Quote One thing seems to be a real lack of leadership. We seem back to the state we were in when Hendo had to come out retirement in order to coach the team on the field. A lot of the time there just needs to be someone out there who will instill patience in the team and get them to understand that you can't usually dominate until you've built some pressure which means that you don't need to score on every play but you do need to hand the ball over on your terms.
A second thing is a lack of respect for team mates, the oppo and the ref. These lads don't seem interested in toughing anything out and they are very quick to blame each other, the officials, bad luck, indeed anything that means it isn't their fault.
1-6-7-9. If in doubt, revert back to last year's successful recipe of Kear-Pewhairangi-Barthau-Cunningham/Ackers. If Sammut plays, give him the left-hand side or full-back gig. Switching Barthau to the right-hand side hasn't worked.
Nick Slyney. Ran hard, tackled hard, played big minutes, led the team, wouldn't shy away from a fight. I think we're missing him'"
I think all the posts here are spot on. I think the lack of leadership is evident every week, Slyney and Thackeray where big losses and we miss them, Cunningham/Ackers ditto, we seem to have lost all sense of dynamism, we get sucked into situations we shouldn't, we give away endless penalties etc etc. no-one seems capable of grabbing the ball/team and saying this is how we play .....
Still lot of the season still to go, but next two weeks critical to top 2!
