Absolutely. We had no pre season. It looked like we would only play one game then disappear forever. This season is simply about playing the games and competing as best we can. Next season is about competing with, and beating the top teams. The season after is about winning trophies. Why are people so impatient?

The reason we keep capitulating is not to do with fitness. The difference between us and teams like Cas, HKR and Wakey is they have a General leading them around the field and we have to work twice as hard just to compete, (Chase Dobson Smith ). With no preseason and having to firefight in the transfer market ( hence the Chuckle Brothers ), then I think it is only right to judge BN on next seasons performances.

Where do we get the idea that we had no preseason? The squad were in pre season training from November. It is the quality of the preseason conditioning that is questionable and I was hearing it being questioned as early as February.

The fact that the club was clearly in dire straits at that time should have had no impact whatsoever in the quality of the preseason training. In fact, from the players' point of view, I would have expected them to have put in even more effort if they were possibly going on to the job market.

And while I accept Butcher's basic assessment, it isn't impossible to turn it around mid season. It really depends on the time and effort the players are encouraged to, and actually do, put in.

Sneyd is perfectly capable of leading the team around the field, but I suspect that he is not encouraged to do so on account of his tender years and the arrogance of the more senior, yet under performing players.

Attitude, I think is everything in this game. After being humiliated by Wakefield, live on Sky, the team had the Tuesday to "recover" and Wednesday off. That'll teach them!

That's not the reaction I would have expected from a team or a coach with any ambition to, at least, demonstrate some improvement and will to win!

I'm pretty shocked to read about the schedule after the Wakefield defeat, I have to be honest I don't see why professional sportsmen get a day off as the norm mid season, at the very least the club should have everyone in the next day assessing bumps & bruises and if nothing else there should be a light workout while individuals are taken to one side to find out why they did certain things. The players for me are pretty obviously fractured as some have been at the club a while, some came on the very last minute and some have landed during the season. The club should be encouraging the players to intigrate as best they can.

For me the team and structure hasn't looked the same since Long left, I think he had the respect of the playing staff as I'd guess he still had a great deal more talent than many of them while his replacement/s are very annonymous by comparison and I'd genuinely love to know what they bring to the table that is an improvement on Long.

Andy Hay was an assistant at Castleford when the then head coach,Terry Matterson,signed a player rarely mentioned,named Rangi Chase.
I did see a link,that I chose to ignore whereby the Castleford players at the time,wanted Hay to be appointed head coach,prior to Millward being appointed,at Castleford.
THE MEN reported Long was of the opinion that Millward was the best coach he had played under.
Andy Hay was then chosen by Peter Gentle to be his assistant at big spending,high aspirational Hull FC.

Stu Donlan was the choice of Ian Millward to go straight from playing into his first assistant role with Millward at Castleford.

None of the 3 coaching staff appear to have worked together in the past and again,just like the players for 2014,will take time to gel.

The improvement on Long will hopefully be ambition with the tools to complete the job with stability,higher aspirations,and a larger and better squad to work with.

Lack of confidence and attitude would be my view on the second half fade outs.A major disappointment when it is a fact that the supporters are paying out a huge percentage of their disposable income to follow the club with very little reward.100% effort is all that is asked for with a never say die attitude.