If that's the case they should start introducing the young lads get Harry in

Just to clarify my criteria: If I were the boss

I'd be making it clear what is the minimum requirement and what the deadline is.
The club is still in a very vulnerable position and cannot afford to be relegated as its continued existence would still be under threat.

The bottom line would be that after we've played Salford in round 12 at the start of July we must be more than 2 points above the relegation place.

This could have a number of possible scenarios, for example:

1. If by round 7 or 8 (Hull KR and Huddersfield at home) we have still not won and the other teams in the 'race' have already won 3 games, then it would not be mathematically possible to be in the position above by round 12 and CC should be replaced immediately,

2. We pick up 3 or 4 wins (or more) in the next 9 games and are comfortably above A.N.other club who have yet to post a win (or maybe just one), = carry on to the season's end.

3. We are 2 points above Salford (who are bottom) going into that game, if we win he's safe (for now) but lose and he's got to go.

If he survives this deadline, he gets to the end of the season and his position is reviewed again. If we finish in the bottom 3, then we need a change of coach in the off season. His continued survival depends on the relative performance of other clubs as well as Trinity, but unfortunately ATM the only goal is survival.

From this position, we would only need to win as many games as the bottom club (or one less) in the last 13 games to survive. Whilst this might not save his job we wouldn't be relegated.

As for a replacement, I guess we've already got 2 internal candidates who may want to rise to the challenge. SL jobs are a scarce commodity, even for basket case clubs, i wouldn't be surprised to receive a number of applications. It's a shot to nothing really.

I Get all that coco and I see where you are coming from ,but what worries me if and when the crowds can come back in full ,just how many are going to turn up to watch .I’ve said plenty of times it’s not about the winning it’s the manner of the losses that’s very worrying.This rugby we are serving up is just about tolerable for a die hard like metro watch , but much harder to swallow if your one of the many turn up if their winning or floating fans .I’m sure mr Carter needs every penny after this horrendous 12 months of scraping by .Hopefully we avoid the dreaded ,but if the team don’t put some quality performances in soon people will just just not bother chipping in their hard earned coin to watch and that will have serious percussions later down the track with not only retaining quality but also signing quality players, as we simply won’t have the money to improve ,and that for me is a downwards spiral we can ill afford to get into .We are in the entertainment game and we simply aren’t serving entertainment up at this present time .

Someone was asking what Chester's record is for signings and whether that was one of his weaknesses? (can't find it now - if it was you let me know) I suspect maybe they had a point. Here's a list of signings during his reign:

[iStarting point, 2016 squad[/i (mostly inherited from Brian Smith)
1 Ben Jones-Bishop
2 Tom Johnstone
3 Bill Tupou
4 Ashley Gibson
5 Richard Owen
6 Jacob Miller
7 Liam Finn
8 Nick Scruton
9 Scott Moore
10 Anthony England
11 Mickael Simon
12 Danny Kirmond
13 Anthony Tupou
14 Reece Lyne
15 Jordan Tansey
16 Tinirau Arona
17 Matty Ashurst
18 Joe Arundel
19 Jon Molloy
20 Michael Sio
21 Max Jowitt
22 Jordan Crowther
23 Scott Anderson
24 Stuart Howarth
25 Craig Hall
26 Chris Annakin
27 Anthony Walker
28 Andy Yates
29 Sean Morris
30 Ben Shulver
31 Jason Walton
32 James Batchelor
33 Frazer Morris
34 Judah Mazzive
35 David Fifita
36 Bradley Moules
37 Liam Senior
38 Ben Harrison

[iThis included new players:[/i
Ben Jones-Bishop
Anthony Tupou
Tinirau Arona
Liam Finn
Sean Morris
Ben Shulver
Jason Walton
Liam Senior
Ben Harrison

2017 & maybe signings for 2018 he had John Kear as Director of Rugby, 2019-21 are his own signings.

[i2017[/i
Scott Grix
Kyle Wood
Mitch Allgood
Keegan Hirst
Mason Caton-Brown
Dean Hadley
Adam Walker
James Hasson
Tyler Randell

[i2018[/i
Justin Horo
Pauli Pauli 
Jordan Baldwinson
Ryan Hampshire
Luke Hooley
Lee Kershaw 
Lewis Wray
Christian Ackroyd

[i2019[/i
 Danny Brough
 Craig Kopczak
 George King
Ben Reynolds*
Titus Gwaze
Jack Croft
Yusuf Aydin
Mason Caton-Brown*
Junior Sa'u*
Kelepi Tanginoa
Morgan Escare
Chris Green
Adam Tangata
Ryan Atkins

[i2020[/i
Alex Walker
Joe Westerman
Jay Pitts
Josh Wood
Brad Walker
Connor Bailey
Ollie Greensmith
Romain Navarette
Liam Kay
Tony Gigot
Innes Senior
Eddie Battye

[i2021
[/iMason Lino
Harry Bowes
Dane Windrow
Sam Eseh
Patrick O’Donovan
Eddie Battye*

I'm still optimistic that this squad can perform better and produce the wins we need.
We've got 3 more tough rounds before crowds are allowed back. If we could pick up a win from those it would be a bonus.

