Thats the crux of the matter for me and makes you wonder if a good early set too would help. Remember years ago in the first State of Origin match when they were packing for the first scrum that the commentators said watch out for this and it kicked off royally. They apparently had settled on the idea of a bit of Biff to get a bit more passion flowing. Can't see it having an adverse effect if say on Saturday it kicked off and both teams lost a player for 10 early on and the rest of the team felt galvinised by it all.

Some excellent posts on here but sadly although we are all in agreement I very much doubt whether SMc will change his `damage liability` approach. Even that is getting us absolutely nowhere.

I agree too that all roads lead to Barton so we could be in for a tough couple of seasons before we see any real change. Depressing times I am afraid.

Without wanting to get into an argument, can you expand please??

l really felt for the fans that travelled over on Sunday, because l can remember being in their shoes!!!

But to say both clubs are similar (at the mo) is stretching it, do you not think??

Yes both play out of poor grounds but Wakey average more, and have done for a quite some years, Wakey have a competitive team, again have had one for quite a few years.

And now wakey can say they have a good youth set up (winning the academy last year) and now playing wakey academy graduates in the first team.

All that said, neither team will even be able to go much further without a new ground.

All the best for the rest of the year.

This does make sense. I wonder if the decision has been made to "write off" this season and base all hopes on starting to build in 2011 for the stadium in 2012. Finances must be really tight, I wonder how many of the Director's own businesses are struggling? Most of them probably have no cash to throw at the club right now, but in 12 months time it may look better.
I am also unsure if the current "down" that surrounds the club will cause long term damage, but that may be a risk the chairman and board are willing to take.

See through the season, new coach in the off season when it costs less to end the contract of SM, start building again???????

i know there is a lot of stick for the coach but i'm not hearing anything for the players? There the ones making mistakes ie knocking on/missing tackles/messing around at the ruck etc. Do you think he tells them to go out and do that? When is some blame also going to go to alker? isn't he on the coaching staff? nothing is getting aimed at him, just mcrae!

The thing I find most frustrating is that Crusaders had no team at all at the end of last season and have managed to assemble one that managed to beat us after having two years to prepare.

I didn't think much of 'Nobby' as a Coach at Bradford or Wigan, but clearly he is achieving much more than the S**G already.

Apart from just enjoying the night out and any game of Rugby in general, there isn't much point in attending the Willows if you would like to see exciting rugby or a win!

they've assembled a team pretty much full of aussies who are no mugs! Why do our fans think we had a god given right to just beat them? There players wanted it more than ours! We have got a very young team and it shown that night against a team with a lot more experience.

We have no god given right to beat anybody agreed. I just think something's sadly lacking within our club when this type of situation happens.

I suppose fans of Halifax and Widnes can point to Salford and wonder how we got to be in SL before them, and they would have a fair point.

I just feel that when we achieved the play offs under KH it gave us a glimpse of our potential and unfortunately it's been downhill ever since...............with no immediate prospect of recovery.

Yes in many ways we are, except on the pitch. Wakafield IMHO have more quality players than Salford, especially in the pack and the halves. Remember you were beaten by a team minus Brough, Newton (never mind on that one) and Jeffries, all key players for us and both capable of commanding a place at most SL clubs. Sure Cookes a nice addition but he's way off the pace at the moment. Plus we are last years Academy champions.

Sorry to sound arrogant but we have moved a long way in playing terms.

Huge mistake putting Alker in that role IMHO, I would have kept Robbie and had him coaching, but I have said all this before.
Yes the players must take some blame but the coaches issue the game plan and this obviously does not work, plus it is driving fans away.

the wakefield squad is miles better than ours, how someone can say we are similar is having a fooking laugh!

I think what we are saying is that Wakefield have a similar salary cap to us, but their players want to play and some very good players are attracted there, I just wonder what the difference is?




Asnwers on a Postcard
to John Wilkinson
C/O The Willows
Salford

I agree with you and the poster you were quoting, but I also have a sneaky feeling that during this time of uncertainty a Bradford esq 96 might appear on our records again, and I have a feeling it will be either Warrington or Wigan that do it. Just a feeling but I think we are that bad.

What suprises me is Ratchford on the bench. Last season he was considered one of the most promising up and coming young players, what's happened?