Couldn't watch yesterday as I was working, the masochist in me will probably watch it on Trin tv! I'm sure like most now we have just come to expect sub-standard performances, it came as no surprise. Last night I was trying to think back when we actually played well for 80 mins and dominated a game, when did we last win really convincingly??! There have been so many 'red flag' games since that second London debacle last May that I have no sympathy for Carter, Chester or the players. Yes we all know about the injuries, but as a group they just seem to have let standards slip since last May, whether that's training, prep, conditioning, I don't know, but something hasn't been right since that second game in London LAST SEASON!! I also think Chester lost some respect from certain players with his public treatment of Pauli Pauli, which he didn't handle well at all, also when asked by Jenna Brooks, has Fifita told you why he won't wear the GPS, his answer was, no he hasn't?! Tail wagging the dog probably! It just seems that he has lost that connection and togetherness that was so evident in 2017& 2018, I suppose we all should have known being Trin fans it wouldn't last! I'm still not sure he will be relieved of his position, but like others have said, after his post match comments, I don't see any way out of this now other than him not being head coach.......

We have this thread once a year. Yawn...

Do we? You show me this thread in 2017 & 2018??

Was he wrong on Pauli though?

When he first signed he really looked the part but towards the back end he was pathetic. I’ve watched him closely 2 or 3 times since for Salford and despite some saying watch his Ian Watson and Salford will transform him he’s still the same overweight, lazy, heartless, under achieving player he was for us.

Also think he’s handled the Fifita thing the best he can...Dave is obviously a fantastic player when on song but with that will come a difficult person to manage and handle and I honestly think in his time overall Chester has handled him really well...we don’t all see what he’s like to manage day in day out.

Yes, the performances of late haven’t been good. Huddersfield was a poor result but I’ve a theory behind it and it’s something that’s blatantly obvious to most people what changes ‘on the field’ need to be made. Chester knows this himself and said as much in his interview after the game.

1) We need a midfield general.

Some use the Kear factor, some blame assistants, conditioners etc...but it’s plain to see where our biggest problem lies. Finn, though at the twilight of his career was a great signing for us and managed us through games...I’d also add Grix into that...not because I thought he was the greatest individually but as an experienced older head in a crucial position he was massive.

Finn obviously couldn’t go on forever and we needed to replace him...Brough looked a perfect replacement (even if arguably a few years past his best) but working with restricted budgets, unfortunately those are the type of players we end up with.

To begin with it worked...despite fans saying we’ve been garbage since those two good 5th place finishes and since Kear left etc...with Brough and Miller playing well together we were sat 3rd in the league after 14 rounds and had chalked up some excellent wins playing some fracking stuff...the injuries then hit and in truth we haven’t recovered. I did think Brough did have an impact towards the back end in saving us though, playing and kicking well in crucial wins over Huddersfield/HKR and London.

The fact is we haven’t replaced got a Finn/Brough type player and it’s killing us...it could not have been made any clearer in the loss at Huddersfield where the clear and plain difference between the two teams was Sezer for Huddersfield. The forwards actually worked pretty hard and as a whole defended pretty well overall...there was 5 or 6 players who made over 100 metres in carries and a couple just short so in terms of field position we had plenty just no execution or smartness on last plays and that’s what’s killing us.

2) The forwards...

Another thing we can all see and CC has said it himself...prelockdown overall the performances and results weren’t too bad...since coming back though we are certainly one of the teams who has really seemed to struggle with the new quicker game and the set restarts etc...

When looking into it though ask yourself this...we make our pack up of predominantly ‘past it’ players or loan signings that very few other teams want...maybe pre lockdown these players and us as a team maybe benefitted from slowing rucks down but now everything has quickened up it has caught quite a few players out...I’ve heard CC mention this a few times about what’s now needed from forwards...maybe he knows what changes need to be made? Like when he first took over he identified quickly that we were getting bullied a bit so went and signed big players...that worked back then but now it doesn’t and changes have to be made.

