try and get to high bombs first. His defence is poor for a centre, never mind a second row.

I too would like to see Clare at centre. If Caro isn't fit, put Ryan on the wing.

We desperately need one or both of Thomas and Addy back I think for this game, otherwise I can't see us having much chance.

I think Walshaw could probably do a job at second row. Remember that he hasn't been playing at all this season up until this week, so he can't be anywhere near match fit. Last season when he got a bit more game time he actually did ok, albeit in the pack. He got the motm away to Dewsbury iirc.
Having said that, I'm pretty sure his contract is up at the end of this season and I don't think he'll be offered a new deal.

Not sure I'd go along with that.

We're not going to catch Leigh in the league but Fax [icould[/i overtake us, which makes the Fax game the most important, imo. If Clark is fit enough to play then his aggression and spirit will be missed it it's not there and the result is important.

Think Walshaw had forgotten how to play RL since it was that long since he's got a game. Defence was awful.

Clark would be a big miss. When's Kavanagh expected back?

I think Clare is best on the wing.

Think we have put ourselves in the position where we cannot afford any more slip ups. Therefore we need to play our strongest team each week and let the following week look after itself.

Well, we certainly owe Halifax one.

The strangest thing is that although on the old paper we have a number of better players, in reality, Halifax have been murdering us with regularity. So, the first thing our squad needs from Rohan is a self-belief that they can actually win. I think he's good at that, but still they will surely all be wondering, and the Fax lads will surely start full of confidence.

Then, we have no idea who'll be missing this week. If we are as scratch as v. Batley then we will struggle, against anyone, because we don't have any attacking plans. craft or guile, and we are highly fragile as a result in trying to attack in the opposition's half, because people aren't running as a unit, ball getting caught standing still, forced passes etc etc. yes, hospital passes, dropping the ball cold, one-man-plunge-after-plunge and being pushed backwards all the time are all a type of crapness, but it wouldn't take that much organisation and leadership to turn this around; in those games where we do click in the middle and get on a roll, we've shown what we can do, and our points difference and points scored tell a decent tale (it's probably worth an extra league point against the teams around us).

But Haggerty at halfback (and he tried hard and played well) wasn't ever likely to lead to rampant attacks or slick passing and handling movements. The lack of halfbacks continues to be the bane of our lives.

Million dollar question - what IS our best team? Nobody seems to know!

that's true, we don't. We don't really know what Lowes' view of the strongest team was, and certainly not Smith as he's only just off the plane; plus we have had so many people out; plus we have started to get a few people coming in.

It's the sort of situation where it might take a year, or two, that we don't have to settle on your strongest team.

But at the moment it is probably nearer a case of the least-weak team that we can cobble together. Which TBF Smith has made a decent fist of so far, as he has with the attitude and belief (players and fans!).

On the subject of injuries, in his interview in the Bulletin paper on Sunday, Purts said he'd had a shoulder operation and was just starting his physio. So that's some injury news from the club, right there! smh

Think its a bit of an exaggeration to say fax have been murdering us with regularity. They've won last 3 games 20-16, 52-18 and 14-10. first two we rested a lot of key players as lowes viewed middle eights and MPG the following weeks as more important fixtures, rightly or wrongly. We were missing a few and had late withdrawals on day for this yrs fixture. Dont think winning by 4 points a couple of times is murdering us regularly. The 52-18 was more worrying but we had one eye on MPG so there was a reason for it.

We definitely need at least one of Thomas or Addy fit this week to partner Charnock, but assuming one is I'd be fairly confident of getting the result. Our defence is steadily improving under Smith and our attacking play will improve as Charnock and Moss settle in and squads confidence increases.

1 ) ?
2 ) ?
3 ) ?
4 ) ?
5 ) ?
6 ) Gaskell
7 ) Addy
8 ) ?
9 ) Baille
10 ) ?
11 ) ?
12 ) ?
13 ) ?

14 ) Lauaki
15 ) ?
16 ) ?
17 ) ?

2 Blythe

Won't play again this season and is contemplating retirement.

Well that's just amazing. Purtell addressed the diners in the Coral Stand after the Batley game, and was asked how his shoulder operation had gone. Fine was the response. When will you be available was the next question. Worst case, said Adrian, the week before the middle 8's.

which summarises the problem. The real question is what is our strongest team if everybody were 100% match fit. But this is RL, and therefore thats a fantasy team. The lack of information about injuries makes our attempts to work out the best team a guessing game.

Perhaps its one for Gledders to ask post match why over here its secret whereas in the NRL all team injuries are published regularly!

Far more media scrutiny over in Aus, simple as that. Look at football clubs in this country - they can't keep anything under wraps because of media attention, for the simple fact that they can sell papers with the news.
Conversely, the general public don't give two hoots about Mitch Clark's leg injury so nobody bothers to try and find out.

On the subject of our strongest squad, i don't think we have one. I think Smith chooses a particular 17 to try beat that particular opposition that day. We've seen him play Addy at hooker and put OB on bench when playing Leigh so not to get out muscled early on. We've seen him play 5 props against Batley (Lowes didn't do that once last year) If Clark didn't get injured so early on, i think we would have won by a bigger margin.

Lowes played the same 17 virtually every week, running our best players into the ground. How easy must we have been to scout in a lead up to playing us? Batter Sidlow and Clough as Lauaki and Crossley will only play 10 minutes each. Then in the most important game of the year, he panicked playing centres on the wing, centres at hooker, playing our 2 best props for 70 minutes and almost forgetting he could make substitutions.

That's also what he said in Bulletin paper at weekend

it gives valuable team info to the opposition.