Quote: Gotcha "There was a massive drop in what Burrow brought to the team last night and what Aiton was doing. You would have to be incredibly biased not to see that. He contributed, but his work at dummy half is a massive climb down on what Aiton was bringing.'"
I have already said the loss of Aiton is a blow and he played very well before his unfortunate injury but to state "it was a massive drop in what Burrow brought to the team" is a simplistic and unbalanced view.
Firstly Aiton and Burrow are quite different players who offer the team quite different ways to to play to make a positive impact on a game.
Secondly Aiton has started recent games where we have a clear game plan worked out on the training pitch and successfully put into effect in the first 20 minutes. But this success was not achieved by Aiton alone but by the energetic and determined lines of running and offloading from the rest of the pack. When Burrow comes on for Aiton the game is in a very different state with the initial speed of the forward game reduced and often subs on too. So if Aiton were to stay on you would naturally see the same drop off you talk of. Momentum swings in every game even those in which we dominate. So when we have a fast dominating start it is to be expected that a change in momentum will happen at some later point. This is why I say your comment is simplistic.
Then to ignore the positive impact Burrow has brought to recent key matches in a way that Aiton is unable to match shows either some bias or questionable judgement.
Yes Aiton has been dynamic but had Burrow started in those games given the same way the rest of the pack played IMO we would still have dominated the opposition with the same result IMO
Quote: Gotcha "I was sat in a bar in Cyprus, with Wigan, Warrington, Cas, Leigh, and a Halifax fan, watching that game. They were amazed at how good Leeds were. But the Wigan and Saints fans, in their words "we're so p15sed off at how damn good Hardaker is". Further saying "he is so far ahead of every fullback in England, he should be in the NRL, as he would walk into most sides there". When I told him that a couple fans were questioning him even being in the top five, they burst out with laughter, true story. When I told them one numpty actually wanted rid of him and keeping BJB, one of them came very close to pi5s1ng his pants. When he settled down he said, we all have fans like that, who don't have a clue.'"
Is this where you learnt to speak Greek?
At no time have I said we should have got rid of Hardaker and yes I wanted to keep BJB too. In the interest of balance in the face of almost hysterical praise for Zak, I have pointed out his deficiencies, much to your displeasure, which have been mainly to do with his failure to pass on attack and on his sometimes poor positional FB play in defence when following behind the ball as it is passed across the field by the attacking side resulting in no FB when a tackle is busted.
However I have also praised Zak's strengths at many different times. He is a great physical player with the ability to break tackles and make tackles and is excellent on kick returns. He has improved in some areas and overall is currently the best FB in SL. However he still shows a lack of awareness of when to pass without which he cannot be regarded as "classy". An example of which he displayed against Warrington on Friday night. Having made a great break all he had to do was pass for a certain score but he chose to be greedy and go for glory but failed to score. In another game this could have cost 2 points. This is a lack of a basic rugby skill that he has shown throughout his career. Having said that there are signs that Hardaker is maturing and I hope he will develop his passing skills and come to realise this will be appreciated by fans in the way we all appreciated the wonderfully creative John Holmes.
Quote: Gotcha "You didn't by the way only mention his attack, you only started to change that one this season when it was highlighted consistently weekly how poor your judgement was. As the season has progressed he has shown just how good he is attacking wise and passing. Like the pass for Burrow's try when he could have scored himself.'"
No my comments have been consistent with regard both his failure to pass on attack and his occasional poor positioning when the opposition are in our red zone. Yes he has improved on attack as have all the side as they have embraced the coaches attacking methodology. I think he may have made the pass to Burrow out of guilt having chosen not to on two previous occasions one of which cost us a try.
Rugby is a simple game and should not be made complex or high risk. It is a running and passing game with the object of putting teammates into space so they can score. Since my coaching days I have regarded a failure to pass to the man in space as a rugby cardinal sin and is usually a product of a player who hasn't learnt the finer skills often because they rely solely on physical dominance.
Quote: Gotcha "It was so good to watch a match with opposition teams all wanting you to lose, except the Leigh one funny enough, and then to listen to them gushing about us after. And seriously I mean gushing about us, they were just gobsmacked.'"
The whole of SL are talking and appreciating our current successful and attractive style of play ironically our own fans have been slow to appreciate the transition and Brian McDermott's contribution