Round 4: 22-25 April
Hull FC A
Round 5: 29 April – 2 May
Catalans Dragons H
Round 6: 13-15 May
Leeds Rhinos A

Then, when crowds are back, we have 6 home games from the next 8 fixtures




The first home game against HKR is now huge, win that and fans will have short memories and we could get on a roll. Win 3 or 4 or those and we're back on track. Lose against HKR and it could/should be new coach time.

Round 7: 20-23 May (Restricted numbers allowed)
Hull Kingston Rovers H
Round 8: 27-30 May
Huddersfield Giants H
Round 9: 10-13 June
Warrington Wolves A
Round 10: 17-20 June
Castleford Tigers H
Round 11: 24-25 June (Restrictions planned to be lifted)
Wigan Warriors H
Round 12: 1-2 July
Salford Red Devils A
Round 13: 4-5 July
Leigh Centurions H
Round 14: 9-11 July
St Helens H

Yes, and this, despite most of his appearances coming off the bench.

I think it was only when Miller had that injury did he start, alongside Finn.

Co Co the fullback admire your optimisum .But with the squad we have got ,and the poor football we play on the pitch can not see us winning 4 matches all season.. We are way behind all other S L clubs in the basics of playing 80 mins of good rugby . Hope you are right time will tell

did anyone else see CC on the Coaching Manual on sky where he was asked about what type/standard of players we were offered and he replied that...and I'm paraphrasing here so don't slaughter me if I've slightly misquoted/misunderstood..he sees players in 3 classes/categories that come to SL with class A being top and C bottom and that we get offered the top end class Cs that the club then tries to improve to top end class B/lower end class A, plus we take the occasional punt on a player. He gave the example of Keegan who we took a gamble on and made him into a reasonable SL player.

I was a bit concerned about this phrase of 'being offered' players rather than which players do we target but it may explain why a lot of our players are of a similar quality and when signed don't particularly strengthen or improve the team more than increase our overall squad depth...as well as explaining why not one of us can agree on what is our best team - you only have to look at the selections for tomorrow in the Hull thread to see that.

You don't seem to have any idea where Trinity stands in the food chain if you don't get what Chester is saying. Ourselves and to a lesser extent Salford, HKR, and Leigh are the last clubs most players want to end up at.

Of course, we get offered lesser players, you can target any player you want but the fact that most won't touch us with a barge pole then what's the point. It may smash your beliefs but we get offered the scraps at all levels and have done for decades. Only occasionally do we get to target a player, usually midseason for obvious reasons, Tanginoa was probably the last of these but it doesn't happen often.

No money, no facilities, and above all no recent history of success, can please tell me how we can target top players in those circumstances?

Exactly. I really don't understand why people think we can just go out and get a French, Sezer, Reynolds type player.
They aren't coming here. We get Lino, who I think will be one of those moves up a level but isn't on anyone else's radar and we needed to search for them.

Agar said exactly the same in his interview.

So what your saying that our squad is basically full of no hopers who won’t get a gig anywhere else,wonder what the players must think of his assumption , and what a cracking motivational speech days before we meet hull not. Smacks of a coach that’s given up to me and passing the book onto the players instead of looking at his own shortfalls. No one has ever said to my recollection that we were brimming with the creme de le creme of the rugby world , but anyone with any rugby sense can see we are massively under performing, and the buck stops with the coaching no matter who we put out on the park . If that is chesters assessment of the players then we may all pack up and stop watching this season and get ready for the championship where we have a chance of winning a few

Not sure where you get the idea I don't understand our position from...our position hasn't changed much throughout our history as we've always played second fiddle to the wealthier clubs around us, such as Leeds and Shudds, you only have to read publications documenting our history to see that.

Where I was coming from wasn't the fact that we shop at Aldi cos we can't afford Waitress but more the fact that we appear to be waiting to be offered the scraps rather than being proactive about targeting what we need, who's is available that fits that need and approaching them to see if we can agree a deal.

