I think the 3/4 was looking really promising, I really rate King and he was MOM on Friday too, gelling and I also rate, shame what's going on there but justice must be done IMO. I think King gets the same flack that Simon grix got early in in his career, they'll see it one day.

You're right about not stretching teams, we lack a few bigger bodies, with hill and Cooper both getting on a bit it's really important to get the right forwards. Millington or Watts from cas would be great, proven superleague props like carvell was. Its not all about size though it's alse the attacking shapes and 1 up rugby, scoots and drives. We need to give the opposition defences a lot more to think about and that's not just size. We have players underused all over the pitch.

Hill is one of the best ball playing forwards in RL ,there just needs to be a plan that takes that into account.

Given that the plan doesn’t seem to allow the half backs to be ball players I can’t see the props being given permission anytime soon.
*Remembers wistfully that run around try involving Hill and Cooper.

It's like our attacking threats are being nullified by our own coach. We look so easy to play against, the players must be so frustrated with these tactics.

So as professional rugby players they should be getting together away from the coach and playing how they want to. Who always listens to the boss anyway?

The start of last season was amazing, before we shut up shop.


Also, whats happened to what Stuart Middleton said post saints game about briers now taking lead on attack, did we give up after that week and return to pricey being all over it.

I think Price has become obsessed with safety first, not only is it ugly but it isn’t effective either. Whatever RD says about this being a new season, I take the view that our results are a continuation with a respite during the off season.

Ball play like Hill offload like Cooper is great to have, but they are of limiting use if we can’t already make hard yards for field position.
Hill and Cooper are plenty enough if they’ll do 80 mins each and never miss a game.

our attack is nullified by the fact its so predictable, half backs cant do much when havent got options around him to make the defence have to make a decision. half the team look scared to do anything in fear of making a mistake.

But a deft pass that draws defenders & puts a team mate through a hole is probably more effective than running at a brick wall .

There’s nothing wrong with having a predictable structure. It’s serve Wigan well for a decade.
It’s how well you make the hard yards and the timing delivery of those ‘predictable’ moves.

However...the side effect is losing 1/3 of the home attendances.

How much has our home attendance gone down since Price has been here, or has it gone up?

It fluctuates I’d say game on game, but not to figures over 6 seasons that saw over 5k if fans turned off at the Pie Dive.

Was it 9,000 odd for the Castleford game? We averaged 12,000 for the 2011/12 season I think.

Our home attendances from 2005 to 2019 (incl) have been pretty consistent. Within that of course you can predict that the visit of Saints is probably going to bring in 12-14k, but Salford or London on a Thursday night might be only 9K. That does however contrast with Wigan who have seen a really big drop over the past few years (couldn't be bothered to dig the figures out).

10,995. 2005
10,407
10,510
9,500
9,221
10,945
11,126
11,456
10,630
9,889
9,602
11,035
10,164
9,781
11,007 2019

Good to see the facts

The only point of note to the attendance figures is that pre 2013 the ground capacity was 13k (or was it then slightly lowered to 12k after that first Wakefield game) and is now around £15k, so in terms of occupancy level it always looks a bit emptier nowadays.

You also have to look at these numbers against the average for Super League as a whole (to balance out for years when you have teams such as London with very little travelling support and for the things like the introduction of Thursday night games etc).

In the last decade, with the exception of 2015, our attendance has been well above the league average. Last year we were 30% above. It should be noted that the average across all clubs includes the Magic Weekend.

He will have no fitness excuse when we resume playing.

It will be interesting to see if he can get a gig in our 17 man squad.

If he was short of match fitness before lock down, he won't be any closer now.

There was a sports scientist on the radio yesterday explaining how premier league footballers performance will be hampered by the enforced break. You can run, row, cycle as much as you want but there is no substitute to matches, whether that's competitive or in training.

Agreed that there is no substitute for match fitness, but having watched him in 2 Wire reserve games he was definitely unfit and out of condition.

In the second game that I watched him play, Eribe Doro was much better than him and Price rewarded Doro by his inclusion in the 1st team 21 man squad for the next SuperLeague game.

An absolute minimum of three weeks in 'lockdown', with players having to maintain their fitness at home, and it is almost certain that this period will be extended.

If / when the season resumes it will be a race to get fit and then it will be like round one all over again. I'd be quite concerned about players picking up injuries due to a lack of preperation. The positive will be for players who have been carrying knocks or long term injuries that have never fully recovered due to the relatively short closed season.

Despite KF's comments on Sky the other day I just can't see how the players can be expected to straight into full matches without some sort of mini pre-season.

I can't see matches restarting before June to be honest, so then it'll be a case of what type of season /comp will we have.

A straight fight to the week before the due date for the play offs, the top 5 or whatever they have this year go into the playoffs.