Funny I have put something along the same lines on another post!

Ballard is playing 2nd Div RL (or 3rd) He wouldn't hack it at SL.

I can't stand the excuses anymore, hearing the coach on the radio each weekend makes my blood boil.

A little honesty from players and staff please.

Still should off been given a shot at SL, there was only way to see if he was good enough, and he couldn't have done a worse job than the current batch of players, but thats just my opinion

Sounds all too familiar does that, although in fairness he's a confidence player and will continue to look disinterested until he gets a bit of good fortune his way on the field (and as long as opposition teams don't target him in defence).

My thoughts exactly kots.

cracking post K.O.T.S.

bet you have a sore finger typing that out though?

Ballard wasn't good enough for NL1 last year,never mind Super League. Main problem this season is the 3/4s where we have the 4 probable starters out injured.For a club like us this is a massive handicap.Don't agree with all the Smith knockers on here as he has had his good moments and laid on most of our tries.If Smith has experience of playing centre then I would try him there and play Ratchford at stand-off as it's not fair on the lad to play him out of position on the wing outside another inexperienced youngster in Turner.

I thought this myself. Seemed strange in the last few weeks he hasnt tried to mix one experienced lad with one youngster to give the team a little more balance. I know it's not Stef or Jordans fault but they're getting targetted and some of the tries that have been scored down their wing have been soft to say the least.

Great Post KOTS straight from the heart that one.
Bet you feel better now dont you now thats off your chest?

As with most of the players it is the defensive display that lacks. Smith is like a small dog, 3 or 4th in and doesn't make many tackles.

agree 100% KOTS. On paper were a solid if unspectacular team but its not being reflected in the games so far this season (bar Celtic). I'm not expecting us to go out and beat teams week in out but being competative is the bare minimum i expect which we simply havn't been.

I'm not usually one to knock the coach and its true that you don't become a bad coach over night but there seems to basic coaching issue at the club because we can all see the problem yet absolutley nothing seems to be done about it or the players arent responding to what their being told to do.These players have played RL there entire lives and you don't suddenly forget how tackle or move up in a line beacause your playing against better opposition. Their were signs last season in NL1 that our team lacked cohesion- especially away from home.

I'm just hoping the players can show us some improvement on Sunday- I'm not expecting anything out of the game but they've got to show us some signs of improvement and better commitment than they've dished up this season.

I think King of the Shed's post is excellent. It is thoughtful, reflective and reasoned. I think that he has been a little bit kind to some of our forwards though and I hope that they - along with the rest of the squad - can stand up and be counted.

No McRae has been a bad coach for a lot longer, he was a bad coach when he came here and I stated that then, he had been away from rugby after his disaster of an attempt in the NRL, bottom two years on the trot but for some reason Sky paid him as a pundit. He was alright at Hull and Saints with Internations who needed little or no coaching but with average players he has been found out at least by the Fans and other clubs if not the Board.

He's the Henry Akinwande of Rugby League Coaches.....he talks a good fight on SKY, but when push comes to shove, his coaching style is as ground-breaking as McFly!

Although I agree with what is being said aren't you sick of saying the same thing year in year out?

Every other small club in SL (bar Celtic) has managed to show some improvement over the past five years, except us.

The one shining light on the horizon was the stadium which was to rectify the situation, and that has been pulled from under us.

Salford are going nowhere, fast.

Great Post KOTS, there's not alot I could dispute, a pretty fair assessment of the team. though I 've noticed that you refrain from commenting on Coaching , Tactics and Team selection. Still choosing your words ? If so I'll look forward to that post.

As for the coaching, tactics & team selection, is it just McRea, what input does Scott Naylor have in the above, he was there when our downfall started under Karl Harrison, he appears to call the shots as regards interchanges in the game & for the life of me interchanging 4 players at a time , surely disrupts the pattern of play in the team. Malc has always played full 80 mins but he gets subbed to let robbie on, but why not move him rather than sub him, he is our best defender. Cashmere asking to play longer, as he always played 80 mins in NRL, some players just getting into the game after 15mins, have heard Leuluei say the same, he is just getting into the game & he is subbed. Im not saying all our forwards need to stay on for the full 80, some do need a break, but others dont. Just a few things to mull over

So it appears that McRae actually does nowt, Simms buys the players and Naylor does the coaching,





Naylor wasn't at Sydney souths

Great post, pity at board level we don't see the same!

Naylor's on the touchline, however I'd be surprised if he was deciding on interchanges without prompts from the shaun in the Gantry.
Lack of confidence or lack of coaching? we always look flat on attack , look at our opponents backline, running from deep, being able to miss out a man, ours flat slow and predictable, been that way for years. Are they coached that way or is it beyond them ? Ratchford has a mean up and under , used it with our kick off, why not during the game? Myler read Smiths grubber for our 1st try so presume this was a training ground move so where are all the forward moves ? Stapleton, Lueluai at least should be linking on a run from dummy half or a short pass on the tryline , Alker used that in the past that with Coley even Haggerty, If you look at the stats we have alot of offloaded ball but nobody knows what to do with it once off loaded, no 2nd phase usually head down straight back into the melee. Confidence or coaching ? Alkers stabbed 40/20 attempts are new but our long kicking game is weak, we rarely turn the defence and put pressure on their 20 yard line. it's usually left to the kicker and a couple of other ' bothered ' to chase the kick receiver, gone are the times when we used to run up as a line . surely now at this time of the season its about moves not fitness?

