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.

Yes it should be possible to finish in the top 6.
In fact there is no excuse not to as 5 of the remainhg fixtures are are against the bottom 3.
IIf we dont win all of those then heads definitely need to roll.

Its our form that's the biggest worry. If we were looking like a real threat in attack, or fixing up the glaring issues with performance we have, then there'd be less to worry about. Instead we seem to be going backwards in terms of form and look less and less likely to trouble better sides.Last year it was first we were just a few points off the top, then third, then fourth, then we still have a mathematical chance of the play offs, then we were gone. There of course is a chance to turn things round, but wins against Cas, Hull and London have to be backed up by wins against other teams.

Nothing about how we play shows we can finish above HKR which we'd need to do to finish 5th. I think we will be 7th or 8th.

At the end under Agar we were giving away a lot of 6 agains and getting penalised a lot as well. Smith’s passive defence tactic improved both of these and although it seemed counterintuitive it worked to get us to the GF.

Since What appeared to be a laid back pre-season in 2023, teams have worked out the ploy and if they make few errors, we get hemmed in our half and the odds are against us . This happened a lot last year and is happening again but the tactic remains and I think this more than anything is leading to fan discontent.

When TV pundits are saying our tactics cannot work at top level it’s mystifying that Smith does not change tack, maybe he thinks our pack can’t do it.