We may do that and I may be wrong but that was my understanding of what CC said on that programme and it as that understanding that I was questioning.

If you read previous posts of mine you'll see that I was suggesting we went for Dec Patton last year as a way of filling our need for a half back with a decent kicking and short kicking game, something we woefully lack, which is more in line with the market for lesser players you mention and completely supports my idea of where we stand in the food chain.

Waitrose not waitressicon_smile.gif

No, it's reality, if you don't get that then you're supporting the wrong team.

Baffles me how people refuse to accept the obvious, if you've only got X amount of money then you can only afford to buy players of a certain ability.

I'll put it this way, can you afford an Aston Martin or any luxury car of your choice? No? So why is that then?

Being offered players is just the way the agents work.
It's not that he's waiting. It's just thats how the UK market works. You can't go tap up a player when he's in contract.
The overseas market is different which is why Chester could find Lino and Tanginoa without other clubs jumping in.

I’ve watched this team for close on 50 years and in that time I’ve seen some teams come and go , some good wins against the odds and some shellackings against poor teams but when I see our current squad who are by far the best equipped teams we’ve ever had in recent times throw the towel in , it’s simply not good enough . It’s amateur level at best and not something that should be anywhere near super league level Those players that go on the park are a dam sight better than what they are showing and if you are happy with that then so be it , as on this current course this ship is sailing straight towards disaster and all you can say is , they don’t get payed a lot . Well let me tell you something their all on a dam sight more money than me and probably most on here, and if I turned a performance in like that week in week out it would be the job centre for me . Load of cobblers hiding behind poor wages week in week out , I’m asking them to put a 80 min shift in once a week not climb Everest with me on their back .Ive payed my seasons ticket for this year and I’ll voice my opinion as long as I feel they put below par performances in .

Sorry do not get the Mr Chester tier C thing if you back your self as a Coach you should be abell to pick the best of the younger bunch .And not bring in players with a track record of injuries and players who are ready for the Championship.Look what Watson did at Salford

That's exactly the point. He can't pick the best of the bunch.
He has to pick from lower level players.

But just because he isn't Watson doesn't make him crap.
He did a good job but he also had some pretty decent players there.

And if Hastings had been injured like most of Chesters best players, I don't suppose he'd have done as well.

he shouldn't of said anything about players even if he thought it about them, that interview could come back to haunt him big time

Watson could keep is players fit getting fed up with injuries as a excuse .When Chester got sack at H K R think there was about 10 of the first team injured then .So we can take it that was nothing to do with Mr Chester

[list=[/list
The reality is we are watching a professional sports team only competing 50% a game which is far below the standard clearly required within any job. I might off 6 hours into a 12 hour ICU shift and see what happens. It’s got nothing to do with money it’s a professional responsibility as a professional athlete to do there job no matter how much they’re paid, pretty sure these boys are paid a shed load than me, as will a lot more people doing my job at the hospital ie agency, but that again doesn’t effect what I need to do in my job. I’m not expecting us to win a grand final, but compete more than 40/50 minutes a game and actually improve our embarrassing 18% win ratio over the last 40 games as we will be relegation fodder. You know we are playing far below what we are capable of, and some how combust after 50 minutes.

I agree, but that’s sod all to do with what Chester was on about.

I’m sure he’d agree with you regarding the 50% but that’s a completely different issue. The fact remains that we never get the A class players so we have to work far harder to compete on the field.

As I said on another thread I expected us to struggle in our first 3 league games what I didn’t expect was the manner of the defeats. I don’t suppose Chester did either, I’m sure only playing for fifty minutes is as unacceptable to him as it is to you and me and that would apply to players whatever grade they are.

I agree with what you’ve said. The issue with the A-B-C categories is surely flawed. Isn’t it a coaches job to see potential in players and get say a C into a B playing mould. What would Walmsley or Bullock of been in the championship when both saints and Wigan saw potential. How many A’s have come to the UK and bombed. It’s the coaches job to get the best out of the team, and that’s clearly not happening as our form and results clearly show.

Absolutely bang on PB I agree entirely. If it's not one excuse for defeat it's another, then another. The fact remains this coach should be doing a far better job with these players regardless of what tier they're categorised in, where they came from or how much they cost. If Ian Watson can take Salford to a Grand Final and Challenge Cup Final in successive seasons I'm damn sure he should be getting far more out of our current squad of players.

At last common sense prevails ,listening to some on here you’d think our players were basket cases and we’ve just to be happy that they can lace their boots up ,but don’t dare ask them to get stuck in for 80 ,or even have a few set moves ,as that’s too much to ask for. Never heard so much twaddle in all my days .