Completely left field thought here.
But could Frawley play FB with Miller playing in the halves?
Just a thought.

Miller needs to start playing like its 13 a side not sevens, if he can do that he will be fine. Frawley just shouldn’t be at the club.

Frawley isn't great but even the best would struggle behind our beaten pack with a coach that wants you to play like a forward.

Are you joking? Have you seen him run?

I think the players we have are fine. It's the defensive tactics that are the issue. I'm not too bothered about unstructured attack, we're not getting in enough attacking positions anyway, because we're allowing teams to stroll 70m up field every set, resulting in us starting our sets on our own line. I just don't understand the logic behind it. RL is about controlling field position, but we seem to be happy surrendering it.

Agree Jack. I didn't rate Frawley, but until he's played games where we've got field position its hard to judge him too harshly. Croft isn't exactly setting the world on fire either, and he definitely is a good player. Momirovksi looks a shadow of his former self, but maybe needs a bit more time to get going, and again is in a team constantly playing at the wrong end of the field. Miller I think would be doing far less crazy stuff if he wasn't needing to look for miracles every play - he didn't do that in the NRL.

The problem is the forwards. We lack a bit of size and power, but that was always the case looking at our squad. The bigger issue is the way our forwards are playing, and even if we had different players would they look much different? The defensive "strategy" is pants, and has been for over a year. We're getting mullered right down the middle of the field and losing ridiculous yardage on every set. That's down to attitude and the way they are being asked to play.

We're looking only marginally better than last season despite laying out big money for a new spine, who are wasted because of where and how they're getting the ball. If Smith doesn't address that then its not new players we need as much as a new coach. And that really pains me to say because I like a lot of what he's done at the club.

So did Daryl Powell back in the day. But it replacing him with uncle Tony took leeds to the top.

But dropped ball / penalties is making us defend our own 30/40 constantly. Switch four sets of that for four sets of good ball and the balance of the game changes.

Another thing is that Bentley can’t be advocated by people who also think we lack strike in the pack, you can’t have your cake and eat it. Said before but for me the comparison is Goudemand/Donaldson/o’Connor/Bentley.

Think O’Connor got pushed off another marker tackle for one of Wire’s tries but he was very good other than that.

Some tough decisions needed to elevate us from here, because on current evidence the team isn’t good enough still.

It’s not impossible that Max Simpson comes through at centre this year and we push Mom out to wing, but he looks too slow for wing.

This is the root of the problem.
The passive defence and lack of power in the pack is constantly putting us under pressure and on the back foot.
This means the backs have nothing to work with and are desperately searching for miracle plays from our own half.

We're short of two big forwards, but I believe that the rest of the players are better than what is being served up.
Unfortunately this has to be down to the tactics and how the team are being set up to play.

I know the rose tinted brigade will point to the amount of mistakes we are making and the coach can't do anything about that.....
But I really believe mistakes are made because we are constantly on the back foot in our own 20.
Pressure leads to errors.

I don't believe that errors is the reason why we are constantly defending our own line.
It's the passive defence.
Castleford and Leigh, first half.
We didn't make errors, we just allowed them to march all the way up the pitch every set.

And yes, before anyone points out, I know we won those games.
It may work occasionally against poor teams.
But decent teams, and teams on form will punish us.

Spot on

The 'rose tinted brigade' are taking a break from the negativity on here (I can understand that though).

The game will always be based on earning the right to play through defending with intent high up the field, restricting your opponents yardage and making them kick from deep therefore receiving the kick as far up the field as possible then creating momentum with the same on the other side of the ball. Save for a few examples of heads up rugby and attacking early in the set and from deep, that is how successful teams will always play the game. RS thinks he can do it the other way around, he's wrong.

Well you might call it rose tinted while I’d say half of you on here are ridiculously negative. Different perspectives.

I agree with you that our mistakes and tactics can be related, we’re often pushing the miracle play but it isn’t just that. I also think you all repeat “passive defence” a million times and believe it; actually watching games I see some sets where we are slack yes, but others where we do get up and compete in D. It’s just not as simple as some make out. The fix won’t be as simple as just changing the coach…. again. You didn’t like McDermott, you didn’t like Furner, you didn’t like Agar, you don’t like Smith, you do like any other coach whose side happens to be doing okay one year… well if you’re right and we’ve had 7 years of crap coaching then who appoints the coaches?

The balanced view in my very humble opinion is that we are 2-3 star signings off competing at the top still, and yes RS has some pressure over this next sequence of games. Hudds could be interesting.

We did make errors/give penalties in those games. I’m agreeing that our D has been too soft at times, especially line speed and it looks systemic/tactical. It’s hard to figure out though because we are not consistently “passive”.

Seriously if people look at the tries conceded against Wire, you will find almost every point conceded came directly from our own errors and penalties. You can disagree with those facts if you like. Knock on, knock on, try. Penalty, try. Interception. How is it passive defence to blame when we are defending sets starting in our own 30/40 so frequently?

Yep maybe different perspectives.
What's your view on our kick chase versus the oppositions?

From where I see it, Frawley is always kicking under pressure from the opposition chase.
And then we bag him for kicking straight into hands.

The opposition kicker seems to have all the time in the world.
Look at Fridays game.
The young kid at 7 for Wire.
He received the ball on the 5th, looked up and could not believe the space in front of him.
He ran another 15 metres and placed the kick where he wanted.

What is driving that?
Fitness, laziness, players don't care or they're just dumb?
Or is that what they are being told / coached to do.

I honestly don't get it.
But line speed and kick pressure surely are absolute basics.