Not a lot Hughes can do as the captain if he ain’t playing. Ratchford and Widdop have been the captains bar a game.
People see what they want to see, like blaming Jace Clark for our defeat this weekend!…yes he probably was to blame, for not playing.

Sports psychology and the whole idea of a team, or an individual, of 'bottling' it is a very interesting subject.

Certainly our recent record, with the Tony Smith era GF defeats and our most recent poor displays in big games, seems to suggest that we do indeed have a mental barrier that seems difficult to overcome. While we don't have a god given right to win these games, the manner of the defeats always gives the impression that the players are almost contributing to their own problems with their lack of self belief.

It's obvious though that this isn't an issue that is just confined to us. If you look through the sporting world, there are many examples of sides and individuals who have found mental barriers hard to beat.

In football, you only have to look at Tottenham, a club so synonymous with bottling it, that observers now label anyone putting in a display of underachievement as 'Spursy'. Their years of falling short in the quest for honours has made them a figure of much ridicule.

Slightly further afield, there is PSG, a football side that, despite having one of the biggest budgets in the game, consistently manage to mess up in the most monumental ways. When you see the manner of their failures, like last night's with Madrid, then it's difficult to deny that their issues are now mental.

There's probably a very thick book that can be written on sporting bottlers, but any tale of bottling it can't be complete without the snooker legend that is Jimmy White, a man who will have 'nearly man' engraved on his tombstone - His defeats became increasingly painful to watch because it was so apparent that he was going through such a mental torment -How much of his failure at the very highest level came down to that lack of self belief that has dogged us and many others over the years?

So overall, I suppose, after my rambling, I'm trying to say that maybe it's going to take more than just new coaches to try and change our mindset? Maybe the ingrained stain of failure and the mocking of opposition fans does far more to our players than they, and we, would like to admit?.. When and how that can change, who knows, but it's maybe easier to accept knowing we are just another in a long line of failures?

They can bottle it many more times (which they will) and I’ll still love em. What I will never love is seeing Middleton hand Alexander de pfeffel Johnson a Wire kit with ‘Boris’ on the back. Lack of game time for Longstaff was getting me close to burning my season ticket….this may just see to it. For shame Middleton you grubby sod.

I had to book a day off work so i could attend the wakefield match next weekend. After seeing that picture of middleton I'll be in to see my boss tomorrow to tell him i'm ok to work that day. Utterly disgusted.

Pretty much said this on another thread somewhere, once this club removes everything pre Tony Smith we will be what we are. I am absolutely fed up of jobs for the boys because it’s that which is keeping us the way we are.

Awesome post really sums up my feelings. Play sport to win not come 2nd.

Actually Lefty your point about being to nice as a club as just reminded me of a time at a fans forum meeting. It was about atmosphere at the match, I remember responding to this and said well it depends on what is happening on the pitch, it’s bouncing if we winning and can be muted if we losing, her answer to that ( can’t remember her name) but she said we are trying to get away from that. So I said what you want us to stand there clapping for them if we are getting stuffed, got no reply to that but it left me disgusted with that mentality, never went to a meeting again after that. Like you said to NICE.

Before last night's Leeds v Hull game, I had a fair bit of time to kill, so I watched that Amazon documentary on Shane Warne (pre his untimely death). It just shows what a driven individual can make of himself. Early knock backs in AFL, and then a pretty average start to his Test career, gave rise to a [ikick up his own ar5e[/i, from which he never looked back on. Players with an attitude like this are WINNERS. Hating failure, rather than a [iho-hum[/i outlook.

And we have a captain who says defeats don't bother him and he always tries to stay positive.

You win, or you learn. If you don't learn, you don't win.

Did Hughes actually say that defeats don't bother him?
I can see that he ought to always stay positive.

I would really like to see that quote as context is everything.

Defeats bother me, as does Jack Hughes

Talking about the "too nice " posts , your big games at the business end of the season are won by the teams who challenge the ref to ping them for every indiscretion ,knowing full well that they will get away with many game changing actions as they stretch the rules of the game & the rules of fair play to their limits.