The players generally will always give of their best; they're pretty much hard-wired to do that so you should [ialways[/i get the best they can do at the time. The best they can do though is always going to be variable, due to the fact that coaches always try to 'peak' at important times in the year. You train hard to attain your peak and sometimes you need to back off just before hitting your best. If it isn't a 'peak' period you'll always be just short of or just past your 'best'.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not for a second saying we're brilliant right now, we're not even good, to be fair, let alone brilliant - it's just that I'm sure the coaching staff will actually be aiming to be at our best when the chips are down, which is the end of the season and not right now; lets face it, since the cup final has been blown we now have only the play-offs to peak for. Let's hope we don't mess it up and we give a good account at 'the business end'!

TBF I think it's a good idea. This forum all agreed that the ruck speed in the championship and SL was chalk and Cheese. If we allow the opposition a quick play-the-ball, we have to put the extra effort to set the defensive line quicker. Keep doing that over and over again and what was previously a forced effort, suddenly becomes a habit.

We're not going to have a season of slow rucks and then come the middle8s be able to switch it on like a tap and adapt to SL speed rucks.

If you watch the Leigh game it does appear to be a tactic/habit Jimmy is trying to enforce. When we played the ball it was painfully slow and Leigh laid on as long as the ref allowed. But when Leigh played the ball we weren't laying on at all and letting them up instantly and Higham killed us.

If that helps us adapt and prepare for the middle 8s fair enough.

But from last few games we need to be working on lots more. Attack. Passing. Support play (which is abysmal) kicking game (even worse) and defence out wide.

I can see the point of doing this but when our defence isnt up to snuff its a waste of time, dewsbury exploited that repeated as did Leigh, fair enough we are allowing a quick PTB but our line is still trudging back by and they have made 15+ metres with little effort

Right and then come the middle eights we'll suddenly remember how to lie on and slow the ptb down ?

what a load of bollox if its true Lowes really has lost the plot.

I would tend to agree

There's a fine line between genius and madness, but I reckon if this is true then it sits more within the latter camp! Now I've said that, we will smash the 8's and I will have egg on my face; but I won't care.

Exactly this!
I used to go week in week out and loved it, now I rarely go, although I think pro rugby league in this country is a lot poorer than it used to be 5+ years back in general anyway.
We should be going out to murder every team, if they aren't going to give us close games (which they are, but full time pro v part timers shouldn't be on such a regular basis!), then we have to create our own intensity and set high expecations in terms of the score, plays, tackles etc..
As for being out of the cup being a good thing, that's ridiculous. We need practice against quality teams, so we needed to be in the cup to play the Super League teams and get that practice! Team battling relegation or maybe in a close intense battle at the top may be better without the distraction but certainly not where we are. We are not a SL team, we don't have a SL coach and we have very few SL quality players, but we have very good players for this league, who should be massively fitter than the part timers and that should count for everything, it certainly used to in SL V Champ Challenge Cup games.
He hardly got us to perform last year as Bullseye says, I'd add in Salford at home though Sam. Wakey may not have exactly been there for the taking, but that was probably THE best chance to take them. Putting 2 10 minute subs on the bench against a SL pack was always going to be the wrong call and we were battered in the middle as our props were out on their feet. He wore people like OB and Pitt out in the preceding games. He may have been a class player and I have never been in the pro ranks, but come on, anyone could see they were mistakes before they actually happened.
Legend as a player and that will never change, useless as a coach.

If he thinks peaking before the 8s is the tacktick then why did we lose those games just before the 8s. Was that peaking?

I have now come to the opinion that even if we scraped our way into SL I still don't want Jimmy to be the coach. I am sick and tired of watching and listening to him - and possibly some players are also. Problem is how do you tell Jimmy in say August that his contract is not to be renewed without some saying it will affect his attitude at the time when he needs to be spot on with decisions. Tough decision for Mr Green in whether to let him go and if so, when he tells Jimmy.

If Lowes is a genius as a coach the rest of the world is mad. Wibble.

A real genius often tends to be recognised as such in retrospect and more rarely so in his/her lifetime. Of course, a 'coaching lifetime' is somewhat shorter, so the accolades/brickbats tend to come sooner but usually the genius is doing something none of the others have worked out, so is likely to be criticised by the orthodoxy. So, of course is the madman..

It's also fair to recognise that a genius can make mistakes and that a fool can sometimes get it right . In itself, getting something right no more makes you a genius than getting something wrong makes you a fool.

Off you pop. Clueless, inept and utterly embarrassing.

You have had more than enough time.

Noooooooooo, leave him there , pleeeeeeeease

Lowes Out

Lowes in

He needs to go, no creativity just one man rugby.

Crossley can go too, fat useless waste of a shirt.

Addy needs to be in the forwards and a scrum half signed ASAP.

Mathews slows the play down when he is in at first receiver, every time we got to the last tackle in the first half he was there taking the ball and passing on to addy who had no time to kick it.

He needs to go ASAP. Abomsitely clueless in attack. No idea whatsoever!!

Lowes said he would never question the desire of the players. Well maybe he should as Halifax had a lot more desire today.

Team deserved all the boos they got today Mr Ferres.