A sensible and thoughtful post GT. Amidst all the anger and disillusionment of the fans it is still soul destroying to watch what is happening. Like the rest of us, I have no idea of an answer or quick fix because I am not privy to the true nature of the source of the problem (Coach, Players or Management?). Everyone can see what the result is but it seems WE are powerless in trying to do anything about it. Whilst a shiny new ground, whenever that may actually happen, may be a blessing - I wonder if it will change what we have now that significantly? It will still be based on revenue and the club are driving a lot of die-hards away at an alarming rate with what is on offer now. There is a distinct need for change.

G.T. I fully agree that we are woeful on the park & appear to be going backwards, but some of the points defiant red posted I cant agree with, hence my comment.
Some, such as Parker going back to second row is a must, he will never be a prop whilst he has a hole in his a##e, when Holdsworth played L.F he had a cracking game but Swain went second row & didnt particularly look comfortable.
As for dropping Fitzy, he has played out of his skin this season, what has he done wrong up to now in games we have played?
Sidlow needs to play more time & out wide, he is a ball handling forward looks to offload but no back up.
Jewitts aggression has been missing, he needs to be in the squad, made his mark when he came on at Wakey.
As for Stef, we need him on the park.
The pack is massivley light weight.

As others have said, you support your team, whatever happens on the pitch, you dont have to LIKE whats happening on/off the pitch to be that supporter, & I think plenty off us sure as hell DONT like whats going on at the moment.

For me neither Fitzy or Steff should be dropped, Parker and Adamson should the first choice second rowers and Swain without doubt the starting loose forward. The problem for me is that we need Steff, Matty Smith and Houldsworth on the pitch at the same time for the most amount of time possible. I'd be in favour having Houldsworth come off the bench for Alker after 20 mins and rotate him and Matty Smith between scrum halve and hooker but giving Swain the hookers defensive role. And also think it is time to look in the lower leagues for a big prop be they the younger hungry type or an old stager who would relish one last hurrah as BB's Ma says we are massively underweight in the pack - Can anyone say if Korkidas is still only on loan from Hudds to Wakey?? maybe worth seeing if we could prize him away, I know he has his detractors but he's add beef to the pack and maybe add a little more aggression which is sadley lacking.

This is the problem here.
We as fans can see what is wrong so why the hell cant our coach.
Sorry but Matty Smith is struggling and as the scrum half he should be running the show, unfortunately his confidence looks shot to pieces and yet again I think McRae did not help by just dropping him with no reason given.
We have a talented scrum half in the wings a local lad who must be bursting a gut to get out there.
This is the future of the club so why does he not get a game ?
The pack is lightweight but they will get no where if we persist on standing still when a pass is made.
The tackling with a couple of exceptions by the pack is also woeful.
Yes it is all coaching and yes that is where the finger here is being pointed.

I have and again where do I say that. I think it's you who have misread the various posts.

Think you'll find the younger halves are being told to play the game by numbers rather than off the cuff stuff that any self respecting halve knows is his stocking trade.

It's a great policy to recruit the best fring youth talent that's available and then coach the talent out of them, turn them into no marks and release them to fester or prosper at other clubs.

I can see it now SM takes his first coaching session with the great Wigan side of the 80's and takes aside Gregory and Edwards and says just for a change were going to ask you to not attack the line, not throw any missed passes or show any creative nowse as we want to see what 5 drivers and a pin point fullback finder kick produces as a result.

I blame Thatcher


GT - good to see a thoughtful analysis on here. I agree with many of your points.

It feels to me that the whole club has pinned its whole hopes on the new stadium and that we've accepted that we can't have a decent team or matchday experience until we get so there isn't the drive to make it better than it currently is. It is also sucking up all our finance and Director's time so there's not enough resources to focus on getting things right in the present

Other teams had similar dips when they moved stadiums but they started from a higher base so it wasn't so dramatic

Not making excuses here because the quality of entertainment (on and off the field) is poor and whilst that isn't new for Salford (unfortunatley) in the past there's always been a "we're in this together" culture that doesn't seem to exist any more. not sure where it's gone but it has to be felt from the top of any organisation.

I feel that leaders of the club are spending all their time on the future, which is right in many ways, but if they don't spend any time on the "now" we may find we don't have a future

What upset me most about Sunday was that to me on paper both clubs are very similar, as I would say about the teams. Where we are different is the way they both approached the game the attitude and the understanding both individually and collectively the job they had to do.
The set up and the pattern is dictated by the coach and to me this was another case of one team looking well drilled/coached and Salford.
If i`m right about the two teams (on paper) then it comes back to the coach and the level of commitment/performance he is obtaining and sadly I don`t believe SM and his team are getting the best from what we have.
Ultimately we were outplayed in every facet of the game by a team we should be looking to be on a par with, if not looking to surpass

I think that is a little unfair to Wakey, as I would have shared your view a few years ago, but imo they are streets ahead of us atm.