I watched Swinton in the Sixties and they had moves from everywhere on the park. Cliff Evans was the coach and he of course moved to Salford later. He was a quiet genius and his planning was meticulate.

Swinton had a hardworking but only average pack and the extremely slow Albert Blan pushed them around the park with some craft. There were dummy runners, pi$$ offs, run arounds, face balls, dummy scissors etc etc all the time BUT the players (part time) knew what was coming and how to manoevre.

These lads do nothing at work except play Rugby League. It is surely not beyond the bounds of credibility to expect a totally different style of play from what we are seeing. I agree with Steve on the other thread. Isnt it getting VERY tedious and boring. We need a change in style of play PLEASE.

It appears we are trying to play an in expansive percentage game that is based on completing sets, having a better or equal share of the ball and trying to play mistake free rugby.
The problem I see is that our players make far too many individual errors and they don’t appear smart enough, quick enough, fit enough or committed enough to do this effectively at the moment.

For starters our forwards are making one man drives and not running hard enough to get over the advantage line, this is then followed up by a poor kick that usually finds the ball landing straight in the hands of the opposing fullback to return at pace.

Add to this some inexcusable missed tackles, unforced handling errors, a visible lack of camaraderie and confidence and it leaves Salford on a hiding to nothing at the moment.

I think success in rugby league is about how well your players do the small things that collectively mean the difference between a competitive performance or a hammering. For instance a good example is the goal line drop out, how many more GLD’s have teams forced on us so far this season compared to us forcing on them?

How often do our kickers put too much or not enough weight on the kick? and how often is our chase not good enough to tackle an opponent in goal? Surely this is something that can be addressed in training, why can’t the team spend an extra 15-20 minutes a day practicing it so they can perfect such an important element of the game? I’m sure it’s no fluke that every other team seem so much better at this play than us!

This is just one example of many I could have given but my point is if the team don’t practice or practice enough on such an important area like forcing a GLD then it highlights that not enough time is being spent in perfecting other areas of Salford's game.

Maybe it’s time Shaun McRae overhauls the present training schedule and starts to identify what action can be taken in training to resolve many of the problem areas in Salford's game? Maybe he needs to get a bit more hands on (Tracksuit Manager)

I just worry that Shaun Mcrae is nothing more than a VAGINA (Video Analyser - Greatly Insightful - No Application) coach and a part-time Sky Sports pundit. A person that can spot errors and tell players what they have done wrong, but doesn't have the hands-on coaching skills to implement the appropriate action in training to help prevent the same mistakes happening the following week?

WELL SAID "THEREDSHED" especially your last paragraph, just wish Shaun read this forum as he quotes he doesnt.
Hopefully one of the board will read it & tell him to have a look or print it off to show him what fans are saying.

Well to be fair over the years we have improved, got better, made the top 6 where we should have kicked on but with bad management and player power and numerous other problems occuring we find ourselves here.

At this present time everyone the players and the fans are at a all time low, last year our style of play was forgot as we were winning games and you can turn a blind eye to that when you winning.

Sometimes the players need the fans to give them a lift and sometimes the fans need to give the players a lift, the players arnt playing a particualr style of play which is going to get the pulses racing off the field so its difficult to get excited and believe in our team.

Ill back this team to the hill if i believe in them and they are asking questons of other teams and playing a brand of rugby thats not boring us to death, boring percentage rugby is fine if your winning every week and i accepted that all last season but if we are getting beat every week like we are at the moment its hard to get behind them.

I dont believe in blind faith, "get behind them, get behind them" people keep saying but the players and the coaching staff who take the field every week have to show us somthing, anything to make us say " thats why we go every week"

Wigan and St Helens i expected a improvement which we got as they are big teams, Hull and Hull KR are simular to us when all is said and done, not massivley sucessful but are riding a wave of sucess at the moment.
To all the players who mite be reading this give us the fans who are spending their hard earned money traveling to Hull twice in 2 wk somthing in these two games, im not expecting you to go and win both games playing fantastic rugby league just hang in there battle like your life depends on it, do it for you yourself not us so you can look in the mirror monday morning and say " i gave everything i had yeserday" and we'll back you all the way, you mite still get abuse from the odd numpty but if you know deep down you gave everything then you can sleep easy sunday nite, [size=150dont,[/size just turn up do a shift and go home again the expect more of the same sleepless nites wondering how we can improve.

I think the board or a representative of the board should be lifting some of these post, I have read more passion & more understanding of the game with fans over the last week on here.
Come on Salford it about time you listened! I for one am not going to HKR & until I see improvement I will only be attending home games in the future. This is a first for me as I travel come what may home & away, unfortunately I have already booked for Perpignan.

absolutely spot on post print it and send it to him