Ratchford, Hill, Brown, Roberts. Hang your heads, you can't be relied on when it really matters.

Toby king, take a bow

Toby King, Tom Lineham and Philbin. Everyone else didn't do anywhere near enough.

Do you have any?

We needs a Rob Burrow/Sean Long badly.

Well, they're close to Heathrow. Maybe Roberts could go straight there and go home to Australia. Be quicker for him.

Who's Roberts?

Sam Powell would be a good signing for you

Alf
He had the Corner Shop in Corrie
Great rugby brain, as well as business acumen, Alf.

Bloody hell, coulda done with him today. Seemingly had some bloke from the Millhouse at 7. He tried his hardest but i take solace in the fact he probably wasn't on a packet.....

I've fixed that for you Philth, to sum up his "performances" this season.

Never mind, the pitches will firm up, soon.

Shame for Alf Roberts. He was never the same after Michael Caine shoved him off that multi story in Get Carter
"You're a big man, but you're out of shape"

I don't subscribe to the Hill bashing. Not his best game but give Cats credit.
Lineham was mixed. Twice (?) Out at 1st play, but tried hard.
Philbin - except for the obstruction - and both Kings played well and Ratch was ok (Would need to check again).

This was a cup final, if we tolerate people being "ok" and "not having their best game" then we may as well not bother.

Disagree on Ratch too, he started the game with a dropped bomb and a couple of stupid passes and set the tone for a frustrating 80 mins.

A Widnes fan who comes in peace. Your not far off a quality team but unfortunately your half backs are not upto it. I know your going to come on and say ‘well you can’t call any team after the season you’ve had’ but I’m a rugby fan. You should and could of won today especially as Catalan we’re doing there best to let you back in the game with 20 mins to go but you don’t have a guy who takes control and bosses the play. Give us Kev Brown back and after Roberts goes home get 2 good halves and your there!!

Lee Briers would have won that game today.

His retirement has left us with a hole we have never filled, and days like today expose that.

Top quality post - sums it all up for me

Once he confirmed he was off at the end of the year, I thought we’d see a different Roberts who was putting him in the NRL shop window, today proved he must be planning a stint on the dole

Like how he won you all those Grand Finals, Oh no wait a minute

Maybe Sandow has got him a job done the silver mines....his future certainly doesn't seem to be in rugby league

Exactly. We are leaderless. We look disorganised and then we panic.

We don't pay peanuts either.

Roberts came up with some serious cock-ups today but at least he did so while looking like he gave a ####. I was less clear that this was the case with Clark and Brown

Yeah i'm surprised Gold coast have re-signed him as he's looked awful over here so i'm not sure what they see in him

I don't disagree for one second, SC
In fact, you could add the following to your list

A halfback pairing of Ratchford and Bridge,
Richie Myler
even Gareth O'Brien, could have won that game.

This stems back to Smith's apathy to recruitment, as well as the Briers situation.
Briers didn't really retire, did he. He was told to stop immediately, on medical grounds. If Smith was still coach, and Briers neck not done in, Briers would still be playing regular rugby for us NOW, despite his decline in his last couple of years in P&B.
Since that GF defeat in 13, we've sleepwalked into blandness in the middle of the park. An old Gidley, a bang average Brown (who we paid a big transfer fee for) and a urine taking Roberts, who (iirc) was signed when we didn't have a coach in place.

Yesterday, Cats tried their best to give us that game in the last 20 minutes, yet our halves couldn't seize the initiative. They created nothing. Our 3/4 line had to go hunting for opportunities, rather than 6 or 7 creating them. Livett, who can be devastating on his day, with ball in hand, was starved of chances.

Recently, we've blown big matches v Wigan, Saints, an injury ravaged Cas, and a draw against Cats. Big game players (halves) not doing enough.

It's time we admit that Brown and Roberts aren't working, and something needs to change. What's that definition of insanity? Doing the same thing all the time, but expecting a different result.

As Jean Jacques Burnell once grunted "Something Better Change"

Agree with most of the above. I personally think that Roberts put in a lot of effort yesterday and his kicking game got better throughout the game. Need to watch the game back but it’s hard to pick out many players other than those mentioned in this thread.

Our pack in the main was so far off yesterday.

On a side note, raps to price for sticking with T King, T Smith would not have done so and we all appear to agree on the fact he had a good game.

Flashback- I thought Goodwin put in a good shift effort wise yesterday and as per earlier comments came looking for the ball and work.

earlier in the season when I suggested we sign mellor from Widnes and Luis from Salford I was shot down with "we do not want second rate players!. We are now in the position of a half back who is obviously looking forward to his pension and another one who has no pride in the jersey and is ranked with Asotasi and Rahihi in our list of overseas failures. So disappointing to think that we could have been right up there instead of being a nearly team. perhaps it is time to modify overseas players contracts so that they receive their big payout at the conclusion of their contract, at least we would stop being a shop window or a recuperation period.l