Quote: unlucky 13 "Hall . He doesn't give away silly penalties though . Think we ought to look at the coach for the current state of our team though something is broken at leeds at the moment and it needs fixing quick I certainly wouldn't get on singletons back for signalling one way then going the other nor will I give credit to McDermott for rotating squad and blooding youngsters when his hand has been forced by injuries'"
Hall has given consistent top class displays for several years now and his current dip in form is unusual. But one of his errors led to their first try which the anti-Vickery Club choose to gloss over.
I am not on his back or on Singleton's or anyone else's back for that matter. I am against the negative blame game so in order to balance the comments regarding Vickery I am just pointing out the errors of others, to those of you who choose to wear Stevie Wonder's while looking at certain players and clear microscopes for others.
Leeds have come through a tough set of fixtures and until the last few games have done well with some of the best defence seen from a Leeds side which has seen us beating most of the sides above us. We have now hit a drop in form with key players under par combined with a growing injury list. However all is not lost as we have a much easier 2nd half of the season to come.
Our key playes have class and will regain form. (in fact there were signs in the last 10 minutes of Sinfield stirring back to attacking form) The whole side has guts a never say die atttitude and mental toughness that was shown against Wigan and again in the 2nd half against Hull when we could have been blown away.
I think the coach has handled the youngsters just fine. Because they are now ready does not mean they were ready for the first team any earlier and all this lack of rotation talk is based on pure assumption. What is clear is that the loss of JP is a big blow as none of the benchmen have come close to filling his boots. I note the rotationists would have had us playing without JP for even longer this season and many of these same experts would have dropped him and pensioned him off last year.
You choose to see doom and gloom because we have lost the last 4 games. But apart from the Huddersfield game we could or should have won against St Helens and Wigan and came up against an inform Hull who had a purple patch in the first half that would have seen off most sides.
The loss of Watkins on top of JP, Ward & Ablett is really tough IMO McGuire less so. However if the reserves now stand up to the plate with an easier set of fixtures we still have a good chance of a top 4 spot for the playoffs when some of our injured stars may return.