You say that but listening to the players at Tong - now Geoff has finally been unleashed from his silence, it seems to have created a buzz and given the players fresh optimism that they can get the required number of wins to survive of their own accord.

The feeling and mood in the camp this week is similar to what I experienced the week leading into the game at the Summer Bash with Hull Kingston Rovers.

They'll be a huge uplift in performance on Sunday and oh boy does everyone need it.

The problem is that optimism that built up to KR still resulted in a loss, followed by another god awful performance the week after.

Optimism and good spirits don't get points on their own. And I remain to be convinced the current squad (especially without Chisholm) has enough to win the games required.

Good luck to em, I hope they win. I hope they win every game this season. It still won't be in front of me though until the club pulls it's finger out with communication and stops with the out and out lies to the fans.

We'll see what they're made of when we concede a try or a couple of penalties. It's all very well looking good on the training ground...

Of course they don't but a similar lift in performance against Rochdale would see two vital points heading to Odsal. I remain to be convinced by Keyes and Lilley, but from what I saw on the training ground yesterday, they all know the importance of Sunday's game. Geoff has got them all in that Grand Final mindset.

On the communication front, Andrew Chalmers is definitely looking at doing a monthly online forum with supporters to answer questions that you have.

With all due respect to him, we've been hearing that for months. Actions speak louder than words, and I don't see many actions from Mr. Chalmers regarding sorting out the blatant issues we've been banging on about for ages.

Aside from that, I don't believe a word that comes out of them. When they try to tell me that the away shirt was "always meant to be that one" (clear lies) and that they won't let me bring a ham sandwich in due to safety fears (clear lies), it doesn't help me trust a word the club says.

If they were honest and said "someone f***ed up with the away shirt, we are where we are with it and we're sorry, also we would rather you bought our food so we're banning you bringing your own in", then I'd actually respect the honesty and wouldn't hold it against them. Lie to me though and you can shove it up your 'arris.

That includes junior swaps, who are usually free.

Well, you have the advantage over me there Mick, and I hope you're right.

My (rough and ready) workings out come down to us only being able to lose around another 4 games or it's goodnight Vienna. I know from T&A interviews with various assorted players, that the team is, "Training the house down" and "Ripping it up" at Tong, (but still losing each weekend), so a 'big lift' which improves confidence would be very welcome right now.

Incidentally, though any points gained will count in the survival fight, my understanding is that when the 8s kick in, all the loan players (as distinct from DR) are only allowed to play for one club, so I'd guess that means Lilley, Oledzki etc will be back at Leeds. It certainly isn't going to get any easier!

Bentley, C. Smith, Campbell, Caro, Chamberlain, Chapelhow, Davies, Halafihi, Hallas, Keyes, Kirk, Lilley, Mendeika, Moore, Oakes, Oledzki, Peltier, Thomas, Wilkinson

6 loan/DR players so one will have to drop out. Reckon Oledzki still isn't fit and the shirker Chapelhow is there to cover. Good to see Macani dropped. That Chamberlain didnt look too bad when ive seen him for Widnes. Shame Lumb still can't get a game to give Moore a breather.

I said a couple of weeks ago we could do with getting some like Chamberlain in. It's a shame we couldn't get him when we desperate for centres rather than with Mendeika and Oakes back, but he's certainly better than Mendeika or Caro. For me, either Mendeika or Halafihi misses out (on account of both being crap) along with preferably Chapelhow from the loan/dual reg crowd.

Thomas
Caro
Chamberlain
Oakes
Campbell
Keyes
Lilley
Kirk
Moore
Peltier
Smith
Bentley
Wilkinson

Mendeika
Davies
Hallas
Oledzki

Listen to Geoff Toovey's Rochdale Press Conference by Rugby League Audio #np on #SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/user-129831624/g ... dale-press

Listen to Geoff Toovey's Rochdale Press Conference by Rugby League Audio #np on #SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/user-129831624/g ... dale-press

Chamberlain is more of a fullback/winger than a centre isn't he?

He's played a bit of centre this year for Widnes I believe. I think he's mainlly a centre/winger who's played a little fullback rather than t'other way around.

Its great to hear that 2V has our players "buzzing", "ripping it up" and "tearing houses down" on the training paddock.

Maybe we should ask if all our future fixtures can be played on the training ground cos when we play on real RL pictures we are getting the $hite knocked out of us.
Its so unfair that the opposition play real rugby against us - dont they realise how good we are in training.

Maybe the RFL can change the points system so that if your team is good in training you get points, instead of the current stupid system where you have to play real rugby against another team -wtf!