Spot on.

I think that's a valid criticism of the last seven years and frankly a couple before that. However, I don't think you could apply it to Fridays game, which was comfortably the best seen in SL this season. The result was a disappointment, but the level of entertainment wasn't. I can accept that level of performance and lose, not without frustration, but without complaint. The club were in a massive salary cap hole in 2021 and it was always going to take time to rectify. Think we are almost there and if we nail our recruitment for 25 we can justifiably expect to be challenging for top spot. Till then I'm afraid we'll be heading into games with Wigan and Saints as underdogs.

INOUT
Was a bit easy for Saints that second half though. We were at home, and didn’t look like scoring if we were there all night!

Give Saints some credit Shabs. Their defence has been awesome this season, and they'd be my pick for the title. They're the equivalent of us in 2009 - murder to play against. You keep saying that it will never be like it was, and the standard has dropped, but the facts don't really back that up do they? Saints beat one of the greatest NRL sides of all time in OZ last year, and Wigan (with a bit of luck) managed it this year. They are both elite sides who just aren't going to role over for us. TBH even the "goldens" lost more than they won against them in league games. Going to have to be patient.

Yep we forget sometimes that the Goldens didn’t have great league form all the time, and we lost games like Friday fairly regularly even back then.

We are clearly moving in the right direction but we haven’t moved far enough to be king of the castle.

I do and think they are a very good team. Don’t think they are as good as some think though and they had 3 of their best players out, and a lot of young kids in who they’ve developed. They had weakness’s that we didn’t even try and exploit. Anyone put any footwork on Hurrell? Did we think outside box and try and switch Newman for a bit to go against him? We made Bell look a world beater, again a young kid making his way. But anyway let’s see what CC game brings. I think we’re very unlikely to win after that, but let’s see….

Oh and those WCC games are basically good pre-season friendly to the Oz teams. You can’t gage much on that.

Maybe you should be the next coach Shabs. From where I was sitting we sent a lot of traffic down Hurrell's side. Miller was constantly at him. Saints were troubled, but they hung on (just barely) and adjusted like champion sides do. Sending Newman across and down the left is standard part of our game plan. They all hung back for Newman on the first try and as a result Roberts got in the corner. As for the world CC - Saints went down their and beat Penrith on their own turf. That's a major achievement. You might not think Saints are that good, but that's your subjective opinion. An objective view of the facts says they are the greatest side in the history of SL. But anyway, it's fun to debate.

Oh makes sense now with a week on the lemsip should be fine and the addition of the wrecking ball try machine Wus we'll take them apart

Bell a young kid making his way? He’s 29 and a good player.

You do seem to be downplaying Saints so you can have a moan at Leeds.

I think a few esteemed forum members will need to be on the warfarin next week, we may well lose again.

We gave them our best half an hour for a long time and they soaked it up and suckered us. We tipped a lot into that.

Lisone should be fit which is a big plus. Mom will need to play well and be fit.

RS needs to get the bench right.

Not sure we lost them fairly regularly and to be honest how many Leeds players now would get in that team ?

Between 2004 and 2015 the win loss record between saints and Leeds was about 50%, so yes we lost to them quite regularly

I thought the ref allowed saints to slow the ruck which did kill us in the 2nd half. We also lost some line speed in D. They had quicker rucks which allowed them to play with structure.

I guess either saints are much quicker of the line or we are slower. Who knows.

Agreed that the first 30 was as good as we have played in the last few years. Just need more of it for longer.

Plus I think we need a bit of structure in plays. Can’t do off the cuff for 80 mins. Still lacking a wrecking ball. As good as lisone is in his 10 min spells, would like a bit more for longer.

I still think MoM and Fraeley will turn out to be duds. The former is unfortunately a downgrade on Nene.

Thought we played well for large parts Friday, was a good game, thats my thoughts as a fan.

But, and i alluded to this in the Academy thread, there is a wave flowing through the club at the moment, of taking too much pride and too many positives from defeat. Regardless of anything, players and coaches should be looking at any defeat as a very bad day at the office...Im not seeing that mindset around the club.

A winning mentality or desire to win is just as important as talent