11 years and counting?

Like the look of fages and evalds , your forwards were chip shop. Only really got in our territory via pens, we won the arm wrestle, thus dictated play, far better around the ruck. Rangi huffed and puffed (sideways a lot). Dobson offered little.

You're right there mate, the defence seems ok until you are defending in the red zone and then panic seems to set in and there seems to be a lack of communication between some of the players. What is your opinion of Dobbo, Its a bit late for me to say it but I thought he would disappoint this time over here and he still hasn't done any thing to prove me wrong. Didn't think I'd be able to make it tonight but glad I did. Thanks to all of you that came over and hope we can repay that at your place. Did any of you stay back for the rendition of "Sweet Caroline? Its been another great idea of our CEO Steve Gill. Just wondered if you have any thing similar and if you had any ideas what would be a good victory song for you as it really adds to the after match atmosphere

You got tonights lottery numbers too?

Dobson didn't play many top flight NRL games last year and then he got the injury. He didn't have a proper pre season because of the injury and then he picked up another injury in our second game. Personally I fully expect him to improve significantly with a few more games under his belt but we are going to have to be patient.

Shenton played.

It's not quite panic stations just yet. Sure, it's frustrating but we're about where I thought we would be before the season started. In fact, table wise, we're higher up than I thought we'd be.

However, I've started to get the feeling that something needs to give for the team to move forward. We have the personnel on the field to be performing way better than we are, and our consistency issues are just as fragmented as ever. There is something not right with the mental attitude, or the instilling of a proper mental attitude. We also seem to be off the pace fitness wise, which also is having an effect on injuries received. This to me points at problems in the backroom staff. Maybe it's Harris not being experienced enough, or the wrong people in the job. Maybe it's not enough people in the jobs required, or too many. I don't know. There's plainly something wrong with our off-field preparation regardless. As there's simply no reason why this group of players should be under-performing, defending so badly, and giving away far too many penalties. Too me, it points at poor fitness, poor training, and poor drills. That's the job of the coaching staff and they are currently failing in their job description.

I know it's ultimately down to the players, but they require the very best input off the field to give them the very best chance to succeed on it. To me, they are not being provided with the right tools and preparation to fulfill their end of the bargain. They try, and they are certainly not shy of talent, but that is simply not enough to succeed these days.

I'm not saying that Harris should go. Not yet anyway. But the responsibility ultimately lies on his shoulders and he needs to work really hard and have a long hard think about methods and attitudes to put right the wrongs that the team are turning into habits at the moment. Stamp out the penalties, and tighten the defense sooner rather than later, and he gives the Club a good chance. Let these bad habits fester, and I can see him out of the job sooner rather than later.

We were saying something similar last night. If you look at the results in black and white we're probably ahead of what I expected due to the draw in France, however, it's the performances that are a concern.

Last night felt much more convincing than a 14 point defeat - with 25 minutes to go we looked like we'd already decided the game was lost and were just going through the motions. Cas displayed more urgency throughout and in the last 15 minutes looked more like the team chasing the game.

I feel the same.

We've been fortunate so far with our wins, they were certainly not convincing enough to say we bossed and played our best. Results around us have also been fortunate for us, and has given us an elevated sense of importance at the moment. If we are still in the top six after the next six games I'd be very surprised. We've been far from the real deal performance wise, and it's this rather than results which concerns me also.

We're constantly told how good prep, and winning become habit for good teams, I'm concerned that our current failings are also become habitual and will be difficult to shake off if we don't start to gel cohesively as a unit very soon.

Interesting debate I went last night & concur with the thoughts of those posted!
I would like to add to me it looks like square pegs in round holes, the selection of players looks unbalanced. Having attended all but the Catalans games I am far from impressed. Last nights game flattered us only going down by only 14 points, our defense is woeful & any team getting into our half looks like they will score especially out wide.
I picked up one noticeable point in the second half, we had a scrum on our 20 metre line with about 10 minutes to go & we were ambling to form the scrum to stop the clock, when Josh Griffin ran across the pitch having a go at the players to form the scrum to stop the clock, that's when I released this team as already accepted defeat.

I think a thorough review of the whole situation internally is long overdue. Big sit down meeting for the entire staff to discuss under performance is required. Perhaps a few home truths need to be aired because I can only recollect one 80 minutes performance in the last two years. It's not panic stations just yet but it needs addressing now because something is obviously not right and it's impacting negatively on every team performance.

I was very disappointed last night. I did not expect to win, though I thought we should have been capable of running Castleford close at least. We seemed to lack intensity and looked lethargic at times. That worries me.

Perhaps it was because Castleford had eight days to recover from their last game and we only had five. Perhaps we put too much into training sessions without recovering sufficiently before games. Perhaps it's because we're not as fit as we should be. I don't know enough about what goes on during training sessions but we have to find a way of energising the team more for games.

On a positive note, I thought Michael Dobson showed signs that he can become more influential.

Widnes play Sunday and then Thursday ( which I thought the RFL had discouraged ) so it will be interesting to see if we can out-energise them next Thursday. It would also be nice to watch a quality Salford win!!!

Don't forget that Salford enforced changing the game to Friday rather than Sunday though.