I must be watching a different game because imo the one thing we don't play is 5 drives and a kick.

Like Bren said the other day which I agree with, that winning run we had last years has become a bit of a monkey on Agar's back because it's raised fans expectations this season that we'd be almost an automatic into the top 8.

Got to laugh that just because someone doesn't share your opinion, they are rose tinted.

I expected top 8 because IMO we have a squad that is good enough, I wouldn't give the team credit for losing because that signifies that losing is O.K, for the rest, apart from Cas away and Catalans at home there have been one or two pretty average performances and a few dire ones.
In a position where there is no relegation and we're pretty much out of the play offs did we need to spend money that we apparently haven't got on a mid season signing?
What we're spending on players wages is irrelevant as long as we're paying them, this squad has put some performances in this season that didn't deserve paying when, given the right attitude and intensity, they had the quality to win games.
IMO we have a good enough squad already to create a winning team at home, we just need a coach that can get the best out of them.

I predict a close scoreline and then Hull run away with it with benefit of the doubt tries awarded by an incompetent video ref

I don't see that; we have a decent squad but in relative terms, it is shallow and cheap - the only way we were going to finish in the top 8 was with another bit of luck and some freakish results; neither of those have happened, so we're dead set to finish roundabout where most sensible people thought we would.

As poor as London were last week, we struggled to get out of our own half without the aid of the referee because the ball never went past the first forward and we were too easy to read, it's a big compliment to our forwards that despite there only being one runner at a time they were still making good yards, the only time we became anything like expansive was in their 20/30m area, and even then we've got this obsession with constantly going to the short side, Ben Cockayne must have wondered why he was on the field last week because not matter how far to the right the play the ball was they still went to the right. It's almost as if the players think they aren't capable of passing the ball down the line.
My expectations of the team this season was that having had a full season to gel and a pre season on top of that, they would perform to the level that they did in the second half of last season, that isn't unreasonable given that they're full time professional players that don't do anything other than train and play the game and that in turn would have been good enough to get us in the play offs IMO.

I total agree with this!
Not unreasonable to expect a level of performance like at the back end of last year!
Yes we might have over archived last season!
But come no where near this year with a settled squad and a marque signing!
So we are under performing IMO! Why?
It don't matter how much you spend?
17 blokes against each other if u run harder and tackle harder your gonna win!
The axe falls with the coach!
If he can't get them to perform get someone who can!

I think that we will get a drubbing on Monday night. We won at home last week but come on be honest, if we played like that against a top 10 team we would have lost the game in the second half. Hard to say this but I think Cas have a better chance of a top 8 than us.

And that, in technical terms, is the biggest load of cack I've read on here in a while; of course it matters how much you spend. As for the second point - frankly, I'm baffled as to why you're not coaching a SL team - you appear to have cracked it!

So if it's all about how much you spend?
We can expect Salford to clean up next year??
I get me £ on them now then!!!!

It's how I see it.

I suppose it comes down to how much you rate our full squad of players. Obviously it's very subjective but personally I think we've got a similar squad in terms of quality to the likes Widnes & Bradford in terms of quality & probably not quite as good as HKR.

Atm we are competing for that 8th spot, so we can't be too far away from where we should be.

Whilst I agree with your sentiments, none of us have any idea what goes on within the squad week on week.
For instance, prior to the KR away fixture, Aiton was rumoured to be carrying an injury and he had a shocker and strangely he missed the following week with the exact injury that was rumoured a week earlier.
Was he persuaded to play by the coach, did he tell the coach he was good to go or, was he forced to play a game that he perhaps shouldn't have ?
None of us know the answers to these questions and each scenario will bring a different conclusion.
Regarding intensity and performance, most of us go to work for a living and have to carry out an amount of work in order to get paid.
Does everyone work at 100% all of the time throughout the week, no but, we expect the players never to make a mistake (and the coach for that matter)
We are where we are, not too far off what is possible, probably 7/10 if we were to give a score.
It's satisfactory but, could be better, lets hope we have a decent run to finish the season.

We should have beaten Huddersfield at home, Salford at home & Castleford at the Magic Weekend.



