I was only ever talking hypothetically, on the basis that if someone else "were" to come in. I don't think I've ever posted a "Chester Out" post, and for me this season doesn't matter, other than getting some cash in the bank. I have said a lot in the past that if you can't be the best, be the fittest, something London brought. They were clearly very fit, which gave them a chance. What caused them to go down with a big points difference is that they were fundamentally a Championship side who played above themselves.

We have battled against injuries for two or three seasons now, and I imagine that fitness must be a factor, as you must come off worse in a challenge if you are more gassed than the other bloke.

My starting point for us, however, is that with the lowest budget in the league, any top half finish is a good season. We have to utilise every aspect to achieve that, and being fit is part of that, which is clearly what London realised. As it happened, it wasn't enough, but it very nearly was.

Yes they’re suffering too and have returned 3 losses since the restart, same as us! A gutsy effort against Wigan with a fair few injuries, a few 50/50 decisions against them and disruption through the game with injuries...a good effort at Saints but registered a 0 in the points column, and after going 14-0 up shipped 40 unanswered points against Catalans...

I still don’t see any side being able to do much with 8 backs out pregame and losing a further 2 during the game, which ultimately leads to all four 3/4 made up of players playing out of position. Up against a team with a spine of Ratchford, Austin, Widdop and Clarke is the scoreline that surprising?

The ones that are hurting us at the moment are in the backs though...which of the current injured backs would you say picked up their injuries through lack of fitness?

Or do you put it down to bad luck...to add to being without 4 more players stood down for other reasons completely out of the coaches hands..

Just for PT our shirts look nice but unfortunately that is the only positive I can think of. With regards sacking Chester it is not the money which is the major factor but his friendship with the CEO, so no it will not happen. The only way he will go is if he resigns and looking at his lack of responsibility that is very unlikely.
I am not sure we have the lowest budget that may belong to Salford but I expect we should receive a bonus from SL by playing and moving our games around just to keep Sky happy.
With regards the four players who had to stand down, this was a decision taken by the club and coach to play when we could have postponed like all the rest have, so yes he knew the risk he was taking with regards the outcome and therefore cannot use it as an excuse.
We were bad before lockdown but whatever happened during this period has not helped in generating any team spirit when we returned unlike all the other teams. I don’t know why and anything I think would be pure speculation just as I am sure everyone on this forum will have their own.

I don't think fitness in the backs is necessarily an issue. Our spine yesterday is the one most people are calling for, but the backs we have are not able to do a job because they are never in a position to because the pack isn't strong enough.

In some respects, bad luck plays a part, but when the same clubs suffer the same bad luck, there is perhaps another cause. Hull FC promise every year but always seem to be club that has wretched luck with injuries. Ours too.

It could be technique. It could be fitness, so players are straining more than they need to do, or doing more tackling than other clubs. When Chester first arrived, he recognised that our pack was too light and took steps to address it, and we had a couple of good seasons. A lot of the players are older and a little more battered than before. It maybe just needs a refresh in the pack. Westerman should be an eighty-minute player, for example, but he isn't fit enough, but we need him to be.

Catalans have turned back into the team they were a couple of years ago because they have a pack that is big and strong, and a couple of players in the backs who are effective when given the chance. We have the backs but perhaps not the pack anymore. Write this season off and prepare for next. Refresh the pack and I reckon we'll go well again.

That’s a very fair post! I honestly thought our forwards did ok yesterday and continually got us good field position only to be let down by very poor last tackle kicks.

Chester was spot on back then...he identified early on that we were getting bullied by teams and we got the likes of Fifita, Pauli, Huby, Hirst...big intimidating guys who probably put fear into opposition...

The way the game has changed and quickened up though has maybe caught some of the big fellas out and it’s clearly been tougher on some having to come back after 5 months off with no pre season. Taking all that into account I’m prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt...

