Actually think Patton doesn't want to be here, he knows hes gone at the end of the season anyway. Hes not good enough, and neither is Sita. Both should not play again for the wire.

Gelling turned into a liability tonight too, and theres zero support for Josh down the right wing.

No grit and zero bullyness.

Be lucky meet the top four.

Absolutely. When I saw the team selection it was a toss up between sheer loyalty to the cause or spending my team watching back to back reruns if all of Boris' COVID preas conferences. Clearly I made the wrong decision.

Conclusions
Negatives
1) Akouala and Patton shouldn’t play for us again
2) The fact that Akouala got in ahead of Latu means Latu should never play for us again
3) I would really expect Widdop to be showing rather more by now
Positives
1) D Clark is immense
2) Ashton is find of the season
3) Toby King...
4) Notwithstanding THAT pass Currie is getting there
Discussion points
1) Price team selection when he has choices to make is far too conservative. Having seen what the youngsters did at Salford he should have trusted some of them rather than reverting to the tried and failed
2) Our lack of cohesion on the right-side in particular raises questions about coaching, as does Charnleys lack of effectiveness in attack
3) There is still plenty to play for and no need to give up just yet
4) I’m surprised no one else has noticed that we need at least one more front line prop.

Re: size. I give you Danny Nutley as an example. Short on stature huge on heart and impact

Compare and contrast with big units like Akuola, Latu, Asotasi. Big on stature, even bigger in the derriere.

Fair call we do have that already in philbin though who I assume has been carrying a bit of a knock. Sita is decent he just can't do the minutes. We have a prop coming from London, I still think we need one more. Doro looks decent but raw to me I don't think he is as good as folk are making out and I don't think he is ready for first team.

Ps asotasi should come under the swear filter on this board.

To be honest , i was surprised we were still in the game at half time . Leeds played magnificently & caused all sorts of problems ,putting us on the back foot repeatedly in the first half. Luckily there was a second half but we need to compete in full games if we are going to do anything this season, especially with big games coming up.

Our defence is pretty good in all fairness we just don't play for territory very well and make too many errors resulting in poor completion and field position. Gelling had his worst game for a good while last night but I think we can put that down as a blip given recent form.

It shows that we don't have enough props when the first 2 tackles are taken in by charnley and matty Ashton on a regular basis (felt like every set) This is a poor tactic, it is used so often that its really obvious and ultimately it gives us slow play the ball when fast is needed to try to prevent the defensive line setting and gain fast territory, not to mention our wide players are out of position if we manage to make a break. Not their fault its definitely an instruction. Charnley gets through a ton of work in carries but its a waste of his talent. We need props urgently so we don't need to do as much of this. Lineham is easily the best winger we have for carries to take pressure off the props so it will be good to get him back.

Can't disagree with a word of that
In your positives, 1 and 3 should be offered contract extensions, asap. We don't want those pesky Aussies taking them away. There's been a few from these shores gone to there, and we don't want to add to the list.

In your discussion 3. I do tend to agree with you. I don't think we'll win the GF (we've got to get Top 4, first), but our prospective rivals are nowt special, so no need to throw in the towel, just yet. It just highlights SL poor quality.

My other points being...
I really don't see the point of Jason Clark, when we have a more direct equivalent in Hughes. I can't remember a time he actually broke a tackle or beat a man, two basic skill sets for a second rower. Simply being a "tackling machine" isn't enough. Having 2 "workhorses" from the back row hinders us

Stop the panic rugby of offloading the ball in impossible situations, time and time again. It rarely comes off. A good offloading game is essential, bit it's almost as if the player being tackled has been told he MUST get rid. No wonder were throwing leads away, when we're giving up cheap possession

An excellent summary, although I would argue that Charnley has been converted into a prop. He is a quality finisher that just isn't getting the ball.

It feels as though we are in a clapped out banger desperately trying to make the last few miles to the Last Four Garage' before it conks out. Unfortunately I don't think Vincent the garage mechanic has much idea about what parts he needs to fix it.

I think LG’s point about the offloads is very pertinent, offloading for the sake of it is pointless. It smacks of charge downs in the Smith era.
Vincent (copyright WO) is on borrowed time, only a GF will save him now I suspect.

Do you think Price has changed tactic since Lineham went NUTS. And is now using Charnley as a battering ram instead of Lineham?