We should have an extra 5 points than what we've got which would put us at seventh (20 points) level with Hull but a game in hand on them. Instead we have to beat probable top 6 teams like Hull otherwise the season is over.



I don't see why we can't play to somewhere near the same level as we did end of last season (but we've not got anywhere near) especially when the pack has been bolstered with Poore & Tautai. Need Sykes to stay injury free which seems to be a factor and really click with Tim Smith.

If Castleford can beat Wigan away then we can beat Hull away.

Come on, you know as well as any other fan of RL that there's more too it than that, like the quality of you're junior structure and coaching. But I can't believe you're arguing that money doesn't matter in RL. All you have to do is look at teams like Warrington & Huddersfield who went from teams like ours, to one competing at the top just because of the influence of money.

U may have hit the nail on the head?
We've got two many players happy to pick there pay cheque up!
And are not too bothered about playing with pride and passion in the red white and blue?

I agree with you that we should have seen those games out better against Hudds and the one against Salford but Cas were excellent at MM and played at a very high level and simply just did a number on us that day


I do think though if we can play to our best and we're right up for the fight, we an beat Hull.

Seen as you've brought it up , who do you think isn't 'playing with pride and passion in the red white and blue'?

I'm not one for bagging players!
Naming names!!
It might hurt there feelings!!
They get really upset and voice there anger on twitter!!!
Maybe Agars doin the same???

I thought we were absolutely dire against Castleford who played ok but were made to look alot better because of how inadequate, ill disciplined and unstructured we were in our play that day...it was embarrassing. Our best player Tautai had only got off the plane a few days before which speaks volumes, pity he's not playing at loose forward for us tomoro night as he'd help make it a closer contest without doubt.

To progress we have to beat those teams around and below us, its something we've struggled to do so its the hard way again.... or may be not.

Totally agree asmadasa and you can probably throw Hull at home as a "should have won game".
In hindsight, Sykes has been a big miss as Tim Smith's foil and hopefully we can go on a run.

Regarding Cas, the only thing you can say is that Powell has certainly had the "new coach" effect.

I agree. We are 5 points below par as a low estimation. This is due to poor team selection and some playes not standing up to the plate when required. Largely Agar has been slow to correct problems and I think he takes the lions share of the blame...but it is not out of the question we can't turn it round. A few teams have had their ups and downs and though, on the face of it, it looks a tough run in, it is in our hands to turn it round.

Cas did play well but were so utterly abysmal that it is hard to know how the game would have gone if we had got off the bus. If you play like that the opposition will look good. That said Cas have done well lately but it is still a game we should have been looking to win as is the next timne we play them

You have to get through good sets of 6 and we have consistently failed to do that. Yes it can be a bit dull, but that's RL these days. Big, fast strong, go-forward battering rams who have to win the battle to get up off the floor quickly and win easy yards. No errors. Kicks that make the opposition play from deep. Of course we all know this, but it is something we did quite well under Kear more often than we have under Agar. You have to win the field position before you can start the flashy stuff. We often try to play ourselves out of a box with flashy stuff in the wrong part of the pitch and pay the price.

After 18 games last year we had 12 points - this year we have 15.
The run at the end of last year came as a result of a settled and injury-free (relatively speaking) squad.

The start of last season saw us struggle to get the best out of our key player as he had no suitable foil to work with (Smith and Sykes).
This year we have been missing that foil once again for a large part of the season, now he is back and we have won the last 2 games (all be it against "weaker" opposition).
Perhaps we should wait another few weeks to see whether Sykes can add that extra dimension to Smith's game again and we can then kick on like we did last year.

I do think there are a couple of games that have got away from us that realistically we should/could have won but that happens to everyone over the course of a season.
We have a lot to do to make the top 8 this season but at this stage of last season you would have given us absolutely zero chance of making it so let's not assume that this season can't be the same.

Yep agree with that.

When suggesting we 'should' have won certain games, some people conveniently forget that there are an equal number of living, breathing, thinking (to some extent) human beings on the pitch, who have a say in how that pans out; we're not playing against cardboard cut-outs!

There are many games that we 'could' have won, but I'm not sure about 'should.'