What mr .noble needs to do is give is players TIP SHEETS about wakey players good/bad points.

ps he did do that and the 3 wakey player he pick out as wakey bad player all had good game

No, he was just picked by the clueless sponsors.

surprised they didn't give it to A. Farrell

Of all Noble's baffling tactics, thats the one that scares me most, we invite teams to attack us !!!

It truely is shocking isn't it. There can be no justification for it, but i would love to hear him try.

Once Drew was round our non existant markers yesterday he had a free run of between 5/7 yards in which to pull us apart.

The Halley break round the oh so solid Bailey was another example, he moved up the yards held and allowed Halley time to get up to full speed and go round him like he was not there a truely baffling tactic from Noble.

Exactly what I said at the game, the runners are given time and space to get up a head of steam when hitting our line, what teams like Saints and Leeds will do with that is scary !!!!

Maybe Noble saying players have their own agenda. They probably stand at training thinking to themselves our coach is an idiot. Our best player (Trent) tried to suggest not stopping but continuing to move forward was better and Noble screamed abuse at him. Maybe that's why the squad are so quiet? What is the point of saying anything.

To those who defend Noble, it was Trent who got the players together after the 2nd fans forum when IL criticised them and he galvanised them not Brian Noble.

If we do appoint a new coach we need to make sure we get an assistant like Andy Farrel who players will respect but also he understands players and is able to communicate with them.

Our domination around the ruck & marking was terrible yesterday and it's something that I highlighted during the friendlies too. The attacking player was usually the first to get to his feet and play the ball which left the markers struggling set theirselves physically and Brad Drew exploited this weakness very well.

The only player I saw who controlled things on the floor was Mark Riddell. He tackled well, turtled and got to his feet first which made sure we were set and able dominate the play the ball area.

Interesting point about Farrell, and of course I'm inclined to agree with you on that.

However if you consider the points you made about Noble's communication and also praised Faz's ability to communicate, could you perhaps enlighten us as to how they differ?

I certainly remember Faz's methods, I'm not saying they were right or wrong just raising that point to your attention.

The players have issues with Noble speaking to them in riddles and cliches. He talks for far too long and the plyers lose whatever message he was trying to convey.

I think Faz would be straight to the point. Edwards is similar at Wales/wasps

Just watched the interview on the main web site. Every time we lose all Noble talks about is doing the little things right. Sorry but every SL tam bar us does the little things right so even if we do keep hold of the ball all you are left with is Wigan at best matching them. Every other team use the ball, they make it hard to identify and zone in on who will take the ball to the line. Wigan? 14000+ could tell you who was going to get the ball on very play. Anybody who watches a lot of RL at all levels will related to what I am saying. Wigan play like a schoolboy team! It is so basic it beggars belief.

Riddel was poor yesterday.

Defensively he wasn't. Attacking-wise yeah, dissapointing.

Charlie, If the situation with Noble is as bad as you say, I assume he cannot recover the dressing room? If this is the case, even IL and his "prudent financing" will have to act and seek a replacement?

You would think so

Maybe IL was hoping that he could put off such things to eventually get Edwards as coach. This is pure conjecture BTW. Seems a vey risky strategy. Bringing in a coach and enticing say Farrel as an assistant to create the possible succession idea may be more feasable.

Personally, I would opt for Stephen Kearney with Andrew Farrel as his assistant and a back room with Shaun Wane, Ruben Wiki. Those types. A short stint of 2 to 3 years here before getting an NRL coaching post would suit Kearney IMO.

What bothered me yesterday was not the squad selection ( I could see Nobles reasoning) but the team selection.

Surely we should have stared with Hock and Feka on the bench.

1) We would have been defensively more solid to start with.

2) Those two players along with Joel Tomkins could have done a lot of damage when brought on.

It didn't make sense.

My instinct when I heard that was that it could have been to appease Hock's ego? Maybe he's not happy starting as sub. With Feka though you wouldn't have thought it would be a problem - he knows damn well what he's good at and when he's best off coming onto the field.

I don't think anybody could ever accuse Hock of having an ego.

Noble opted for Hock / Feka on the bench in 2008. Now he goes the other way in 2009. It makes it look like he has no idea as to what he wants or how he will do it.

It’s one of the craziest decisions I’ve seen him make!!

I don’t expect us to carry on our momentum from the end of last season as a lot of stuff has gone on since then, BUT what I don’t expect to see is Noble forgetting just how game changing bringing Hock and Feka off the bench was for us! We won numerous games because these two came on and swung the momentum in our favour.

Some people say we had Smith at the end of the season and he made the biggest difference but IMO he wasn’t that great last season and looked off the pace fitness wise. If Sam Tomkins can’t match the performances that smith produced last season then we are lost. So why give Smith a chance and not Tomkins?

Has he forgotten Hansen was the top tackler last season? What can’t Hansen do that Bailey can? I'd love Nobby to come and say what Bailey and Mathers offer the side?

Another point as well is that Goulding seems to have trained his boll0cks off this pre season. Add to that he was given a starting squad number you think he’d get a chance.

Richards/Roberts to FB, Phelps on the Wing and Goulding to start next week for me.

To be honest whenever i hear his interviews i get that impression anyway, he seems to think if he talks for long enough, and throws in the odd turn of phrase and quip people will think of him as a cridible coach, most of the time he just ends up talking rubish in my opinion. If as you say he takes this approach with the players then i am not suprised we perform as we have for the last 2 years and counting.

This was my main concern when the team was read out yesterday. He obviously planned to start like a train and blow Wakefield away.

The media make a big deal of how Brian Noble always gets his teams ready for the play-offs and that's all well and good as far as I'm concerned. I am, however, beginning get fed up of finishing the season strongly, but having too much to do because we started so poorly. Each year, Leeds, Saints, or both get off to a flyer while we spend half a season getting ourselves sorted out.
In 2007, everyone was saying how, if we started like we'd finished 06, we'd be real threats but, instead, we seemed to have lost form over the off season, losing 3 of the first 4 rounds without even playing Leeds or Saints.
Last year, we actually kept pace reasonably well for a while, as we managed to grind out some victories while playing poorly. Even so, we lost 6 of our first 13 rounds, winning only narrowly when we won, but sometimes getting pulverized in defeat (a la Millenium Magic).
Logically, one would want to be playing well at the business end of the season but, realistically, you've got to finish top 2 to win it. Is Brian Noble so fixated on the end of the season that he doesn't pay due attention to the beginning? Is our pre-season substantially poorer than our rivals'? I'm just getting fed up of having to give up on a top 2 finish before the season is even halfway through each year. Hopefully that won't be the case this year but Sunday was not a good sign.

Saints lost 5 of the first 10 games last year, and were 8 points behind Leeds in the league with 12 games left.

Yes, that's why I said [ieither[/i Leeds, Saints or both get off to a flyer. Last year Saints got off to a poor start as well.

Anyone got this weeks observer?

Apparently Nobby says that we'll have to cut out 'The Razzle Dazzle' rugby that we tried against Wakey and go back to basics.



I'm wondering if he was at the game and how much more basic our rugby can get.

He's losing it.