Its a marathon and not a sprint and all that and we probably had a 1/3rd of our salary cap sat in the stands but but when are going to become more expansive in our attack?

We were told we had ball playing forward who seem reluctant to offload which is partly down to our lack of support play. We have pace to burn out wide but seem to favour the drop off pass back into the ruck.

We are embarrassingly easy to read at the minute in our attack and its not helping with our poor discipline but at times last year we played some great expansive rugby which the lads seemed to enjoy. Why are we so reluctant to do so this year?

It's going to be either a master stroke in delayed tactics by Gentle and suddenly open up at somepoint in the season or we are in for another long frustrating season.

IN FOR ANOTHER LONG SEASON OF MEDIOCRATY IM AFRAID......

Or outside backs get very litle oppurtunity, unless it's taking a ball from acting half.
The game plan seems to be the consistent thing over the last 6 years. Always back through the ruck area.
It's not great to watch & crowds won't increase until either:

(i) The team is consistent & winning
Or
(ii) We play exciting rugby

Neither is happening at the moment.

We need to play a more expansive game, regardless of who is on the pitch.

Not going to happen without changing players, same old stagers playing the same old game I am afraid.

I was never as convinced as most by our squad this season but on the whole we've been worse than I expected. We offer nothing more in the opposition 20 than we have since 2008. No dummy runners, no options, poor last tackle plays. For me these are easy things to resolve and would make us a whole lot better.

We had enough posession and field position to win comfortably last night but came away with nothing again

Anyone who listened to Gentle's after match interview last night will know that he's of the same opinion. He stated a number of times that we just didn't throw enough at them, particularly in the first half. Seems like the overly conservative play last night wasn't part of the game plan.

In which case you have to wonder where the problem is. He did mention that they were still working on coming up with a game plan that 'everyone was comfortable with' - which leads me to believe that some players simple aren't capable of playing the way he wants them to.

Whatever the root cause he needs to come up with a solution fast.

FFS...we've played just 7 games.

Last night with 6, yes 6 first choice players missing you could easily say we were 'robbed' of coming away with 2 points against the leaugue leaders.

Get a grip everyone.

and where was we robbed?? i presume you mean the forward pass to briscoe that was a mile forward???? think its you who needs to get a grip

Our attempts at spreading the ball wide always stop when the ball gets to our second rowers as both Westerman and Galea (who was very good last night) first instinct when they get the ball seem to angle their runs back in field.

Plus our timing for the McDonnell out of the back behind the second rower is way off right now and the passing doesn't take place close enough to the line its all too sideways and easy to read.

I couldn't agree more.

And 5 who did play "passed" fitness tests before the game.

And Holdsworth is clearly far from well at the moment.

Excuses? Of course they are, but maybe they contribute to the overall performance.

Robbed ? when was this as i thought the officials got all the major calls correct with the exception of maybe the dropout ?

Don't know about robbed but certainly didn't get the 50-50 decisions. TBH I'd rather we got the dirty end of the stick in a game like this and save up the good luck for a cup or play off game. They tend to even out over a season.

The time to get depressed is if we lose one of the next three which are ones where defeat will only come through a poor effort.

Correct we need to move our play towards the defensive line and start giving the opposition some decisions to make.

I think people are misinterpreting what the poster said. His definition of "robbed" I think was the fact that we had lost players to illness, injuries etc. On that basis I would agree with him. FWIW I believe the officials had a decent game, although the old guy calling a forward pass from 60 yards away (but not able to see one under his nose) was rather strange. Best team on the day won, so no complaints from me.

We seem to be playing with one of the flattest attacking lines I've seen in 30+ years of watching. There's often only a few yards difference in the depth of the PTB and the deepest man. The line looks cramped up and the receiver is having to check his run and slow down. We've also given a lot of unnecessary forward passes in midfield this year, for the same reason. That can become a vicious circle: slow PTB, receivers overrunning the ball and having to slow down, beaten in the collision, poor body position, and so a slow PTB. Last year O'Meley, Moa and Manu could break this by giving us some (at times undeserved) go-forward. At the moment Briscoe and Lineham look like the only players capable o changing this.

