Kyle Eastmond was a good goal kicker whilst at St Helens. Since he went to union he has not kicked any goals.

Not sure you would have won if you kicked all your goals..... The score would have been 36-34 to you but we had a few late penalties which could of tied the game at 36 all so down get too downhearted at the fact you missed 3 kicks.

Spot on.Would love to have known what start the bookies give Cas with them players missing.

And Watts, who has been our best forward since he signed. And Eden who is a massive attacking threat and meant we had a midget playing on the wing who Charnley could outjump without jumping.

Sorry to get in the way of a the easy/obvious/simple "facts" but our kicks at goal were much more difficult and were pretty close to going over. Please don't assume that we just buy the Cas kicker and all will be rosy.

Cas moved the ball better than us.

Why hasn't QLT played in Super League? Is there anyone else playing in the Championship e.g. Sammut ... who ought to be playing with the big boys ... but has been written off as "not Super League standard".

Your posts are painful. The chances of a Wire v Cas GF are nowhere near zero. You’re far too partisan to be allowed to comment outside the Saints forum, you’re a bore on every topic on the VT and any other team’s forum because you’re just too bias towards Saints it makes my skin itch.

All it takes would be for Barba to get caught taking drugs, again, the week before the semi final.

Agree with this, none of our kickers would have missed the kicks cas had.

Clubs have players who are at their clubs because they are good rugby players. When injuries occur clubs don’t pluck fat lads with ill-fitting shirts out of the stand to play. The squad players, who have RL contracts for a good reason, come in with a point to prove. Sometimes it’s young players who actually are found to be better than their more senior counterpart. You match lads with a point to prove and unearthed gems against a team probably relaxed a bit too much after a meaningful win the week before and a bit of complacency and the underdog will win most times.

As the saying goes; “Hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work hard.”

It’s seen time and time and time again, yet still seems a surprise to most when it happens. Defensively Wire did not work hard enough last night and we were exposed by quick play the balls and taking advantage of lazy gaps that kept appearing.

Saying that, Cas still had a lot of talent on the pitch. They’ve arguably got the best/deepest squad in SL.

After one bleedin game I’m sick to death of this “QLT” nonsense though.

What’s so hard about calling him Laulu-Togaga'e, it’s no harder to say than McCarthy-Scarsbrook.

That's what i think about the goalkicking. Although it looks great to see a winger going in at the corner it is more important to make the kicks easier for the kicker by scoring nearer the posts.It isn't good enough just to have a group of players who can kick goals ,a team needs a reliable goalkicker & the lack of that should have been an eye opener last night.

Castleford + 12 was available just before kick off.

I thought cas were the best side I've seen at our place for a long time, and they had world class players sat in the stand. I thought it was a great game, just fed up with the daft penalties, Hilly, stop putting your hands on the oppositions back as they are getting up. You know what will happen.

Livett looked out of his depth in defence, so work to be done there.

Lots of ifs and buts on both sides. Must have been great for TV.

There were some daft penalties but these were down to poor refereeing. For example, Charnley being pinged for a high tackle when the Cas player fell into the tackle.

Or Goodwin throwing himself to the floor and dropping the ball but instead a penalty was given.

Let’s be realistic, they are extremely slim. Cas have been comfortably beaten by every top 4 side they’ve played so far up until now. To have any chance of getting to Old Trafford they have to get a home semi or at the very least avoid Saints/Wigan. The chances of that happening are also very slim. Warrington are still a slightly above average side, your chances are extremely slim. Unless something changes Saints are big favourites right now. Of course a lot can happen between now and October.

There, you said it yourself

Warrington vs Castleford will not be happening in the Grand Final. Only 3 SL teams have won the GF with just 2 of those in contention this year. Saints or Wigan (if they get their act together) will win it this year because they are champion sides even if the trophies have dried up recently.

Just looked at the kicking stats on the SL website:

Player, goals/attempts, percentage

Ratchford, 25/32, 78%

Livett, 8/12, 67%

Goodwin, 23/38, 61%

I'd say Ratchford at 78% is pretty good

In comparison with other goal kickers across the league:

Danny Richardson, 80/110, 73%

Sam Tomkins, 53/75, 71%

Mark Sneyd, 47/60, 78%

Ryan Shaw, 45/54, 83%

Kallum Watkins, 34/46, 74%

Liam Finn, 33/47, 70%

Danny Brough, 31/36, 86%

Luke Gale, 31/36, 86%

For milking penalties look no futher than a certain D Richardson class player but needs to eradicate that from his game Ps you are a balloon

All this talk of "ohh, they were tough touchline kicks" is quite frankly, nonsense.
GREAT KICKERS KICK THEM, MORE OFTEN THAN NOT.
Think of Richards, McNamara, Sinfield, and our own Hodgson. Three of them were SERIAL trophy winners. Year in, year out.
You can't go into professional sport with an attitude of "let's give it a go". That's a nearly man's attitude. To win trophies, you leave no stone unturned.
As I've said before. In my time of watching, when we've been winning/sniffing around trophies, it's no coincidence that we've had a top kicker in the team
Hesford, Woods, Davies, Hodgson.
When you have Rudd, Hicks, Westwood, Jackson you fall short, as the missed kicks costs you 2 points/progression in cups.
That 92/3 season. We lost/drew several games by six points or less. We had Rudd and Jacko kicking that year. We finished eighth. We immediately sign Davies, and we finished joint top, 12 months later.

You know what I mean, 'arry.

Ratchford said in a recent interview he didn't practice kicking goals but would start practicing if he missed a few. Get practicing Stef we need you.

In reality Livett has kicked 9 from 12 = 75%. It's just that the touch judges made a mistake.

Dear me. I said that in response to the moaning about the referee when Wire scored 2 try’s off the back of incorrect decisions. What on earth does Richardson have to do with that?

In reality, the kick hit the post. Schoolboy error. It wasn't even difficult.

The missed kicks, whether down to kicker, technique or difficulty were clearly key - suddenly an 8 point lead becomes 12 and Cas have to start chasing the game and mistakes inevitably come.

However, for.me, the loss of Brown was the gamebreaker. He has been excellent all season and his defence is sulerb, whereas Patton's defence is woeful. Sub-woeful in fact.

Kevin stays on, we win.