Besides, 'on paper' is banded around too much as most sides who raise their game are in with a chance of beating any other. The difference for me is that Wakey are raising their own bar each season, helped by a focused coach and some shrewd aquisitions. They are arguably in the same situation as us off the field.

The trouble with us atm is that morale is rock-bottom, the team isn't functioning as such, and the coaching team don't seem able to change the negative aspects and build on the positives.

Thats the crux of the matter for me and makes you wonder if a good early set too would help. Remember years ago in the first State of Origin match when they were packing for the first scrum that the commentators said watch out for this and it kicked off royally. They apparently had settled on the idea of a bit of Biff to get a bit more passion flowing. Can't see it having an adverse effect if say on Saturday it kicked off and both teams lost a player for 10 early on and the rest of the team felt galvinised by it all.

Some excellent posts on here but sadly although we are all in agreement I very much doubt whether SMc will change his `damage liability` approach. Even that is getting us absolutely nowhere.

I agree too that all roads lead to Barton so we could be in for a tough couple of seasons before we see any real change. Depressing times I am afraid.

Without wanting to get into an argument, can you expand please??

l really felt for the fans that travelled over on Sunday, because l can remember being in their shoes!!!

But to say both clubs are similar (at the mo) is stretching it, do you not think??

Yes both play out of poor grounds but Wakey average more, and have done for a quite some years, Wakey have a competitive team, again have had one for quite a few years.

And now wakey can say they have a good youth set up (winning the academy last year) and now playing wakey academy graduates in the first team.

All that said, neither team will even be able to go much further without a new ground.

All the best for the rest of the year.

This does make sense. I wonder if the decision has been made to "write off" this season and base all hopes on starting to build in 2011 for the stadium in 2012. Finances must be really tight, I wonder how many of the Director's own businesses are struggling? Most of them probably have no cash to throw at the club right now, but in 12 months time it may look better.
I am also unsure if the current "down" that surrounds the club will cause long term damage, but that may be a risk the chairman and board are willing to take.

See through the season, new coach in the off season when it costs less to end the contract of SM, start building again???????

i know there is a lot of stick for the coach but i'm not hearing anything for the players? There the ones making mistakes ie knocking on/missing tackles/messing around at the ruck etc. Do you think he tells them to go out and do that? When is some blame also going to go to alker? isn't he on the coaching staff? nothing is getting aimed at him, just mcrae!

The thing I find most frustrating is that Crusaders had no team at all at the end of last season and have managed to assemble one that managed to beat us after having two years to prepare.

I didn't think much of 'Nobby' as a Coach at Bradford or Wigan, but clearly he is achieving much more than the S**G already.

Apart from just enjoying the night out and any game of Rugby in general, there isn't much point in attending the Willows if you would like to see exciting rugby or a win!

they've assembled a team pretty much full of aussies who are no mugs! Why do our fans think we had a god given right to just beat them? There players wanted it more than ours! We have got a very young team and it shown that night against a team with a lot more experience.

We have no god given right to beat anybody agreed. I just think something's sadly lacking within our club when this type of situation happens.

I suppose fans of Halifax and Widnes can point to Salford and wonder how we got to be in SL before them, and they would have a fair point.

I just feel that when we achieved the play offs under KH it gave us a glimpse of our potential and unfortunately it's been downhill ever since...............with no immediate prospect of recovery.

Yes in many ways we are, except on the pitch. Wakafield IMHO have more quality players than Salford, especially in the pack and the halves. Remember you were beaten by a team minus Brough, Newton (never mind on that one) and Jeffries, all key players for us and both capable of commanding a place at most SL clubs. Sure Cookes a nice addition but he's way off the pace at the moment. Plus we are last years Academy champions.

Sorry to sound arrogant but we have moved a long way in playing terms.

Huge mistake putting Alker in that role IMHO, I would have kept Robbie and had him coaching, but I have said all this before.
Yes the players must take some blame but the coaches issue the game plan and this obviously does not work, plus it is driving fans away.

the wakefield squad is miles better than ours, how someone can say we are similar is having a fooking laugh!

I think what we are saying is that Wakefield have a similar salary cap to us, but their players want to play and some very good players are attracted there, I just wonder what the difference is?




Asnwers on a Postcard
to John Wilkinson
C/O The Willows
Salford

I agree with you and the poster you were quoting, but I also have a sneaky feeling that during this time of uncertainty a Bradford esq 96 might appear on our records again, and I have a feeling it will be either Warrington or Wigan that do it. Just a feeling but I think we are that bad.

What suprises me is Ratchford on the bench. Last season he was considered one of the most promising up and coming young players, what's happened?

It's been difficult for him so far this year, being partnered with someone different in the halves every other game. The general mood and performance of the team hasn't helped really either.

I think being dropped for a game did him a bit of good. He looked quite sharp when he came off the bench last week, hopefully we'll continue to see improvement throughout the season, like last year.