Crookes shouldn't have been brought off today it should have been the ineffective Sykes.

Hilarious, guess you're one of them.

However, I want to know who the joker is who placed a certain advertising hoarding right smack in front of the Bulls benchhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v154/boiledvark/Samaritans.jpg" >

Well it was pretty dismal once again. I was hoping to see some fire in their bellies today but I was largely disappointed.

The opening was dire and our passing was once again amateurish I'm afraid. Despite some almost comically bad passing we did manage to put together a few good tries. We're still carrying some passengers, what exactly did Deacon do today? He was almost anonymous apart from his conversions and the one decent kick for the try. Newton was again poor, although does seem to have perfected the art of giving away a cheap penalty and then making a lazy attempt at a tackle to allow the opposition to score. Surely he won't get a new contract for 2010, at times it's hard not to question his commitment.

When you have two ineffective half backs and a hooker who cannot even get back into the defensive line nevermind deliver a decent pass then you'll always end up on the losing side.

If I was McNamara I would be ringing every contact I had in the NRL to see if we can bring over a half back to bring some direction to this shambles. Has there been any further news on Witt? He'd give us the kicking game that Deacon once provided.

Love your sense of humour

Well the game was worse than i hoped for but better than I feared.. especially after going 12-0 down after 6 minutes.

By the end of the game of the game I thought our attack actually showed some signs of gelling.

Trying to be optimistic I thought we showed signs that we may play like a team one day soon.

Firstly, unless i've missed it, not one post blaming the referee. Now that must be a first.

Hull have had a very good start to the season although we have been fortunate in the fact that yourselves, Wigan and Catalans have been in poor form.

I'm concerned in by the fact that we don't seem able to kill teams off but im sure that once the pivotals get used to each other and our new recruits arrive we'll see us get even stronger.

Like others have said apart from the first 5 minutes you we're in the game. Against other clubs you would have had 2 points, you're unfortunate in the fact that you played us in good form.

You're not a bad team and I think McNamara has recruited well. You're a team lacking confidence but it will come and you'll end the season wondering what all the fuss was about.

I disagree that Thorman was the only difference, I felt we looked much fitter than Bradford, and we really should have killed the game off.

as for Jeffries, at best he has always been inconsistent and at worst anonymous, he really wasn't the calibre of player a team like Bradford should have bought in a key position.

I think it is going to take a year or two for Bradford to sort your side out to be honest, the squad is far too geared towards the forwards with a poor backline, whereas in the good years you had the solid Withers, Hape, Vainikolo etc to score the chances. You had no problem matching our pack today, but soon as the ball went out wide to the backs it fell apart time after time.

Yes and no. The game was certainly more entertaining than last week, I enjoyed watching Yeamans and Thormans display of how to play and half back respectively and at least this week we scored some tries. Also the Hull fans were a credit to their club today, as they get enough stick sometimes so today I'd point out the excellent and well behaved following.

On a positive note, two of the tries, the jeffries one following the break and the deacon kick for semi's try showed signs of life for the attack (as an aside - put those two relatively simple but effective pieces of play into the first two games and we have 4 points and the threads on here woud be a little different). It was good to see Lynch back, Nero is looking more like the he can be and hopefully Crookes was paying attention and learning each time Yeaman was teaching him for the hour and he'll be better for the experience.

However, increasingly worrying - the defence was not good. Deacon looks a shadow of his former self. Jefferies was largely ineffectual, and I cant see us winning anything with that ineffective half back pairing. Crookes Vs Yeaman was a total mismatch and although it was a shame to pull him off, Yeaman was less effective having to deal with Sykes IMO. Also (small)sections of our crowd are a disgrace - why boo Platt whilst he is stood on the touchline waiting to come on???? how does that help him or the team? and this leads to my main thought from today;



Its clear we are a team with almost zero confidence and good players are looking worse due to panicing and therefore playing "dumb" rugby. I'm not sure how much blame for this dumb rugby and individual error needs to be placed with the coach or the players (even if its the players the coach is responsible for bringing the players together as a group)

My main conclusion is that three away games on the spin will probably be good for everyone. Ramble over.

It was marginally better than last week. The main difference was that Wigan had a major point to prove whereas once Hull went 12-0 up they were happy to revert to cruise control. Whenever we threatened to get close they seemed to score more or less at will.

There seemed to be more effort but the defense still looked loose.

I think the fundamental problem is that the squad just isnt good enough. But I'm at a loss as to why players such as Burgess, Newton & Deacon are playing at about 30% of their capability. I know all three have had knocks but that doesnt explain why their skill levels appear to have disappeared.

tbh i do agree with u ,ur halfs are poor at the moment but whats losing u games is your defensive effort ,you have no chance of winning a game when u let in more than 4/5 trys a match ,we where the same last year its proberly because some of your squad are playing busted and some are just not fit enough ,every time we got in your 20 we scored simple

It happens in a team low on confidence and wins. We found it last year, otherwise excellent players appeared rubbish. I can only assume its a confidence thing.

12-0 down so early is very difficult to recover from when you're already low on confidence. Agar was delighted with this win, Hull players apparently saying you were the most physical opposition we've faced so far. You've got a very tough pack and some decent backs. Problem #1 is your half-back combination IMO. Neither look up to the job in hand at the moment.