Not at all. He should be on marquee money. The bloke would get in most teams in the world and be in their top 5 players, he’s that good.

As expected, we got the job done, but not in the manner we should have. Catalans is the bigger test.

Actually think Patton doesn't want to be here, he knows hes gone at the end of the season anyway. Hes not good enough, and neither is Sita. Both should not play again for the wire.

Gelling turned into a liability tonight too, and theres zero support for Josh down the right wing.

No grit and zero bullyness.

Be lucky meet the top four.

Absolutely. When I saw the team selection it was a toss up between sheer loyalty to the cause or spending my team watching back to back reruns if all of Boris' COVID preas conferences. Clearly I made the wrong decision.

Conclusions
Negatives
1) Akouala and Patton shouldn’t play for us again
2) The fact that Akouala got in ahead of Latu means Latu should never play for us again
3) I would really expect Widdop to be showing rather more by now
Positives
1) D Clark is immense
2) Ashton is find of the season
3) Toby King...
4) Notwithstanding THAT pass Currie is getting there
Discussion points
1) Price team selection when he has choices to make is far too conservative. Having seen what the youngsters did at Salford he should have trusted some of them rather than reverting to the tried and failed
2) Our lack of cohesion on the right-side in particular raises questions about coaching, as does Charnleys lack of effectiveness in attack
3) There is still plenty to play for and no need to give up just yet
4) I’m surprised no one else has noticed that we need at least one more front line prop.

Re: size. I give you Danny Nutley as an example. Short on stature huge on heart and impact

Compare and contrast with big units like Akuola, Latu, Asotasi. Big on stature, even bigger in the derriere.

Fair call we do have that already in philbin though who I assume has been carrying a bit of a knock. Sita is decent he just can't do the minutes. We have a prop coming from London, I still think we need one more. Doro looks decent but raw to me I don't think he is as good as folk are making out and I don't think he is ready for first team.

Ps asotasi should come under the swear filter on this board.

To be honest , i was surprised we were still in the game at half time . Leeds played magnificently & caused all sorts of problems ,putting us on the back foot repeatedly in the first half. Luckily there was a second half but we need to compete in full games if we are going to do anything this season, especially with big games coming up.

Our defence is pretty good in all fairness we just don't play for territory very well and make too many errors resulting in poor completion and field position. Gelling had his worst game for a good while last night but I think we can put that down as a blip given recent form.

It shows that we don't have enough props when the first 2 tackles are taken in by charnley and matty Ashton on a regular basis (felt like every set) This is a poor tactic, it is used so often that its really obvious and ultimately it gives us slow play the ball when fast is needed to try to prevent the defensive line setting and gain fast territory, not to mention our wide players are out of position if we manage to make a break. Not their fault its definitely an instruction. Charnley gets through a ton of work in carries but its a waste of his talent. We need props urgently so we don't need to do as much of this. Lineham is easily the best winger we have for carries to take pressure off the props so it will be good to get him back.

Can't disagree with a word of that
In your positives, 1 and 3 should be offered contract extensions, asap. We don't want those pesky Aussies taking them away. There's been a few from these shores gone to there, and we don't want to add to the list.

In your discussion 3. I do tend to agree with you. I don't think we'll win the GF (we've got to get Top 4, first), but our prospective rivals are nowt special, so no need to throw in the towel, just yet. It just highlights SL poor quality.

My other points being...
I really don't see the point of Jason Clark, when we have a more direct equivalent in Hughes. I can't remember a time he actually broke a tackle or beat a man, two basic skill sets for a second rower. Simply being a "tackling machine" isn't enough. Having 2 "workhorses" from the back row hinders us

Stop the panic rugby of offloading the ball in impossible situations, time and time again. It rarely comes off. A good offloading game is essential, bit it's almost as if the player being tackled has been told he MUST get rid. No wonder were throwing leads away, when we're giving up cheap possession

An excellent summary, although I would argue that Charnley has been converted into a prop. He is a quality finisher that just isn't getting the ball.

It feels as though we are in a clapped out banger desperately trying to make the last few miles to the Last Four Garage' before it conks out. Unfortunately I don't think Vincent the garage mechanic has much idea about what parts he needs to fix it.

I think LG’s point about the offloads is very pertinent, offloading for the sake of it is pointless. It smacks of charge downs in the Smith era.
Vincent (copyright WO) is on borrowed time, only a GF will save him now I suspect.

Do you think Price has changed tactic since Lineham went NUTS. And is now using Charnley as a battering ram instead of Lineham?

it was always both of them, standard tactics.

