Yes agree with that. I actually think we play some lovely attacking RL and have scored some very good tries. So I wouldn't say the attacking side of things is rubbish at all. We can & do score quite well against all SL sides and apart from the 1st game of the season against Bradford, we've never scored less than 16 points in a game and have scored more points this season than the likes of Leeds & Hull.

The defense is another thing though, at times we have shown we can man up and do some good things in defense but more often than not our defensive structure is slack, particularly our wide. Too many times we fall off tackles or we don't number up correctly. Our defensive line is too slow,which is something that hasn't changed in years. Surely getting the line to move up at good speed, in one unit is one the things that you would think would be fairly straight forward to sort out, then again maybe not.

Don't have any problem with who's on the bench, particularly if it's 3 out and out forwards and a utility player which is usually the case. Like you say we don't have a big squad with quality all the way down, so the Coach for me has to get his best players on the pitch. So sometimes playing players in their secondary positions is fair play.

Used to be a Centre didn't he.

Yes I'm pretty sure when we got him he was a Centre.

The Frenchman is.

There goes one of those subjective opinions, transmogrified into a fact; the basis of logical fallacies the world over.

I'm reasonably happy that this team has, over the course of the season, performed to a level that is pretty much on a par with what could be reasonably expected, given all of its foibles and limitations.

With another 300k or so to chuck on the field, plus another half a million or so in off-balance sheet payments, we'd finish higher.

Have you improved?
Surely that'll depend on how you finish the season? Last year would have been pretty mediocre without that seven? game run; anything close to a repeat and I'd have to say you've improved - although I've only seen about three of your games this year.

I think we have improved - just the same stupid reasons why we are dropping points. We have put together alot of good performances. Nearly winning Huddersfield at home, Beating Catalans away which we threw away and the Wigan performance at home shows that we have improved to be competing with the top teams. We just can't find any consistency and put in a 80 minute performance.
Also other teams have also improved around us making the job slightly tougher. I guess we'll have to wait until the end of season to review that though.

Looking at the games:

Assuming no one in our group beats a top 4 side or Catalan away
And everybody beats London and Salford, and wins their remaining home games
And say everybody loses to Hull

It will end up like this:

7 Hull KR 24
8 Sts 23
9 Trinity 23
10 Bradford 20
11 Widnes 20
12 Cas 18

However, we all play Hull (except Cas), with Bradford and Hull KR playing them at home so anyone that gets a point off Hull will jump up. Makes our game quite important.

We are also the only team that play Leeds while they are struggling. Points there will make a big difference. 4 available. 2 would be nice.
HullKR play them at end of season but I'm thinking Leeds might be back to strength then.

It all plays for an interesting end to the season. We have to be aiming to beat the teams around us to give ourselves a chance. We could easily end up 11th if we start dropping points but could easily get 8th if we win those key games.

I also think Sts will get it together and start winning against bigger teams so if we want the 8 we are actually chasing Hull KR.
Lets hope Dobson's news causes some unrest.

Let the race begin.

I think i had that for my tea yesterday, something like that.

Lovely stuff; I always knew you were a closet gastronome.

Well Cas and HullKR have just stuffed that plan up!

forget who we are chasing, 2 pts have to be taken this week

we have to win the teams above us to reach top 8 nothing else will do

Its funny how that happens.

I think we need to worry about whats coming up the table from beneath us rather than whats coming down.

Update:

6th - Hull KR - 22 points
Remaining games:
Salford Home
Warrington Away
Wigan Away
Hull FC Home
Leeds Away
Widnes Away
London Home

7th - Hull FC - 20 points
Remaining games:
Huddersfield Home
Bradford Away
Widnes Home
Hull KR Away
Salford Home
Wigan Away
St Helens Home

8th St Helens - 19 points
Remaining games:
Castleford Away
Wigan Home
Catalans Away
London Home
Wakefield Away
Warrington Home
Hull FC Away

9th Wakefield - 17 points
Remaining games:
Widnes Home
Leeds Away
Leeds Home
Bradford Home
Warrington Away
St Helens Home
Huddersfield Away
Castleford Home

10th Bradford - 16 points
Remaining games:
Wigan Away
Hull Home
Wakefield Away
Catalans Home
Castleford Away
London Home
Huddersfield Home

11th Widnes - 14 points
Remaining games:
Wakefield Away
London Home
Hull Away
Castleford Home
Warrington Away
Hull KR Home
Salford Away

12th Castleford - 14 points
Remaining games:
St Helens Home
Huddersfield Away
Warrington Home
Widnes Away
Bradford Home
Salford Home
Wakefield Away


