Title taken from the SCR website.

In the first instance, Noble has a bigger pool than he claims, but like in his previous incarnations, refuses to look beyond his "tried and proven" players. Tried and proven at what? You may well ask!

However, the chosen team for the most recent few weeks have performed reasonably well in the first half, but effectively capitulated in the second. I don't think for one second that they do it deliberately. It happens because they are knackered. And the reason for that, in my opinion, is that their conditioning has been less than effective.

I'm not saying that this is specifically the case, there are others who could probably explain it better and in great detail but, for example, if an individual spends months training to be a sprinter, why would we be surprised if he can't cope with a marathon?

The conditioning needs to be specifically suited to the particular needs of the sport. If it isn't, don't be surprised if failure results.

Noble has been there long enough to have worked this out for himself, but, so far, hasn't done anything about it.

If he doesn't, it doesn't matter who we buy, the results will not show any dramatic improvement.

I agree with you in principal. Fitness is obviously an issue.

However, it's a lot more complicated than you imagine. RL has a very tough and cardio intensive pre-season designed to get 'long time' cardio into a player before the season starts. This stage is key to the whole season. You simply cannot 'catch-up' on cardio during a season. Even with a heavy a playing schedule it can't be done. Training sessions during the season need to be tailored to 'topping-up' and not losing what cardio the players possess along with tactical/strategic play for upcoming matches. You couple this with players getting injured, recovering from injury, and balancing what's required at a particular time it becomes easier to see why overall fitness is massively important to have in place before the season starts.

You simply cannot judge Noble's influence on the teams overall fitness until he's had a pre-season.

Have to think that this is an area that Noble will change radically as soon as the season ends, not certain how easy it is to change training techniques mid season so I'd guess they are still with things until everything this season is done and dusted.

For all the talk of Chase, SBW and other dream team players just as important is appointing the right staff to train them and fitness is the most important. I've seen some of the players in the gym at the stadium from time to time and there doesn't seem to be a great deal of structure to what they do.
I've said it before but I'd hope that there is a prolonged pre-season (any team with a high influx of new players needs longer to gel so starting earlier would help with this) which incorporates a warm weather spell in January.

Think this post covers what one of the problems has been all season.No doubt there are several other reasons but the lack of a really decent pre season was a massive blow.Lets see how we go next year when hopefully our players will have had a good pre season both fitness wise and structures wise.
I would like to see them go for an extended session in warmer climates both for fitness benefits and also team bonding.Theres going to be a lot of new faces around the club so think this would also be very beneficial to them as a team.

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.