just seen on the stats (HDM so might not be totally accurate) that Masi and Paea between them only did 9 hit ups in the game. This can't be right surely. What is the point in having forwards who do virtually no work in making metres. Would like to see how this compares to other club's forwards sharing the work. Time to completely overhaul our forward line for next season

Yeah, it is true.

We could have not renewed Minichiello, Manu and Paea - and got Garbutt and Ikahifo, and found another back rower (Josh Jones). That would have transformed our pack. But we went with sentiment

Imo Rovers signing Garbutt was one of the smartest bits of recruitment this off season. And one of the dumbest by Leeds to let him go. Put him alongside Taylor and our pack is immediately transformed.

Who’s decision was it to not sign a forward or forwards and resign Paea Mini and Manu, does that flaw fall at Pearsons or Radfords feet??

Hopefully Radfords. I would hope that Pearson has no say in it (other than to authorise the funds obviously).

Masi seemed to me to be the dummy runner all the time last night. There was two or three times I thought we should have given him the ball close to the line but he was passed by. He was available but we just didn't pass to him.
Paea is simply not doing enough. Sorry but we cannot accept the few minutes we get from him each game. He's getting paid for doing pretty much zero on the field. Can we pay him off? Seriously, what did he do last night? Peddled that warm up bike for about 60 minutes.
Mini and Sika have both been great for us in the past but.... Mini has been manhandled in the last two games, way too easily and Sika doesn't look his usual dominant self either. Maybe age is starting to catch up.
Lane is too small.
Thompson is average.
Houghton is a tackle machine we all know, looked more effective when Jez Litten was on the field.
Taylor could play in NRL, easily, he's that good. If he gets injured......

A big review is needed for next year IMO.

I fear it's going to be a long, difficult season for us.

From memory I think garbutt made more hit ups and more metres than our 4 props put together (including taylor) against rovers.

watts showed us last night what we miss. Big and aggressive in both attack and defense. Played 50 minutes before he went off. He's made 321 metres in 2 games. Absolutely shocking that we couldn't find a way to keep him.

tony was in charge of recruitment and retention for 3 seasons and transformed the club. He leaves and it all comes crashing down in one year. Who's to blame? peqarson? ellis? radford? Who knows but we need to sort it

My feeling is that we have no one at the club with any contacts outside the UK and it hursts us in recruiting from overseas

Glad somebody else noticed.

yep me to, just give him the ball sometimes, imo bienik would do a better job than paea or Thompson, at least he runs hard and is a bigger unit, we need green and Bowden back soon just to add some muscle up front, as for watts that ship has long sailed,

I think we are in for a big change next year, think we could have 5 quota spots available, key is to keep Sneyd and Westy.

Shaul
Farimino
Carlos
New Centre/Scott
New winger (non quota)
Connor
Sneyd
Taylor
Houghton
New prop
Hadley
New backrower
Westy

Bowden
Masi/Green
New backrower
Litten

Out

Kelly, Talanoa, Paea, Mini and Manu

Don’t forget sneyd is in his last year so he could be gone and how do we get rid of kelly having just signed a new big deal last year !

I mentioned Sneyd.

I'd happily keep Kelly if we can get him on the field.

Am I right in thinking you guy's have 11 off contract at the end of the season?
I see you all want wholesale changes but on a serious note, how would 11 new players gel so quick? It would almost be a new squad who have never played together so could be a 50/50 gamble? Tricky call really.

Kelly has to stay if we can keep him fit
Good to see no place for Griffin who is another waste of space and has been a very poor signing by Radford

Good to see Griffin is back again, now that Dawson is out for the season.

It didn't take long.

John Millington is 70 today. Get him signed up he’d improve your pack no end.

Its no gamble.Too much emphasis on new players gelling.
Quality players dont need much time to show their worth on the field.What they do is lead by example and bring confidence back into the team.
What we need now is an Aussie coach who can shake up the club and use his contacts to attract the overseas quality players we need for next season.
Radford will pay for his failure to recognise he needed to refresh the first team squad and not retain several players who are clearly past their best.
We used to be the side teams feared home or away.Now our forwards are rolled every week and our bench is the weakest i have ever seen
I expect Radford will be gone by Easter replaced by an Australian coach with Gaz Ellis as his number two.

That's another reason why extending Mini, Manu and Washy wasn't wise business, Or at this moment in time it doesn't look like good business. Every one can see it apart from the ones that matter.

I dont know? Seen a few take time to settle and cant see Radford leaving or being sacked either to be honest.

Dont like to see any player suffer a long term injury but Dawson was a reserve anyway so no big miss for me
Griffin needs to be highlighted just like we are doing with our non performing forwards.
As a centre he is useless.Big man,cant tackle,cant jump for a ball,no footwork,is lazy and his passing is a joke.
If we ever do have a full strength team available then Connor goes back to right centre and there is no place for Griffin other than off the bench at best as an impact second row but he needs to up his work rate.

what is it with you and griffin? hes playing better than tuime atm, run hard last 2 matches saved a certain try last night, its our forwards who are the problem,

Griffin has limitations as a centre, but lazy? He has worked his backside off these last 2 games. In fact he has made 33 carries in 2 games. The most of anyone in the team. And alot of them have been the hard yards getting it off our line.

When Kelly is back Connor will move to centre and Griffin has to go into the second row for me. Preferably as a starter.

I agree its the forwards who are the main problem but to say Griffin is playing better than Tuimavave is rubbish.
Carlos goes looking for work,Griffin doesnt.
He also cost us the match at HKR. I have said previously he cant jump for a ball for such a big man.He was facing the ball as it was kicked towards him and had two options.He could have and should have attacked the ball using his strength and height or used his brain and let the HKR player to catch the ball then make the tackle

Our backs aren’t the problem and neither is Griffin. The forwards or rather lack of them that can make any ground.
Until we make changes/improvements in the forwards we will do nothing and achieve nothing.
Miloudi was a liability defensively last night and shooting out the line like a headless chicken is just an example of that.
Griffin I thought had a decent game and defensively thought played well and worked hard. We didn’t utilise him or Faraimo at all and cas targeted our right hand side which was weak. To be fair to Carlos he wasn’t helped last night having to cover Miloudi

Griffin didn’t cost us the match at HKR, in that case Sneyd is just as guilty for not putting his kick into touch, and also our middle that then failed to deal with Rovers making 70 odd metres to be able to put the kick in the first place.