For all the criticism of the forwards just go look at the tackling stats from the game...

It’s blatantly clear where the weak links were defensively...bit of an eye opener...

I think that's a pretty fair assessment

To save anyone looking I’ll put the tackling stats from Huddersfield here..

Crowther - 48 tackles - 1 miss
Battye - 48 tackles - 4 misses
Pitt’s - 45 tackles - 2 misses
Westerman - 36 tackles - 1 miss
Kopczak - 33 tackles - 0 misses
K.Wood - 31 tackles - 1 miss
J.Wood - 31 tackles - 1 miss

So most of the middle guys, plus Pitts added in (though he did a poor miss for a try). That’s a combined total of 272 tackles with 10 missed...nearly half of those from a new guy playing his first game in about 6 months...Battye also took in 21 carries so for a new player he easily gets the benefit of doubt and with that work rate can see why CC is so keen on signing him!

Now look on the problem area...left edge...

Bailey - 21 tackles - 9 misses
Gigot - 14 tackles - 5 misses
Tanginoa - 26 tackles - 4 misses

Combined total 61 tackles with 18 misses...

There is genuine reasons there...Bailey is a young lad on only his 2nd start but this is the difficulty in playing the kids in a team short on confidence and in a bit of a rut...Sezer and McQueen certainly targeted Connor and that’s something he will have to learn going forward...is any fan going to hang him out to dry? Likewise Gigot...I’m not the biggest fan of this signing...think it smacks of desperation, but that probably come from the pressure CC is under...he played an unfamiliar role to him though alongside a teenager in only his second start and up against a very experienced and quality centre in Cudjoe...

Calm down piggy

Wow.

Rocky and Reynolds were the halves when we went third

I started watching the post match interview with CC but turned it off when he said we had a fullback playing in the halves!

I also thought it was bizarre. If he's a full-back then why play him scrum half, sign Gigot a full back also, who he said was an option for half back then play him centre. The recruitment money has been squandered on players we don't need. His tinkerman approach to team selection is shocking. I'd hate to be a fringe player at Wakey I'd be tearing my hair out.

You are Dickie Hampshire and I claim my £5.

yoj can have ten if you want x

Yes they were but Brough and Miller played the first 10 games together and were playing well together! We scored over 30 points 5 times...good wins at Leeds and Hull and at home to Wigan and Salford.

They both got injured in the Wigan game and Reynolds and Rocky played the next 4 where we won 2 and lost 2. The difference there though is as two makeshift halfbacks at least they came into a team 4th in the table playing well and full of confidence.

I do completely agree with you on one point and that’s playing Rocky at FB...he played all his best stuff there last season.

It’s been a complete mess the situation in the halves...brought on by pressure to get results in my eyes...

To be honest he’s got to move him back there he’s the only one with genuine pace to make breaks and go the field. All he’s doing at moment is hand on and hand on. We need some grunt bad I see the calls for a half back but we can’t win the forward battle we’re up against it every game, it’s pressure after pressure. He’s got to try something different a different style or shape and maybe move the ball or he’s a gonna

Would not disagree with your post, but all our weaknesses you have exposed you have highlighted that Chester knows all about them as well, if that's the case then why hasn't he done anything about it, we need a midfield general where is he? certainly not Kay or Gigot, and no I don't have the answers but I don't need to, Chester doesn't either imo but he should do and if he does why are we so clueless?

Agree on every point.
And for those still blaming Chester for not doing something about it, there isn't a midfield general to buy. Certainly not in our price range.
To be honest you could probably put Finn in the team now and it would improve it a little bit in attack. (not suggesting we do of course)

So what exactly is our price range.