I dont think we were the better team, we held you and soaked up the pressure then found an extra gear for the last 15, upto then i thought your forwards were better than ours but the difference in the end was a couple of long range kicks from Brough, your flat - non creative attack and our backs which found a couple of extra yards to finsh you off !!

If you'd have had a creative player playing you would have won i have no doubt about that.

Plenty of men out, plenty scraped through last min. We were robbed in a small sense. The mcdonall drop out cost a try when we were going well. N Briscoes 'forward' was probably no more forward than the 1for Wardles try, n there seemed more reason to give a try for crooks before half time than not to.
Play the exactly the same with no improvement at all we probably have enough to win the next 3. If we win a few we'll pick up confidence n all the play will link and come together. Its there in small pieces. Think we've reigned it back personally, in fact it's obvious. We was trying stuff early games but timing off etc n made lots n lots of errors, ended up defending to much then on the back of that conceded pens as well. So looking at our play it looks like it's been purposefully stripped back. Especially since every game has played in poor wet n heavy conditions with no continuity in the combos on the field. 6/7 centre/wings.
Also regarding bombs to Murphy. By aiming that side your not necessarily saying he's weak but controlling the position on the field. 1st tackles far left so 2nd has to be in field, by 3rd we were bringing wings centres up a little to keep them to the middle as much as possible. So if it hits dangerous right of cudjoe n macgilvary we can probably account for it being on 4th or 5th and account for it defensively especially with our young inexperienced centre .
Personally I think we need a run of games with a familiar regular team in key positions, some key men back and a few wins with some confidence and we'll still end up a good team. Think there is plenty to go at. Only wire (fullish strength) look really strong. Everyone else has a lot of flaws.
I'd have liked more than this but not crying yet. Could really do with 3from 3 in upcoming games though to set us on the way before starts getting to late.

the saddest thing is that I'm not sure what we can do to feasibly improve things. Gentle has got the players motivated and their effort can't be faulted, our defence is of a good standard, and our error count has reduced markedly since the penalty-a-thons at Leeds and Widnes. I also think generally Gentle gets his tactics and team selection right for the players he has available.

the big issue remains the attack, our only attacking threat is Holdsworth, and if is injured, has a bad game or is closed down by the opposition we are clueless.

sadly unless a player gets unexpectedly sacked, suspended or his club is struggling financially no quality No7 is available mid-season, and we've tried just about all of the available options within the squad (the only one not to have played is Nicklas, who unless he's had a transformation since the last time I saw him isn't going to turn things round)

so we are stuck again heading for the lower end of the play-offs, winning most games at home, struggling away and losing to the big teams when it matters.

Starting to feel really apathetic about the club, these mediocre mid-table seasons are killing the club, at least when we were near the bottom and skint there was the 'drama' of relegation and a 'win at all costs' mentality to keep us entertained. The club really has to pull a top No7 out of the bag for next season or our support will reduce even further.

Were to slow to play an expansive game , until we speed the ptb & improve on the handling , Teams will just mop up what little creativity we throw at them with ease .

We've even lost our blind side scrum plays that we used last season. Gentle clearly brought these plays from his time at Wests as they used them alot. But why have we stopped trying them?
Same old drop off routine.

Could'nt agree more. We're as flat as a fart and as already been said some players are over running the ball we are that flat. I was shouting at the tele time and again "get deep" and we would have scored. I watched the Melbourne v Manly game and it was so simple yet so effective, players running from deep and in numbers, virtually unstoppable. O.k they're the best club side in the world but it was simple and it's a no-brainer. Why oh why do we persist in this slow side to side stuff which only ends up with someone dropping the ball. Lineham was the only one who made quick play the balls all night and we were away

The only real play we have right now is the wedge play but we never get it right and therefore it's easy to read and McDonnell ends up getting smashed. Offloading the ball more would help allieviate our lack of creativity.

If it was played last weekend it was Melbourne v North Queensland Cowboys. I was there.