Good post overall but I hear Wheeldon is being released by Rovers this year and he's been distinctly average for them.

It was only 2006 when we (or at least certainly I did) thought Hull would progress from the GF season to be regularly battling with Saints for the silverware. Even 2007 was a pretty decent year in spite of the Cooke saga. Since then it's been a terrible slide.

Do you really think that all that's required to play an expansive game is basic passing ability?



Not that we seem to [ihave[/i a basic passing ability a lot of the time.



There's a difference between the team lacking the skills to implement an expansive game plan and deliberately avoiding one. IMO we have the former situation and not the latter. That's partly a legacy of poor retention and recruitment, partly poor coaching, and partly bad luck with injuries.

Your 2nd sentence is what i was saying. We dont show the basic skills which are the 1st step towards an expansive game. (i never said the only contributing factor to an expansive game)

I still find it impossible to believe super league players lack the basic skills to throw the ball about a bit.

The evidence is there for all to see every time we give it a try. Our passing is slow, laboured, and inaccurate most of the time. I'm pretty sure that's not a deliberate tactic.

Well if we dont work on those core skills in training it's kind of an involuntary deliberate tactic isnt it?

Sad to say but it is true, we must have the worst line speed in SL. It takes forever to get from one end to the other. But surely that is something the coaching staff should be seeing and sorting out, hell it is basic stuff you learn as a kid.