Don’t forget we don’t need a quota spot for a french player or two!

Anyone you recommend?

That guy that smokes cigarettes whilst playing at full back, Puig Albert i think his name is!.

In all seriousness I don’t know who’s available

I think the worry for me is how long the rebuild is taking and how many poor coaching appointments GH has made over those years each bringing in their players.
Other teams that we were beating such as the Wigans, Saints, Wire, Catalans, HKR etc have all managed to rebuild in half the time we have and considering we are probably another year or two away still.
Smith has brought in a couple maybe 3 decent players with the rest average at best and disastrous at worse.
What`s to say he does the same next year only to find we are still rebuilding and still sitting 6th or 7th in the League.
GH eventually gets rid and we start our rebuild again.
That probably gets us to what 10/12 years of rebuilding which for our club with our supporters is not good enough when the aforementioned maintain their position in the top 4.

Think saying it’s only a couple of decent players smith has brought in is a tad harsh.

The squad needed a total rebuild you aren’t going to rebuild it in 2 years without misfiring on some of the players in a salary cap sport.

Retention for this year has been poor I will 100% agree on that.

That`s what I mean Chris.
Due to GH appointing the "wrong" coach over a number of years and now we have Smith who needs another 2 years with his players brought in it takes us nearer to the 10 year mark to rebuild.
Players such as Miller and Frawley don`t fill me with the confidence we have the right players in key positions.
What`s to say the next 2 or 3 that come in are similar?
Granted they might be Croft standard but we will have to wait to see.
Nice to see you back on here btw mate.

Ah ok, yes I agree about the mismanagement of coaching appointments, which is why I don’t want Smith sacked mid season.

Just on Miller, I’m a big fan, he’s exciting and entertaining to watch, and I go to the rugby for entertainment, personally i can forgive some of his brain farts because he’s relatively in experienced and will get better, but he’s a player that makes you excited when he gets the ball.

Totally get why some would see it differently though, especially after Catalans as he had a shocker.

Ironically this is where I am critical of RS. This is a player making the same kind of tactical mistakes as in pre-season. Stop him kicking the ball unless it’s an attacking kick in good ball.

I don't want to see Smith sacked mid season unless an clearly better option can be brought into replace him. I have lost confidence in his ability to get the best out of the side he has assembled though. He deserves credit for turning round the dire start to 22 and overseeing the best rugby we'd seen in some time. Think we all expected to see a bit more structure and defensive toughness in 23, but that obviously didn't manifest, and this year with more of his own picks, we look no better. I think he looks and sounds increasingly lost. On the recruitment side I think it has to be two props. Bouquet was mentioned last week and he is out of contract. Land him and Papali and we really shouldn't have to take a step back from anyone, but only with a coach who values prop forwards at the helm.

Totally agree. Wouldn’t sack smith now unless there’s a serious chance of bringing in a much better option, however smith’s recruitment of players has been more miss than hit and I do worry about his ability to squad build to get us to the required level. We were expecting a top 5 top 4 finish no doubt, as I think was GH.

Off the top of my head Sangare, Frawley, Mom, Goudamond, Olpherts, retention of Fusi and Bentley have been really poor business. Croft Ackers good business. He’s not improving many of the current players either, oldeszki has gone backwards imo.

We’re 11 games into a 27 game season we could still be top 4/5 by the end.

There’s still a lot to happen this season and tgat could include a decent run of form.

I think Momorosvki will come good and Goudemand has been pretty solid for a player who I didn’t expect to start every week. Thing is, it seems like the players are making it up for themselves and - shock horror - in the heat of the battle they make big mistakes. A firmer hand and a coherent structure would improve a lot of these lads overnight. Miller is a great example. Obvious athletic ability but it needs harnessing. Instead he seems to back himself even more with each passing game and we get clanger after clanger. The coach is paid to address this.

On Miller, it should be noted that these issues never really came out in the NRL. That was simply because nobody would trust a tyro new to the game to take important kicks. As soon as it became clear he was as likely to make a bad error as not at Leeds, he shouldn't have ever been given the ball again. To me that's the coach, but also the senior players. Croft and Frawley can both kick and are far more experienced. They should be demanding the ball off him, not watching as he makes another bad effort.

These sorts of things are symptomatic of lack of attention to detail and accountability. Some of our work on absolute basics is terrible, and nothing at all to do with not having star players in every position. What's the point of even signing a couple of big props if we keep giving away possession cheaply? That needs to be fixed regardless of who is in the 17, and like it or not that is ultimately the coach's responsibility.

Mathematically possible Chris.
But do you really believe we can finish top 4 given the teams above us??

Yes, I believe we can, do I think it will happen, no, I think we’ll finish 5th.

The league is ridiculously tight at this point, can’t see past wigan and saints for top 2 but the rest is up for grabs IMO.

We've got a fairly favourable run of games coming up and we need to be taking advantage of that. The Challenge Cup can also take it’s toll on the teams left in it. Which could help.

We need to get some troops back though and they will need to stay fit for us to do anything.