Very well said.

Agree 100%

Do we have a return date for Martin? I have no issue with his compassionate leave, but we could really do with him back especially now Mellor is likely to be missing.

Having watched the Catalan game again , that is undoubtedly is the worst display of distribution I have seen from a hooker for many years - that from our hookers in the second half.
I then sat and watched Hull KR v Castleford and watched a virtually perfect man of the match performance from a hooker - great distribution , solid defence , penetrating sniping runs and great link up play - who else but Matt Parcell .
Lock our 2 hookers in a room for a couple of days to watch the tape, until they are brainwashed.

Flies back this weekend.

I know very few people will probably agree with me on here but I think Smith is too slow at 13 and i think he slows the game down and actually hinders the attack. He has the footballing skills and ability and works really hard and puts a shift in but looks a stone overweight me for the role he should be playing.
How many actual defence splitting passes or quality offloads has he actually delivered. A thirteen shpuld either be a ball playing organiser like a Sinfield or a big dynamic lock like a Sam Burgess. Smith seems to be stuck somewhere between the two and unsure what type of forward he wants to be.

He probably falls into a middle!!
He did make 48 tackles on the night I think.

Weve much bigger issues than Cam Smith to be fair.

Struggling to find a high point to discuss from Thursdays poor performance and won’t dwell on the negatives as they have been widely covered. The thing that worried me the most is that Catalan are supposed to be one of the top 3 contenders for this season and what I have seen of them so far is they are going to be mid table at best. Wakey had a mini resurgence against Saints and almost made a game of it. If we are not a lot better than we have been then we are going to lose there too. Then 0 from 4 becomes a much bigger concern. I’ve always been one to say have faith but it is getting harder to believe

Agree and personally I don`t have a problem with Smith.
Half backs, hooker full back, centre and props come much higher on the list for me along with the coach!

How we go about things is key imo. If our approach doesn't change then we'll struggle to score enough to overcome any side prepared to work hard. That trait hasn't been enough for wakey to get a win so far but it ought to if we only manage the odd try or two.

As for Smith, if Bodene did offloads...

Wakefield were excellent against us. They out enthused Saints for large parts of the game, defended well, and made more breaks against us then I have seen in a good while. They gave Catalans a good game the week before (though I agree they have looked average at best currently), and were unfortunate at Hull to fall victim to the current refereeing approach, so I wouldn’t necessarily call it a resurgence, but definitely a tough start.

On another night we may have won 38-6 (we had a try ruled out for a dubious obstruction, and held up twice) but with a few different bounces of the ball, it could have been 20-18.

So did Prior just not come back on because we ran out of subs or is he a concussion issue? He came back on at the end of the 1st half v Catalan, but hardly played 2nd half.

I want to like Smith. His defensive stats are certainly impressive. I'm not seeing it with ball-in-hand though; he often looks too sluggish to be a really standout player on attack. Maybe if some of the other players helped him out in defence a little more, he'd have a bit more energy?

We probably shouldn't underestimate losing Mellor after 2 minutes on Thursday. All the forwards had to work harder, and Thompson simply doesn't offer enough in attack. That said, I would have hoped with our much vaunted first choice props in the 17 (including Oledski, Prior and Tetevano) we should have had enough to dominate a Catalans pack missing some big forwards.

Otherwise, I really hope we don't need to use Briscoe too much in the centres this season. Sutcliffe finally started looking like a threat in the last 15 minutes but it was too little too late by then. First choice centres really ought to be Newman and Broadbent.

Agree with all that other than Sutcliffe whilst making a couple of breaks did not have the legs for one and dropped the ball for another.
Neither he or Briscoe should be our centres.

Totally agree with that. I am not blaming Smith for our issues however I think there is a coaching issue that is not helping him maximise his undoubted potential. It looks to me that a some point somebody has told hime to concentrate on his overall workrare and he has bulked up to support this. I just think he would benefit from dropping a few pounds and being more mobile and getting out of the middle channels from time to time. Look at the way Bateman influenced the game vs Leeds popping up in different areas. Its up to others to step up defensively in the tackling stats and the carries down the middle. I still would have him in my 17 every week.