How did Gaskell play today

Didn't work for Warrington in the Grand Final. It's clearly done wonders for Hudds, too.

Good players with the correct coaching will concentrate for 80 minutes. Having a mind games specialist will make no difference to that.

It's clearly working at international level.

Having that edge has guided England to many victories against The Kiwis and Aussies.

Oh, wait......

Lets not forget Bobby that if you don't have the correct fitness and conditioning no amount of "bobby mind magic" is going to help.
If and only if we can improve those two key elements will the team become less of a risk to leak try's at the end of 40 mns when they are knackered.

Huddersfield must only employ the mind doc for early season, as they always fall apart in the second half of the season.

I own one of Damien Hughes's books (the sports psychologist at Warrington). I bought it mainly through Red Issue Sanc to get an insight into what it is they do. The tactic in the book is to use the habits of successful people and extraordinary feats by those previously seen as unremarkable, such as rlCliff Youngrl, and apply them to your life and the situations you're likely to be in. So the desired effect is for a player to think: ‘Well if those people can achieve what they did, surely I can too!’ Thus a psychological barrier is broken.

However, people who tend to big up sports psychologists are those who were excellent to start with; Raymond Van Barneveld’s ‘Zen master’ springs to mind. So I imagine a club would turn to a sports psychologist when as a solid unit, they are doing everything they can and everything right but still can't win honours. Especially with today's constraints i.e. the salary cap. I think we're some way from that position.