Now the league part of the season has finished - here are my quick thoughts on how our players have performed, current "starting 17" first:

Cameron Phelps - Much improved, but still a way short of being top class

Amos Roberts – shocking start to the year, did get better but not by enough. Hopefully it’s a first year syndrome like Pat
Martin Gleeson – Added stability in defence but not much in attack, seems expensive for what we got
George Carmont – When fit has been excellent
Pat Richards – Very good year as a winger and makeshift fullback. Slight problem with his goalkicking

Sam Tomkins – What can I say, knew he had the skill but I didn’t think he was physically up to it. Has proved me wrong in spades
Thomas Leuluai – Improved on last year particularly when taking on the line. Erratic kicking game and tends to disappear at times. Needs to take a game by the scruff of the neck more often.

Andy Coley – Transformational season, from looking to be not bothered to pack stalwart
Mark Riddell – Not matched the hype he came with, doesn’t look anywhere near fit enough. - arguably better than Higham
Paul Prescott – Good squad player, has improved but looks the wrong build to be a top class prop
Harrison Hansen – Looked to be out of favour until the Hock issue. Progress seems to have flattened off. Needs to step up another notch
Joel Tomkins – Not kept up his improvement from last year, has flashes of brilliance but needs to do this more consistently
Sean O’Loughlin – Really good year until his injury. Good captain’s innings

Iafeta Palea’aesina – Disappointing season, patches of good form but need to find ways of using his strengths more effectively, horribly exposed at times in defence, too big and unfit.
Stuart Fielden – Can’t be accused of lack of effort but has lost his spark – needs to put on some of the weight that Feka needs to lose
Micky McIlorum – Good season, challenging for top hooker spot, has more improvement in him, pity about his injury, great prospect
Lee Mossop – Taken his opportunity well, obviously needs to keep improving but looks capable of really breaking through
Phil Bailey – Got through loads of hard work and shored up the defence when Tim Smith was around. Missed his steadiness and leadership when he got injured but not attacking prowess
Darrell Goulding – Not really lived up to his early promise, looks as though he is not quite going to make it at the highest level unless he has more improvement to come. Good to have around for cover.
Eamon O’Carroll – Bad luck with his injury, looked to be the outstanding player in a poor team early in the season, however there are doubts about his size, but not his heart
Shaun Ainscough – What a start to his career, predatory finisher but has issues with aspects of his defence, unlucky to be dropped as Roberts has the same issues.
Mark Flanagan – Impressed when he eventually got his chance, has obvious talent but looks to be one of those who are in between a forward and a back. Good luck in Australia.
Karl Pryce – What an enigma, has all the talent and physical size required but issues with his desire/heart



I think we have as good a set of players as most teams in Super League, perhaps a little short of the top two or three and should not have struggled as much as we have done. Obviously capable of challenging for the top positions but need to be able to reproduce our form against Saints and Leeds on a more regular basis. It is hard to get away from the feeling that our mediocre performances are our natural level with occasional unsustainable great performances mixed with (too many for the standard of players we have), uncomfortably poor ones.

To me it is either a coaching problem or I am overestimating the quality of our squad. Some changes to either the sqaud, coaching set up, or both are definietly required. I would be happy with any, but cover at half back is a must..

Please feel free to rip my thoughts to shreds.

Not yet. Hope we dont re-sign him either!!

As I said in my previous post I think this is a very realistic assessment of our players.

Where I differ is that I don't think TL has improved as he still runs sideways far too often, you are being far too kind to Riddell and I also think Pat has more than a slight problem with the goal kicking missing 40 I think someone posted recently. In fact Pat has not looked too happy to me for the past few games and for a player we used to kick to on attack seems shaky in defence when dealing with kicks. Not sure what is going on there.

The interesting thing is if you read all your assessments there are very few players that get what you might say was 10 out of 10. Most have had some negative aspects highlighted and that correlates with how we have played this season.

Dave

I don't think anything said can be debated.

I agree that TL runs sideways a lot but when he has straightened up he has scored some marvellous tries, better than in previous years I think, hence me saying he has improved (marginally). To back this up he has also thrown out some excellent long passes leading to several tries this year. Having said that I would dearly like him to take the line on more often and also improve his kicking game - the latter I see as a major weakness in the side, TL being one of the culprits.

I don't think I was being kind on Riddell, the only good bit I wrote was that he was better than Higham, and that was tempered by me saying it was arguable. He has been disappointing.

I agree with most of your comments about Pat. With ball in hand I think he has been excellent, his goalkicking is well down on his best but we have scored a lot of tries out wide this year. His defence under the high ball has been very shaky recently, hope it isn't the start of him regressing to his first season form.

In life I do try to take a balanced view taking both sides into account and it's the same with my rugby. I don't go for outright criticism - we have what we have and need to make the best of it. It's not the players' fault if they are not good enough, they do try their best of their ability (most of the time)

Two good assessments but I too feel that Riddell's comments are slightly too kind. I honestly don't think that Riddell is as good as Higham is/was. Riddell's distribution is good and he clearly adds some size but I feel he rarely runs his weight to back up his size. He doesn't have much pace, at times he looks uninterested and he has some fitness issues.

Not a bad player by any means I just don't see him as a step up from Higham.