Quote: Juan Cornetto "You are right Tad. The lack of onfield leadership was not addressed when Sinfield retired. To lose JP at the same time made the need to recruit all the more important. We do not have a skilled enough organizer at the club with the ability to read a game like Gale. Our play is all too predictable without an decent organizer and the reserves are championship standard at best.
To be without 8 first choice players is a real handicap. Had we been able to play Ward, JJB, Ablett, Garbutt, Galloway, Ferres, Burrow and Briscoe we would not have let in that score and would at least have competed. However I am not saying we would have won due to the serious lack of a game manager.
As it was Cas made 50% more carries than us resulting in complete dominance in meters, tackle busts and clean breaks. We made almost 50 missed tackles which is down to the players and in a game where the youngsters had a right to expect senior players like McGuire and Watkins to step up to the plate their displays were just awful. Keinhorst, Parcell and Singleton tackled their hearts out but the quality around them was below standard.
With the senior players back and a new half back recruit we could compete. Until we sign an organier I would be tempted to play Burrow and Lilley at half back as on last nights showing McGuire is either not match fit or sadly is now past it and Sutcliffe is a back rower playing out of position.'"
Just as a matter of interest Juan, as a huge detractor of Zak Hardaker's abilities & a huge admirer of BMD's coaching qualities, what do you make of Hardaker's magnificent passing contributions in his (only) 3 games for Cas.
To my mind, does this not disprove both your assertions ie. (a) Hardaker CAN act as a very effective link man in attack and (b) if he does have this ability, presumably BMD did not encourage him to exercise this skill in all the years under BMD's tutelage. It did not take long for a decent coach to recognise this ability.