Can we afford not to get things sorted, the alternative for us is a place in the division below ,everyone n their dog will jump ship and it will be left to the dwindling amount of diehards watching a team in their death throws.
We need to get things sorted on and off the pitch ASAP in my opinion because waiting until next season may be too late for us .Don’t forget that coaches/players come and go And always will do ,that’s the sport we’re in ,but I genuinely fear for the very existence of our great club if we get the drop next season.

You make a lot of good points and I agree with you on certain things......but a couple of things, we didn't get to third place then suddenly had 9 men injured all at once! Tupou & Johnstone went for the season in March over at Hull, we lost 3 against Wigan at home in April, and others one at a time. The main problems started when players came back from injury, that second game at London was not a team of academy kids, it was good enough to have performed, but there's the whole problem, whatever team takes to the field have underperformed! Hence all the criticism!! Scraping a win every 6 or 7 games which we have done since last May is relegation form, it can't all be blamed on injuries, someone or more than one person has to take responsibility for the demise over that period, nothing has changed or generally improved, so that's why we are where we are, over 25 - 30 games it's not a fluke! Either as a group of players minus one or two individuals, they aren't good enough to perform on a regular basis........OR the coaching staff aren't getting the best out of them?!

That old chestnut.

Absolutely agree, we have far too many players who can cover about 5 positions between them, he has messed about with 1, 6&7 far too much.

Let me ask you a question, if a team or a player isn’t going forwards, which direction are they going in? People are not Chester haters as you put it they see when we can only manage 5 wins from 28 that our performances are rotten to the core. They need some instructions, some guidance and above all some support not from someone who as chucked them under a bus. If you were coming fourth in the 400 meters every time you run would you still continue to train the same way or change things, things need changing in structure, in style of play and in personal, something Chester is incapable of doing. Also if it goes on and carter doesn’t pull the trigger then he solely will be held responsible and not Chester, he needs to grow a pair and do the deed

Yes, on paper for many of those games we had what looked like decent squads but another of the big problems we had last year was rushing players back...Fifita was never right after the first half of the season where he was on fire...Brough, Ashurst, Arona and Tupou all seemed to come back and get injured again quickly...

Compare that to the year before where we had a dream run and continuity...we had a dream team left edge of Johnstone, Tupou, Ashurst with Miller inside and to complement that on the other side had Kirmond, Lyne and BJB...those were mainstay players and scored lots of tries and defended well together...

The disruptions last season had us try 20 players in the three left edge positions that had been so rock solid the year before and people wonder why we have looked vulnerable out wide and questioned Millers dip in form.

It’s carried on this season...Tom Johnstone summing it up quite nicely in that tweet he did...he gets injured, replaced by Kershaw, who gets injured, replaced by Senior who gets injured, then he goes back to Hudds and Liam Kay comes in and guess what...not even 10 minutes in he gets injured!

Someone mentioned earlier about Gigot playing centre...I’m sure when CC named him on the bench he didn’t expect to lose a winger for the game after 9 minutes and have to shuffle things yet again...

I’m not saying he hasn’t made mistakes because we can all see the problems we’ve had at 1,6 and 7 and the constant swapping and changing and having probably too many players on the books. To be fair though at the time Walker looked a decent signing...if I remember rightly Hampshire was stalling on signing a new deal and Walker became available so we snapped him up...then at the 11th hour Hampshire decided to stay on...under huge pressure from half of Normanton threatening to stop going to games if we didn’t sign him back on...

Then recently we’ve signed Gigot...with Brough out of the picture we seemed desperate for a spark in the halves but in Gigot I think we’ve signed the wrong player...probably brought on by the pressure of knowing we needed something and being the only available player at the time...a gamble in a way, one that so far doesn’t look to be coming off...

Think for the rest of the season we should try Jowitt at 7 as he seems the best from what we have available...

You ask who was available for our budget at the end of last season we could have got abdull or drinkwater both i suspect we could afford and both with a fairly decent kicking game and yes not of quality like sezer but at least have an idea what to do on last plays rather than panic like the ball is a hot potato