If Simon Moran and the other investors atthe club think that thheey are getting value for : the massive amount of money that has been spent on this team then I would be flabbergasted. Some of them were going through the motions,with honourable exceptions. I've always hoped that Patton would come good,but I think he was having a laugh last night,and I give up hoping. Get one of the youngsters in. Gelling is too erratic,Charnley is being used as a battering ram. Toby King is a class act,and Ashton is an exciting prospect. Widdop has been a disappointment so far. We got rid of Dyer who is playing really well for Leeds and bought Walker. Why? It seems to me that Price has had his time. It I want to watch 13 men trying to run through a brick wall.

Yes, completely the worst halfback on the pitch, completely played off the park by Widdop!

Actually correct. Widdop wasn’t great but far better than Patton.

What I meant was that because Charnley only gets the ball when we are running the ball back to give the props a rest (perhaps that should be singular, ie Hill), then he has effectively become a prop.

Our attacking edge is the left, unsurprisingly because King is there. He is either taking the high ball and passing back for us to score, or drawing the man and putting Ashton away in the corner. He is going to become a marked man in our subsequent matches.

Be interesting to see what they do with the right edge as its been like that all season. Will Lineham even get back into the starting 13?

Can I just point out, 2 seasons ago when we signed charnley the moaning Minnie's on here were complaining about King at right centre not passing yo charnley, and the same with Atkins, as I said at the time, its not down to the centre, its down to tactics and quality of the attack.

Austin will never Attack or command that right side the same as Briers and Jack Hughes is a passive player going forward. If you think about how Westwood and whoever was at centre ran off Briers you had 3 or 4 threats.

Doesn't happen now, its the overall game plan.

Yes I would agree ; tactics or quality of players. Gelling is certainly mercurial, one minute it's a brilliant one handed pass, the next it's a cock up. In earlier matches he was trying to get the ball to Charnley but it certainly dried up in that game. Price will certainly favour the edge that is busting holes in the defence and creating chances, but even so we are wasting a high quality finisher if Charnley is never put in space.

I had forgotten about Hughes. Does anyone else think that he looks incredibly sluggish this year ? He isn't very visible at the best of times simply because of the number of tackles he gets through, but atm his attacking game seems to have all but disappeared.

He's bobbins. Says something when you're still the worst halfback on the pitch playing next to Widdop.

Nothing frustrates me more than when we have the opposition back pedalling with a fast play or 2,we are moving the ball and then it comes to Hughes or Jason Clark, move over. It must be a huge relief to the opposition, all that's going to happen is run in and take the tackle, the defence gets a chance to re set.

Don't get me wrong I like Jack Hughes as a player but both of them is just really negative. Jack Hughes would be a good loose forward and would be a better option in taking more carries to relieve the props than charnley and matty Ashton! He's also better in defence than jason Clark.

What frustrate me more is cooper n hill taking a drive in the 4th tackle !!! I can understand that our wingers and centres take the ball in early to give the props a rest but we do this from the first ti last set tackle 1/2 winger centre drive off our line tackles 3 and 4 is when we drive it in with our props and 5th tackle look to attack. Rugby may have changed from when I played but it was 1st 2nd props maybe 3rd but 4th n 5th was where we looked to put moves on to move the ball.

I get the offload it tires the defences but if it's a "tactic" why is it almost a surprise with half the team getting ready for the next set ? Surely if we are going to be offloading as much we should have 2nd phase plays its normally just lark or Austin making an extra few meters n making themselves unavailable for the next ptb.

Ratchford Austin clark cooper currie ashton king lineham charnley Philbin are the only players I would keep hill maybe but more from the bench the rest for me could be replaced and we would be no worse off. Whilst we can be one prices ability he can also only work with what he has, we dont know the recruitment process at the club. But I think that how we identify potential signings and approach them is not as good as it could be, luckily he went to wigan but we reportedly missed out on burgess and Barbara prior to that. We cannot get them all but we need to look at why they opted for saints n wigan putting aside the likelihood to win the gf.

We massively operate our squad there are too many average at best players. New coach has to come in and give the squad and club a face lift

Hughes had really 2 great seasons with us, so much so, he went onto be a full international...but he has come back from a lengthy serious injury. He is playing himself into match fitness. It is like he had a preseason to help him. The same can be said for Currie.
It happened with King and Atkins too.
I’m cutting slack with Hughes as we know where he can be, and the season hasn’t actually been kind to him to find rhythm, as with all.
I think judgement is fair better in 2021.