But what if Lowes felt that weakening his team by rotating with some of these was too much of a risk to take? As appears to be the case? I should imagine he was picking squads to finish as near top and be ready for the playoffs. And I don't buy this "disaffected" thing. if youare not happy then leave. If your agent can't get you a gig then when you get your chance, why would you play like a disinterested twot, surely you would be putting yourself in the shop window?

But don't ask my why they played like that. I don't understand it, any more than I do when our first team gives up and ships another 50

If that was Lowesy's opinion then it's his right, in fact his duty, to do that. He's the boss and he's hired and fired on that basis. I though, don't have to agree it was the best policy. That's the beauty of being a fan - my team selections never get put to the test, so were always correct!!

As for the disaffected thing, well, yeah you'd think so but I don't have any other explanation as to why so many seemed unbothered by being drubbed.

It could well be that they knew they weren't going to be involved this weekend no matter how they played even if they had a blinder.

As a man being paid a full-time wage for playing, that'd be a bit like committing job suicide wouldn't it?

If it was me, then the way to test that theory is to bust a gut and have a blinder. If after that you still don't make the squad - THEN complain. i reckon not many have played so well that many times, that at least a place in the squad or two wasn't up for grabs for anyone who played a blinder.

But as it is, Lowes doesn't have that problem!

Well there are many incidences of mangers and coaches leaving out players for the game before a big final and saying something along the lines of, "it gives players a chance to play their way into the side", but if you're one of those brought in, you[i know[/i full well that it's largely disingenuous claptrap.

The puzzle is, as FA points out, it makes little sense for the future prospects of those players for them [inot[/i to give their all, since they are clearly on the outer and must realise they won't get another club by looking as though they couldn't care less. I know what I saw last Saturday, and Jimmy Lowes summed it up pretty well, but it still doesn't make any sense.

Getting dropped...not picked even when we're rubbish....fed up....not playing...not match fit.....getting picked on the wing, at full back, at stand off... getting blamed. I felt sorry for Mendeika. How is a lad coming in mid season going to get any form?

Adam Henry was poor last year but then again I didn't sign him on for this season. Fleming (what's he ever done wrong?) and Halafifi were OK in the first half and didn't last because they haven't played.

James Clare - full back, wing, dropped, wing, turnstyle. Most of these lads are actually very young.

It's a combination of some not good enought to start with, a good few not match fit, honest lads who look like they've tried but had their confidence badly knocked by a coach who sends them to Coventry after a poor performance while sticking with Luaki, not bothering with half backs while doing his best to get O'brien retired by 25.

You can't watch what we've watched all season and put it down to players can't be bothered. Watching us against Wakefield my friend said look how nervous we are in defence and I think this might be it. Our confidence levels are wafer thin. We don't trust ourselves and we don't trust the next player.

It clearly is a type of disaffection which has manifested itself all year and in particular in the absence of a fit Gaskell and/or Mullaney who the others believe have the ability to make things happen. It is a critical absence of leadership and experience in key positions which has been apparent from pre-season and blatantly obvious from HKR in the cup when we were facing a long period without Siejka and Mullaney.

Jimmy's analysis is indeed correct. Now he needs to go find a mirror.

Cripes I hate to think what you'd be like if we'd actually had a poor season rather than having proved ourselves the best of the division by some margin and made the big game

That we haven't been able to prove ourselves the best in the second divison by 'some margin' is rather the point.

Not at all. If we don't get promotion, then whether we were the best team in the division or not couldn't possibly matter any less

That probably isn't an Absolute Truth. It may matter to some people or just one person.
However the two questions as I see it are:
Does it matter?
Does it matter that it matters?

So if we don't get promoted the club will decide not to carry out any assessment as to why this is the case.

OR, in carrying out some form of assessment they'll consider our performances throughout the season irrelevant?

Both of these options would seem unlikely.

I think they'll put what Jimmy minds over whether it matters or not.

Not sure where you're going with this straw man. The season is a 2 stage process:
1) make the playoff - check
2) win the playoff - pending

I think you seem to be saying that we could have achieved 1) better, or differently, or something. But I ddoubt if HOW we got to (2) was on Jimmy's to-do specification. Anyway I'll leave it at that as we seem to have covered all bases

How is thinking we could have done better a straw man? What would be the purpose of reducing all discussion down to 2 x 3 word memes?

We could save ourselves the ticket price and simply look at the results and table.

Being fair to all, we didn't set up the system, we just had to make the best of it.

To be frank, the early season was a matter of being in the top four and preferably top two - that we did easily, though as one of only three full time teams in the division that should, in many ways, have always been a given and we maybe coasted...sometimes a bit too much.

We've also got through to the deciding game, which is as much as could actually be reasonably expected from a second tier team. Winning that game is something we, quite logically, are not favourites for and you can't blame the coach if we fail at a hurdle we were set up to fail at. On the flip side of that, winning the game would be an outstanding achievement, and would outweigh all other criticisms any of us may have had imo.