Maybe he does but not as strongly as he once did.

Well said.

Tomorrow is more important than all the yesterdays added together, but it`s only in the light of what happened previously that we can make sense of the tomorrows still to come. You use the word perspective and it`s an important one and you are right to use it for it`s perspective that gives us the tools to make comparisons; remember, success and failure aren`t absolutes they are comparatives.

With this in mind I do believe we have been, to some extent, spoiled by success, mainly to the extent it creates expectations which can`t always be delivered. I really don`t know about thirty or forty years, the fanbase demographic is pretty wide to be fair, though clearly whilst more recent fans will be hitting new territory many others will have been there, done that etc.

I don`t think Mr Hood is one to be panicked into making decisions, though if the attendances were to fall away much more he may well feel that `something` must be done, if only to placate the critics. Whether or not `all we can expect under the same protagonists` is decline I really don`t know (and neither do you really) but one thing for certain is that success will come again, whether with the current "protagonists" or with their successors, or maybe three lots of successors down the line.

Sorry if this sounds a bit blunt RER and I mean this question genuinely...

What makes you so sure of this?

Earlier in the season when you asked Hood about our form he was always very protective of Macca. In the last few weeks that hasn't been the case he's been very non- committal when questioned. The other people who have been their talking to him have also picked up on that it looks like his faith in him is wavering more and more each week.

As always fella, appreciated.

Many thanks.

I'd agree with that, with the following refinement; for 75% of the game we played passably well - if lacking in defence - and put together some great effort, some vaery entertaining rugby, and some fine tries. For a lot of the game it did have a feelgood factor.

The first half contrasted with the second underlines the point that I am going to make.

We started like sh#t, but despite this we came strong up to half time and we all felt good at the half time break, and had that been the end of the game, all the fans would have gone home encouraged, and been inclined to return next time.

But then came our signature defensive collapso-period. It cost us the game, and all the fans were taken from feeling good to sick to the pit of their stomach at us apparently throwing yet another won game away.

And despite us again playing passably well for the remainder of the game, coming back to challenge etc., the damage was almost complete, and the kick to fail to salvage even a draw was as predictably as the effect of sticking a pin in a balloon.

Despite everything that has gone on this season, it wouldn't be hard for the team to send the home fans away happ. We seem to be a forgiving and long-suffering bunch, if declining in numbers. And my point essentially is that you say the performance was infuriating, but it wasn't. At least the majority of it would equal reasonable happiness.

The stick we repeatedly beat ourselves up with is that the decent performance for the majority of the match is wiped out, indeed destroyed as if it never happened, in people's perceptions and memories of the game by the abject spell of rubbish defence and lack of application. Which undoes -and more- all the efforts for the majority of the match. And so the fact that for a lot of the game we played well, and the fans enjoyed it, becomes sunk without trace.

FA's post is a handy reminder of why this forum is any cop - it and posts lke it are head and shoulders above any analysis you'll read in the T&A or anywhere else for that matter.

Let me throw in a heretical thought - can you coach concentration? Is it possible that when we are good is when we are following our coaching while when we are godawful it is because the instruction has been temporarily forgotten?

What by the entire team? At the same time? In every game? Its seems a touch unlikely!

When the pressure is applied, some clearly crumble far too often. Everybody does some times. I remember being shocked by a shocking attempted tackle by JP when we got dusted 66-4 by Saints. But some of our players do it too often. Some. Not all. Not so many that we're dead last but too many for us to be in a play-off berth.

This brings up another point - at the Fans Forum, were any questions asked as to why our form was so plain weird? The incredible collapses, the passable on the road, hopeless at home. I still suspect that this is not so much a poor-to-medicore team as a schizophrenic one, though I fully accept that the limited gametime I've seen puts me in a not-so-great position to judge.

Concentration can be coached to a certain extent, just as players can be made faster or stronger, but "natural ability" is also important.

I just think certain players are naturally more consistent than others and that we have more than our fair share of the inconsistent ones. I think this is because MacNamara is drawn to players that have underperformed in the past. He thinks he can turn them into into better, more consistent players.

When we've signed players such as Solomona, Platt, Sherrife, Jeffries, Sykes, Godwin, Tupou the message from the fans of their former clubs has always been "they're talented but inconsistent". MacNamara thinks he can overcome this, he might with one or two but most will remain agonisingly inconsistent.

Nail on head. af for Dave Cravens job

What actually makes the lapses worse is the fact that in some games, against the best attacking teams in SL, we`ve defended superbly for virtually the whole match, and to be fair no team is going to stop sides like Saints and Leeds from scoring at some point in the game. The defensive patterns are clearly in place, which makes the shambles of last Sunday (and too many other Sundays) so much harder to understand.

It looks to me that when we have 2 or 3 player off their game defensively and others have to scramble to cover it exposes a real lack of quality, whereas when everyone is playing close to their potential it's good enough to get by.

If the defensive pattern is right but being let down by poor execution I'd expect to this improving over the season and having less collapses, as full time professional players are going to improve even it it takes them a long time. Can anyone point to us getting better or is the set up just wrong?

Its getting worse because the players dont have faith in the guys stood either side of them. Good defense is often about collective self confidense.