You can tell I'm avoiding doing the garden today...

So this next couple of weeks is interesting for us now. Points difference isn't great for us, but on actual points we're looking good at this stage. After this weekend we'll be sitting on 8 points behind the top two sides on 10 points.

I still think we're going to hammer someone at some point, so hopefully that for and against will improve.

I am certainly not a Smith hater, on the other hand I am not a great fan of his. I don’t take any perverse delight when we are defeated, however if we play badly and some of the coaching is questionable I will certainly comment on that. As I have posted previously since super league was formed the top 4 clubs have been Saints, Wigan, us and Warrington . We have just suffered 2 comprehensive home defeats to saints which is a cause for concern. Whatever happens results wise I think Smith should stay to the end of season. Finish in the top 4 wonderful, outside the top 4 failure, he should go. It’s not acceptable for a club of Leeds stature and fan base to finish outside the top four three seasons on the trot. Certainly when Saints and Wigan have suffered set backs the fans and club quite rightly complained. In both cases things were soon back on track,EG Saints after the Cunningham debacle and Wigan bring in a new coach and strengthened the squad .Both of these sides at the moment appear to have a stronger squad than us.

Interesting to hear Smith say that winning was the most important thing in the press conference after the game. Last year it was all talk about process and performances, and all the while we were losing too many games. Losing games like Cas absolutely kills momentum, and its good to know that this year the coach acknowledge that the table matters.

On your point Backwoodsman, I think the club see this as a transition season again. We've had to make too many changes too fast to be able to get exactly the squad we want, our pack is just too lightweight and we've got a host of kids who look like they could be stars who just aren't ready yet. Even so the squad is looking closer to decent than it has for too many years. It feels like for the first time in a long time there's actually a plan to get us back to the top.

Whether Smith will be the coach if/when we really challenge regularly, the jury's out. I don't think losing the field position battle every game is a winning strategy at all, nor is playing without much structure. Maybe we'll see things change over the course of the season?

Warrington are not one of the too 4 clubs never won Super league, only Leeds Bradford Saints Wigan have, multi times each Warrington won no more trophies in SL era than Hull. We should be aiming for too 3 every year.

I know people see me as a Smith hater, I’m not I actually think the bloke comes across quite well in interviews and on TV. I just fundamentally disagree with his coaching strategy and game plan.

We really weren’t that bad against Cas: I think people have assumed too much about their form. It’s just one of those fixtures that means a lot more to Cas than to Leeds and they aim up.

Our line speed was poor through sections of the first half and we could do with another forward who can bend the line but we were okay otherwise and good in parts.

And this is exactly my stance as I've said previously, I have nothing against him in the slightest but performances like last night where we are just simply clueless and being rolled down. The field are all too common and it isn't a recipe for sustained success. Putting a few trys on a shte CAS team in the second half doesnt change that.

I'd really love to be proven wrong but there's so much that's erratic and disjointed with the ball and for the impressive goal line defence just bloody apply greater defensive pressure further up the field and we might compete down the middle.

When we hold the ball and cut out errors we are difficult to beat this year. I feel like we have some control of games for the first time in a long time - I.e. us at our best is better than most others teams. Let’s see how the next batch of fixtures looks.

Same for me.
I'd love to see abit more structure abd pressure based rugby fir the first 20 mins or so then start to try fancier off the cuff once the opposing team has had a hard go of it.
We also need to figure out how to stop teams doing 80m a set. We had a goal line drop out on set one!. Can't blame tiredness

Personally, I don't necessarily think more structure is what's needed. We need to do more to generate quick ball, and then get more runners off the back of that, and giveour ball players more options. It's possible to be overly structured as well.

At the moment I’d settle for moving up in defence each play and hitting harder. If we did that, the attack would have far more chance of working. We also need to see forwards taking the ball in more than 1 or 2 times per set so we gain more yardage.

For me, we need to stop letting teams walk us down the pitch because even if we defend it. We start pretty much every set on our own line, struggling to get out of our own half, never mind, giving us chance to attack and/or score.

We need to defend better to give us better attacking ball.

We’re terrible.

Any decent team last night would have been out of sight by half time. Watched Wigan Saints today and we’re miles off them at the moment.

Jury still out on RS.

this place is doom and gloom central.