I wonder if any of the above is true? I thought Shenton was off to Wigan? If Chase doesn't like Sherwin why are the constantly seen boozing together? Brierley has a stress fracture so there's not a lot to monitor right now. As for Shifty, if he does want another year then surely he'd try impress and we might be tempted (lower salary) or another club might take a punt for a year.

Shenton, I guess we'll have to wait and see. With Senior moving into the forwards, who knows what would happen with their back. There is a rumour that Lee Smith could be returning to Leeds. Why Chase and Shirwin are seen out I can't explain, but I'm told it's a case of tollerates, rather than good drinking buddies. However, watch the two of them on the pitch and it isn;t a close partnership! As for Brierley, he's not ready for 1st team yet but it's a matter of 'mentoring' not 'monitoring'. He's not getting the guidance that he needs and hence he's getting a feeling of exclusion, rather than being a key building block for the future. As for Shifty, yes in our logic we'd think that he should dig in and prove that he is worth another year, however some could say that he's rarely dug in and proved that he is worth the pay, or contract that we offered him in the first place. At £150K/year and playing 30 to 40% of a season, he should be playing like trooper week in week out as a debt of gratitude to the club for sticking with him so long. However, he is again one of Mattersons favoured few who can do no wrong. When other players look at what he is being paid, the game time he is playing and the committment he isn't giving...it creates a resentment, against him and Matterson.

Spinning this around on it's head, what positives do people think that Matterson is putting in place for the season or next season? There is nothing leaping out to me!

I didn't think you were that good but we were worse.

I was surprised we were still in it at the end considering how bad we were in comparison to other games. We were an ankle tap away from getting a draw assuming he would have run it under the posts and the kick would have been a formality.

Aside from that enjoyed the night and the Jungle is definitely up there as one of my favourite grounds in Super League. A proper rugby league old style ground and long may grounds like this exist. If there were more of the same the game would have a better atmosphere all round in my opinion. Good luck for the rest of the season and here's hoping both sides can step up a few gears next week.

I stopped here to pay respects to you as a comic genius, I didn't read the rest of the post, but I think I'll have to go get my split sides sewn back together before I can manage the hilarity

fair play to you mate, i just hope you are still laughing when we are back in NL1 after a failed fanchise next time around.

Mate, this side isn't worse then the team that were relegated in 2004

You had. I've merged the two.



In terms of the performance on Friday I thought Cas were utter garbage. There were two occasions when we actually opened up a bit and threw the ball about which lead to two really good tries in the first half. I'm confused as to why we didn't do that more often. Crusaders bombed so many chances throughout the game that the fact we won was actually more of a let off than through our own effort and composure.

I suppose winning was a bonus though since it wasn't something I expected in the slightest.

As Matterson said in the post-match interview "I don't know how we won"