Comparisons with Catalan are irrelevant as they have spent big, very big, certainly when compared to us.
For me, we have only 2 star players in our side and both need to be playing and in decent form to help make up for our shortcomings (compared to other sides) in other areas, that's TJ and Fifita.
Johnstone is injured so, we cant do anything there and Fifita doesn't want to play.
We are severely lacking in the halves, with not enough organisation and a woeful kicking game. Without Brough we lose both organisation and a quality kicker and this is the area that needs addressing more than anything else.
Our pack, despite having Batch and Crowther in there looks old and tired and our three quarters is shot to pieces with injuries.
It's going to be a very long season and spotting where the next victory may come from and whether it might no be this season, is difficult to see.

Smith won two Grand Finals with Leeds. They finished top in one season, and second in the other, just a point behind Saints.

We must be a godsend to Super League because we would have played Saints at their ground, Warrington at theirs and now Leeds at Headingley. This is coupled with our cup game against Catalan followed by a SL game against Catalan which should have been Saints being brought forward a day and then we play Warrington with 2 players missing through track and trace which appears to be unique to us and 1 by association. We then quite happily agree to play Leeds with a three day turnaround and have to probably use an ill prepared player coming back from a serious condition.
I wonder if they would have asked this of any other club or are we just so desperate to keep Sky happy at the risk of further injuries due to player fatigue. The load should be shared between the clubs not just accepted that it will fall to us every time, with the exception of Castleford who had to play on their free weekend to cover for a team who had players testing positive.

Thats been my point mate, the teams who have done nothing wrong are being penalised to keep sky happy.

this season is defo one for the ages - I don't think chris can be really be heled to account solely for this year (we will be lucky to win another game )

However the way its going we will be able to afford a new coach? let alone a any new players?

He should be held to account for nearly getting us relegated last season, then failing to improve on that. He had a couple of good seasons when he had help from Kear, but has dragged the club backwards since

The sensible posters on here put last season down to an injury list that no team in SL could have coped with.

We didn't have it any worse that any other team. Our issue is that we've got a shallow squad with poor cover, so missing some of the playing team makes our situation appear so much worse. Again, this comes down to poor coaching and a lack of development for the younger players from a coach who would prefer to play players well past their best

Your having a giraffe did nt have it worse than any other team ? We have the thinnest squad financially in super league. We probably have about 5 players that are genuine super league quality and for most of last season we had fafita bishop johnston tupo arona ashurst brough and arundel out on top of the normal run of injuries.

When leeds had a run of injuries they used their financial clout to buy a load of second rate aussies, imported players from their feeder club featherstone. Saints just didn't have injuries, wigan had quite a few injuries but also had their pick the best juniors in the area and beyond.

As regards our younger players - I can't see any of the current crop of youngsters getting anything other confidence crushing hammering.

I m not a chester lover but .....

I tend to think we did have worse injuries than other teams, might be down to conditioning I don't know obviously, but here was the injury list prior to the Leeds game last season.

TJ
Tupou
Arundal
Miller
Brough
Huby
Wood
Randell
England
Ashurst
Batchelor
Kirmond

Didn't we beat Leeds though with half a team out injured? We won a couple of others too before the slide began when players started coming back. We took a tonking at Wigan I recall, Cas beat us yet again then we managed to beat Hull K R and London and just about stayed up. We've supposedly had our best ever squad this season and yet we've won 2 games in the league and walloped Bradford by 3 points in the Cup whoopee. This squad whoever is playing should be doing far better than they are, it is certainly big enough. The effort was there no question against Warrington and the week before against Catalans. I was utterly embarrassed to see us lose 58 - 0 the week before that. I thought when CC came to this club those days were long gone - taking us to the top 4 on a limited budget was admirable but we can't just keep rolling out excuses for the team week after week, something is not right. Maybe it's a lot of things and I feel for CC but we have to get our mojo back somehow.

