Rank | Posts | Team |
International Chairman | 28357 | |
Joined | Service | Reputation |
Feb 2002 | 23 years | |
Online | Last Post | Last Page |
May 2024 | Oct 2019 | LINK |
Milestone Posts |
|
Milestone Years |
|
Location |
|
Signature |
TO BE FIXED |
|
| Well, never mind glass half full, normally it is, but that was the most complete performance of the season. If you like garbage. Against Batley, parts were pretty dire, but these were interspersed with some pretty nice rugby and some sharp attacking moves. But tnight, apart from maybe Mendeika's try at the end - which was irrelevant so can be almost discounted - our performance had no - repeat none whatsoever, not one - redeeming feature.
It would have probably been an interesting game if we had been anything like, because Featherstone came to play, they looked lively, committed and keen and would have posed a big challenge. It could have been some game.
Instead, we went out so tamely that in the end I couldn't work out what was going on.
The main reasons we lost and they won? Well, the above: desire. Fev wanted it. They murdered us in the collision all night, we in contrast just had the occasional good hard yards, but mostly, nobody did anything, except pass the ball to a stationary bloke, who might crab, or just pass it on, or, more probably, just drop it. Fev were keen, we were visibly not. Even in the last 20, when 3 scores would have won it, we couldn't be arrsed to form scrums to stop the clock.
Next, halfbacks and creativity. Fev presented problems all night, and we couldn't handle their speedof thought and variety of moves. In contrast, we offered nothing - literally, nothing - all night. Sieka is a waste of space. I made a point of watching him when we were 3 scores away and wanted to see him scampering about, in people's faces, demanding teh ball, taking it up and demanding players follow his lead and go for it. Instead, he was just anonymous. Fev's halfbacks made a monkey out of him.
Mistakes and giving up territory were pretty awful too, although that was just icing on the shiitcake, but really, kicking it off dead? Giving away a string of penalties just because players are too lazy to get back the ten? And the dropsy - well, what can you say? Were these really the well-paid pro players that we pay, or some lookalikes? I'm frankly not sure. Some of the errors were really a joke. At least Jimmy got one thing right when the hook came on for Henry - he was abysmal, and the turnstile tackle that led to the try immediately before his hook was awful. I don't know what we can do to try to stop the haemorrhaging of cheap yards. It probably wasn't as bad as it sometimes is - but that would be because Fev had most of the ball!
One thing you can say having watched us all season so far is that anyone who claims we have some edge in fitness due to being full time is having a laugh. It may be true against one or two teams but tonight, a mid week game, that is when in the second half our full-time training and conditioning should have been apparent. Let's just say that it wasn't. We looked out on our feet, and that is appalling. We have a big squad, and if we had players who had nowhere near recovered from their ordeal against Batley, then why were they playing? Suffice to say, tonight it was clear that Featherstone were much fitter than us, and lasted the 80 minutes far better than us. How that can be, I have no clue.
I would say that whatever his coaching abilities turn out to be, Jimmy was comprehensively out-coached tonight. Fev had done their homework, they double-teamed on our main strike player Purtell and he ended up looking stupid, and they never let AOB off the leash either.
I hope there were some reasons that I don't know, and I hope we have a plan. Come out like that against a SL team in the Super 8s and it will be a 70 point pasting - if we're lucky. We looked an exceedingly poor team tonight - in fact that was the worst team i have seen all season, and I include Whitehaven, Batley, Workington and the rest in that. I haven't seen any other team that managed to produce basically nothing, at all, over 80 minutes. What a waste of 80 minutes.
|