If they’re past motivating then drop them.

Either Dunning can’t see what we can see, or he isn’t prepared to drop players.

Last week Dunning saw the positives, he then dropped 1 player out of the 17 (and another injured).

I don’t think Dunning will see out next season, but they’ll leave it long enough to completely kill off the crowds before they make a change.

Something catastrophic has happened, of which Dunning's appointment seems to be the final straw. Whether this suggest the players are aware of something we're not - that the coaching recruitment has been something of a charade - or a deeper sense that the club's connection with its own support base has finally collapsed, as evidenced by the fans forum, I don't know. But this isn't fixed by a new coach - who'd take this job now?

This regime is finished.

I was interested to see this in the T&A



The bit in bold stuck out.

What is he referring to, I wonder?

He also says he sees a team that will work hard to fix it.

Completely at odds with what we’re all seeing on the pitch.

They had multiple high quality applicants from here and Australia

MDJ is another one who has barely played and won't be cheap. Makes sense to release him if we can.

They've told players they're being released in July?

Of course. There's a date some time in early summer where players can begin to secure their playing future and clubs can approach out of contract players at other clubs.

New contracts always start in November I believe so there has to be plenty of notice for players to be able to find new clubs etc.

I believe players can begin to speak to other clubs on May 1st. Assume players who will be signed on for next year know that they are wanting to be retained. The others who are leaving will know by now whether they will be here next year.

At the fans forum MD referred to this time of year as silly season.

Out of the regular playing players I would keep:
Scott
Patton
Gill
Lilley
England
Wallace
Scurr
Doyle
Butler
Flanagan Jr
The rest can go for me.

MD post match said the travelling fans will have seen enough character and commitment to believe we’ll pull through this.

Did anyone go and is the above a fair reflection?

We lost. But I don’t think it was that bad. The first try came off 1 missed tackle, our back 5 scrambled hard but eventually had all committed to covering the break and we ran out of bodies.
The next 2 tries were because of our discipline. I think they went pen, pen, try. Then pen, knock on, try.
MD looked like he’d fixed it at half time, because we stopped giving penalties away and Barrow stopped being able to break us. We scored first and a few flickers of belief came through.
I can’t remember what happened for Barrow’s first try of the 2nd half but heads went down and you could see them all mentally stop. And that was it. Bullseye pointed out confidence further up and MD mentioned it in the interview. I’ve not seen a team with so little confidence before.

See my previous post

But that's going to be true at every club in every season. Players can start talking to other clubs on May 1st, so this time of year will always have the narrative of players sorting out their future - it doesn't excuse us being crap.

Mick was saying on his Twitter after the game yesterday that there's no player budget fixed for next year. If true, then that could explain a lot. No player budget means no meaningful discussions about retention for 2023. I think we likely have a lot of players who are not exactly in demand with other clubs who don't know if they are going to be offered anything - that seems to be a possible reason for lack of commitment to the cause.