Why are we constantly picking up injuries is it bad luck, conditioning or that the players we bring in come with an injury history and age against them. The problem is that we had a lot of these players back and despite this the performances continued to decline, requiring us to beat London in the final game.
The one main constant during our run of bad performances is Chester, we use to be known under the Webster era as Wakefield 6 because that was what we usually scored I guess now it could be Wakefield nil. How long have the members on the forum questioned our attack, kicking game and defence out wide, a lot longer than just this season. I am sorry the excuse of blaming the players in the after match press conference is no longer acceptable, he needs to look at his coaching and ask is it my coaching style.
I know money helps but look at Leeds they invested heavily but did not get the results expected where as Wakefield has survived on playing for each other and a never say die attitude. We now appear to use finances as a excuse for everything wrong with the club but the lack of money is nothing new it is what you do with it that matters. We have bolstered the coffers by giving up our season ticket refunds so we should at least expect the club to take some responsibility for the performances and playing games to help Sky is not one of them.

I find it difficult to believe that you are actually a Trinity supporter, let alone a season ticket holder who has declined a repayment of ticket monies of live games not played. Trinity are not alone in fulfilling Sky contract, all SL clubs have that responsibility, play no games, = no Sky monies. Why is it so difficult for you to understand that?

Yawn
#injury list

There could be a number of reasons, one being regression to the mean. In 2017 and 2018 we had an extraordinarily good run with injuries. Unsurprisingly, we did very well considering our resources. 2019 was appalling and no side Could have withstood that without consequences. 2020 is a unique situation. We are now playing a new version of rugby league with 10% more collisions and the ball in play significantly more. Perhaps our players are finding it harder. Maybe that's their age in some cases.im not a fan of these new rules and feel they are irrelevant when the players are hugging with every score and having a cross team love in post match.
But I think we should be cutting them a lot of slack and I find your and others harsh comments extremely unfair and unwarranted in the situation

It’s called independent thought and not blindly accepting anything on face value. It is still possible to be a supporter and still question those in authority. I know all clubs like supporters who pay their money for season tickets and merchandise without question. I am like a small few on here who is not one of these.
How many times have you been to a game and heard the team being booed, do you go over to them and say they are wrong to be disappointed and should just get behind them. I personally have never booed but I feel if crowds were in attendance then this would not be the case for other supporters. The problem is that the forum members do not represent the majority who go and pay their money. If we carry on playing like we have since Leeds away last season how many will want to spend over £20 to see a team heavily defeated every week.
The club relies on the income from supporters therefore the product must be good enough to entice them in when there are greater draws on an individual’s money. We are involved in the entertainment business the problem is we are currently not entertaining.

Feel free to join the rest of us on Planet Earth when you want......

Egg banjo is surely just on a wind up or just out to seek attention?

The fact is injuries played a huge part in the difference between 2018 and 2019 seasons and here is a perfect example that couldn’t ram home the point any clearer...

In 2018 we had three players make the dream team..

Collectively between them they made 62 appearances and scored 29 tries between them...the three of them together missed a total of 10 games.

In 2019 the same three players 33 appearances between them for a return of 11 tries and between them missed 60 games..

The knock on affect of that meant the three left edge positions that were so potent in 2018 was decimated so much that over the course of that season we had 13-14 players play in those three positions with any number of different combinations.

If any fan cannot see how that sort of injury crisis has a huge impact on performances and results then I give up. That is not even taking into account the amount of matches other top quality players like Fifita, Arona etc...missed.

For us to be a competitive super league team we need the vast majority of our best players taking to the field regularly...when we have over the period of Chesters time in charge we’ve more than held our own. Yes, we’ve had disappointing results with our best players playing but to counter that we’ve had plenty more excellent wins against teams with much better teams on paper than us.

We all think we’ve got this top quality squad but ask yourselves this...write down a list of our best 10 players and then look through the rest and ask which of those players would be snapped up by any other super league team if they were put on the market?

Sorry but at least two of those forwards wouldn’t put the fear of god into me mam and she’s 92 , maybe by falling on her n breaking her hip ,n that’s about it . But your right that we are missing the clout up front from a big pack .Money will always be an issue at our club until a supporter win the lottery and it must be hard to balance where you put the big bucks on the field ,either in the backs where the moves come from or the forwards where the grunt comes from,not for me being a coach.My biggest worry for the club is the floating/fickle fans who turn up when we’ve won a few games on the bounce but stay away at times like these , which look like running into next season unless we can turn things around,it’s gunna hurt the club in the pocket At a time when I would suspect they need it most .