I'm glad you posted that. I said pretty early in the season that defence was poor but I was shot down wirh "we have one of the best defence in the league". I posted that our one and ones and decision making was poor but we was covering well. I also posted that teams can only rely on cover tackles for so long and that's looking the case now especially with makinson out who does a hell of a lot of cover tackles.

The fact we've missed the 2nd most tackles points to what I said. We have players like Turner, walsh, Burns, greenwood and even Wilkin who defend on the edges but all miss 4 tackles plus a game.

The was one game (I can't remember now) where greenwood missed 4 tackles, Turner missed 5 tackles and Wilkin missed four tackles and they was all defending on the same side. That's 13 tackles on one side of the pitch and that spells problems.

We now have walsh in that equation who is missing more than he makes. I watched the leeds game back and if anyone is brave enough to watch it back then just watch Luke Walsh awful attempts. I couldn't show my face again after those attempts.

I wouldnt be so sure of top 4 finish come semi final time. It doesn't really matter if we in top 4 at the end of the regular season, it matters at the end of the super 8s.

We have two tough games in the regular season in Hudds at home and Wolves away. They are both 50/50 games plus we have hull KR the week before the semi final of the cup.

We have hudds, Cas and warrington breathing down our necks now. The top four is not a given for us.

The other observation is our line speed is very erratic and inconsistent, lots of games we wait for the opposition to run at us with a bit of momentum and quite often we surrender a couple of metres on every carry and become victims of an offload.
We,ve had a couple of games (probably v Wigan and Warrington) where we,ve got up into the opposition faces, a lot of teams do it to us quite often to nullify Roby,s distribution, so this is something else KC needs to look at.

When you think about it, we are making a lot of unnecessary work for ourselves, we have loads of improvement to make, the coaches and players need to adjust to play smarter.

Possibly for the next few weeks. However, the first few weeks back were always going to be the hardest and as long as we can weather that, I'd much rather be going into the playoffs with a fit Walsh at halfback than Wilkin, and I think we should still make the play offs regardless.



I don't believe so. There was a few times on Friday that he ran across the line looking for a runner, but it was only a few. He's playing more like a loose forward, only on the left edge. Wilkin has always been one of our fittest players IMO, him and Roby. He made 37 tackles and 11 carries; Roby made 38 tackles and 13 carries, so it's not like he's doing an unreasonable amount of work.

I think probably the best indicator of the fact that Wilkin isn't playing two positions is this: when he has played in the halves, his stats are dramatically different to when he plays second row. In the matches where Wilkin has played the full game in the halves, he averages 21 tackles a match and 7.5 carries. In the matches where Wilkin has played in the back row (either full game, or Walsh started on the bench), he averages 33 tackles and 13 carries.

On Walsh being a lazy defender - I think he isn't lazy in as much as he's just a poor tackler. He also has no trust in Turner, and justifiably so, and this really doesn't help things.

Both hudds and cas won today meaning they are 1 point behind Wigan and two points behind us. It's really hotting up for the top 4 now.

It's going to be really tight.

Makes our game with Hudds on Friday even more special.
Really looking forward to this one, how will Quinlan get on, will Brough have another stormer, will Walshy make up some for his poor showing at Leeds. Should be a good un

I wouldn't be surprised if Walsh's defence was far better in games where it counts. Sometimes a general attitude problem hits the whole team. Expecting a halfback to pick up defensive slack when forwards aren't putting in and the game is lost early is a bit much IMO.

I think Walsh is just feeling his way back in. It's going to take time to get his mind and his game right after such a bad injury.
The only way he's going to get right is to play matches though so it might be a case of short term pain for long term gain.

Don,t think the game on Friday can come around soon enough for players, coach and fans. Expecting a very different attitude as the team will want to put things right, Giants also pushing up the table, so this should be a very competitive game.
Really looking forward to this one, hopefully the team will lay down a marker Friday night.

I don't. I think he's physically gone, even before you get to the 100 foot mental barrier he seems to be facing. I doubt he'll see the season out.

He's been back from the initial break a while now so he should be ok in that respect. He should be over that now. I just feel he's lost his bottle. Maybe he needs a good whack on the leg for him to get over it.

I've just come back from broken ankle and got over it after the first few knocks as most players do. You then forget about it as you get into the game. Few weeks later and I don't even have 2nd thought before the game, during the game or after.

He needs to just get in there and play. If it's going to go then it's going to go and nothing he can do about it so Might as well go for it.

He's been back from the initial break a while now so he should be ok in that respect. He should be over that now. I just feel he's lost his bottle. Maybe he needs a good whack on the leg for him to get over it.

I've just come back from broken ankle and got over it after the first few knocks as most players do. You then forget about it as you get into the game. Few weeks later and I don't even have 2nd thought before the game, during the game or after.

He needs to just get in there and play. If it's going to go then it's going to go and nothing he can do about it so Might as well go for it.

He also broke a toe 2 weeks ago which didn't help.

Doesn't stop him tackling