Ultimately I think this year is proving to be a bit of a squad transition year, coupled with injuries (we've not had too much bad luck with them in the past couple of seasons) which have led to younger players getting more game time.

The loss of Ellis, Fonua and now Watts, plus an ageing Minichiello has had an impact, but in 12 months time we'll see the benefit of the game time that the likes of Fash, Matongo, Lane etc are having.

Agree that Bowden has been off his game this season, he seems to have changed his style a bit. Usually he hits contact and stays upright, facing his own line and driving backwards to make metres whilst being open for the offload. Now he seems to be more regular with his approach. Confidence maybe?

I don't think we're too far off, as long as we hit the Super 8's either in top 4 or within a couple of points, then I'd back Radford to get us to the semi's, whilst having another good cup run. The league structure as it is doesn't require a team to be perfect week in, week out, and as mentioned above, the intensity we play at sometimes means that we will get those off days.

Last night was more down to not having Sneyd (and later Kelly) on the pitch from a game management perspective and the final play calls were poor as a result. Abdull doesn't fit our style of play, and I think that was evident last night.

Could do with another mid season signing to help the forwards. Westerman can hopefully do a good job for us, but still think we need another quality prop to replace Watts. I have no concerns about us in the backs.

Aye, Phil Clarke used to waffle on about consistency of performance and narrowing the gap between best and worst, and that being the difference between the best teams and the rest. Even assuming he meant only cutting out the worst performances rather than simply being more even, it’s still pretty much nonsense. It’s about being good enough often enough and at the right times.

You been smoking crack? Theres no feckin way we'll be anywhere near the top four, Saints, Wigan, Cas, Wire are all far better sides - Were now two points behind Cas and they have played two less games than us

and penalties which are killing us

I agree about Abdull but surely thats a coaching mistake when Connor could have played half back allowing Tuimavave to start.
In my opinion Abdull,Turgut, and Downs are nothing more than Championship players and should be released end of the season allowing us to add possibly one better quality player.

Is that the Wire team that looked average against us and we beat quite effortlessly? I don't think they're all that.
I'll give you the other four. Leeds will no doubt turn it back on when it matters also. Let's not go over the top. We've had worse results mid-season and still achieved. In fact, we got battered about 5 times last season and still nearly did the double.

We're comparing league form too much to 2016. Top of the table ain't gonna happen obviously, but you don't need that unstoppable Saints form (and Cas last year) to get into the top four... or even win the GF it seems. We're missing something at the moment, but I believe it will come.

exacly what we did last year, beat the champs (wigan) and lost to the bottom club in Leigh.

There are some over reactions on this thread, but that’s not a new thing on this forum. We got beaten by a team desperate for a win. The annoying thing is we fell into their trap of it becoming a slow game.

We started without Out scrum half and our full back and lost both of the starting halves during the game.

To say many regard our pack as a massive unit, we rarely threaten the opposition line with these blokes when we have a play the ball close to the line.

...time to start watching York: 144-0 winners against West Wales Raiders.

I know its old news but we certainly miss Watts.Our pack Taylor apart is weak and we are having to use Paea much more than envisaged as he was to be our regular impact prop off the bench.
We will never know what happened internally re Watts but from a playing point of view a huge loss to the team.
i just wonder whether Kelly got a get out of jail card because of Watts going.
You can imagine the fans reaction if Kelly had been sacked meaning the club effectively dismissed their two best players.

Match for match (swapping Rovers forLeigh we are on the same points).

Probably more injuries and disruption this year.

Must win the next 2 SL games

That's unbelievable!

The Cas game is massive, praying Sika makes it and Green is back as hopefully Shaul and Sneyd will be. Any news on Kelly?

Kelly has an ongoing hamstring problem which is a concern.
My guess is rather than rush him back the club will leave him out till magic weekend

I reckon he will be out for 3 weeks ish.

Miloudi at 6 potentially? I think Connor personally with Tumi at centre but guess its an option

Kelly has been carrying the injury for a while. When hes been clear he is clearly not as quick as he should be

I think the best teams are losing less games this season than last so expect a higher number of points to make top 4. Add in our poor away form and 4 away matches in the middle 8s isnt a great proposition

Depends on whether we've revised our ambitions. If we've given up on top 4 and want to put our eggs in the cup basket again I agree, but if we think top 4 is still a possibility I think we'll risk him if possible.

You might be right, last year 4th was 26 points, Cas already on 16 with 12 games to go, so think 4th will be at least 28 points. So that's 7/10 wins. Going to tough, but need to be in touching distance at the split.

Good thing is that we have only 3 away games left, one neutral ground
and 6 home games. So fixtures stacked well in our favour particularly with our home form

Is there scope to bring the lad from London in to our playing squad this year?

Steve Mascord tweeting there's a big pow wow in Leeds tomorrow involving representatives from clubs in all three tiers.

Been wondering about that. Since technically he is now a Hull player and simply on loan at London. That's my understanding anyway.
May be a loan deal where we don't have an option to call him back though, or perhaps part of the deal of actually signing him this early is that he has to spend the rest of the year at London.

he didn't play in london's last game so maybe he's injured as well

Guess it would depend on the cap for one, plus I believe Wire wanted to sign him immediately and London wanted to keep him for the year. Lets say London make the middle 8 they will want him playing but if they miss out then perhaps they would be more willing to let him come to us early as they wouldn't be playing for anything but then is it too much of an ask for him to step up so quickly.

Interesting one for me this. Was curious as to how we compared to last year in the like for like games, replacing Leigh with Rovers.

Huddersfield (H): 2017, W 14-10; 2018, W 38-12. Total points equal.
Wigan (A): 2017, W 22-20; 2018, L 24-10. Total 2 points down.
Castleford (A): 2017, L 24-22; 2018, L 28-18. Total 2 points down.
Warrington (H): 2017, W 34-10; 2018, W 21-12. Total 2 points down.
Leeds (A): 2017, L 10-7; 2018, L 20-16. Total 2 points down.
Salford (A): 2017, W 34-10; 2018, L 24-8. Total 4 points down.
Catalans (H): 2017, L 16-14; 2018, W 42-16. Total 2 points down.
Hull KR/Leigh (A): 2017, W 24-10; 2018, W 30-22. Total 2 points down.
Wakefield (H): 2017, W 40-18; 2018, W 27-26. Total 2 points down.
St Helens (A): 2017, L 19-12; 2018, L 26-12. Total 2 points down.
Widnes (A): 2017, W 33-22; 2018, W 39-20. Total 2 points down.
Leeds (H): 2017, L 52-24; 2018, W 19-18. Total points equal.
Catalans (A): 2017, L 23-18, 2018, L 25-24. Total points equal.

So when you look at that way, we're on track to match last year's points. We only have 1 of the top 5 left to play away from home, and last year we lost to Leigh at home and got spanked by Saints at magic...

Don't get me wrong. It'll be difficult. We had some great wins at home to Cas, Wigan and Saints last year and also got a point at Warrington. Just think we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves with the doom and gloom, although the manner of the defeat in France was the most disappointing part for me.

might be a option, don't think its to much of an ask, play him 2 short stints, tell him catch the ball run hard as you can lol,