Cas and Widnes would need to win 3 games more than Saints to even have a chance of the playoffs so look unlikely to make it but you can't rule them out just yet.
Hull KR seem to be in form and have home games left against Salford and London which you would expect them to win. Warrington, Wigan and Leeds away all look tough but Widnes away and Hull at home are winnable. 4 wins would put them on 30 points and clearly in the playoffs.
Hull FC need some improvement rapidly. Huddersfield at home this weekend will be tough. They also have home games against Widnes and Salford which you would expect them to win. Bradford and Hull KR away games could go either way, ending with Saints at home. Unless they can turn things around rapidly they may be looking at only 3 more wins which would take them to 26 points.
St Helens only have London at home that looks like a clear win, with Warrington and Wigan their other home games. Castleford, Wakey, Catalans and Hull FC away all look tricky on current form but I would expect them to pick up 3 or 4 wins giving them 25 or 27 points.

So for Wakey to get there we would need IMO 5 wins from 8 games, obviously wins against Bradford and Saints in that run would massively help the cause.


This was all done to give me an idea of what we might need to do over the remaining games, however I do think that for the team they just need to look at next weeks game as the biggest game so far and focus on that and building more confidence.

What will be, will be - Bring on the excitement of another end of season run-in!!!

Looking at he remaining fixtures. We can prob win 4 of those. I think playoffs maybe a bit too much this year

Agreed

I predict a run to the playoffs. Feels right.
But we''ll know if we can't on Monday.
If we don't beat Widnes we won't make the 8

updated

6th - Hull KR - 24 points
Remaining games:
Warrington Away
Wigan Away
Hull FC Home
Leeds Away
Widnes Away
London Home

7th St Helens - 21 points
Remaining games:
Wigan Home
Catalans Away
London Home
Wakefield Away
Warrington Home
Hull FC Away

8th - Hull FC - 20 points
Remaining games:
Bradford Away
Widnes Home
Hull KR Away
Salford Home
Wigan Away
St Helens Home

9th Wakefield - 19 points
Remaining games:
Leeds Away
Leeds Home
Bradford Home
Warrington Away
St Helens Home
Huddersfield Away
Castleford Home

10th Bradford - 16 points
Remaining games:
Hull Home
Wakefield Away
Catalans Home
Castleford Away
London Home
Huddersfield Home

The thing that will make the difference is the ones at the top of the group play each other

Update:

6th - Hull KR - 24 points -73 SD
Remaining games:
Wigan Away
Hull FC Home
Leeds Away
Widnes Away
London Home

the 2 from their last 5 games will see a nice easy enter into the 8 frame

7th St Helens - 23 points +67 SD
Remaining games:
Catalans Away
London Home
Wakefield Away
Warrington Home
Hull FC Away

3 from 5 games be nice if hulls one of them



8th - Hull FC - 20 points +29 SD
Remaining games:
Widnes Home
Hull KR Away
Salford Home
Wigan Away
St Helens Home

hopefully only 2 from 5 games, it theirs to lose

9th Wakefield - 19 points -25 SD
Remaining games:
Bradford Home =#FF0000MUST WIN of the 3
Warrington Away
St Helens Home
Huddersfield Away
Castleford Home

hopefully at least 3 from 5 games the Bradford game should be on telly but we need the same level of support as last night, very tough ask but now is the time to get it right top 8 starts next week

10th Bradford - 18 points -49 SD
Remaining games:
Wakefield Away
Catalans Home
Castleford Away
London Home
Huddersfield Home

hopefully no more than 3 from 5 games our game is the key between the two us us, we have a slightly better SD

11th Widnes - 16 points -124 SD
Remaining games:
Hull Away
Castleford Home
Warrington Away
Hull KR Home
Salford Away

they need at least 3 to even get in the top 8 on this weeks positions unlikely to happen

I think our top 8 chance has slipped by.
We needed at least 2 points from the 2 Leeds games.

We have by far the hardest run in.

Mathematically we are still in it, and I hope we fight to the death but I fear thats it for this year

agree we lost the control of our destiny but look at Hulls games, far from easy in fact Wigan, staints toughies but its the local derby KR that can get us back in the frame, like I say we need to focus on next week big style nothing else but a win will do

Win our 3 home games and we still have a good chance, although we will need one or two of Hull's opponents to do us a favour.

We will not make the top 8 now. As well as we played last night we blew it. We'll win a couple if games to give us optimism. Even if we won last night it would have still been difficult. Hopefully the lads can do us proud for the rest of the season

I don't think it has gone yet. Our games against Bradford and Sts are even more important and lets hope Cas have nothing to play for by last game but the teams around us are not going that well at the moment so we shall see.