We have one of the youngest squads in the league. We aren't world beaters but we ain't journeyman either. Maybe your team underestimated us as much as you seem to.

Awful, awful, awful. The smallest pack in the league. Even Stevie Wonder could see in the off season we needed at least one massive prop, probably two apart from the club.  It's [pure neglect. A strong season last year we should have kicked on and improved the squad like every other team bar Salford did yet here we find ourselves lucky to even be on 4 points. The writing was on the wall in game one and two when we only just beat Catalans and Huddersfield who were battered by Hull FC. We haven't played well once and I think it will be a long season where we'll be lucky to reach the play offs but it will all be ok because the sport got a few more viewing figures in Vegas.

 

Something is clearly not right, and we can now say this based on the evidence of several games. You simply don't go from having the tightest defence in the league, to conceding the Liam Hood try and similar debacles, without there being something amiss. It is pretty much the same team as last season in terms of personnel, but it doesn't look like the same team when it comes to performance. So, the important question: what happens next? Do Sam and the boys take a good, hard look at themselves, pull their fingers out, and get back to being last year's animal? Or do we fall into a long slump, with increasing bitterness, scapegoating and recriminations all round? This is Wire, folks, so draw your own conclusions!

This is what I was thinking. Something looks amiss in the group. We have a track record of this only going one way when the players get like this  - with the coach paying the price. It's ingrained in our culture. 

Big test for Burgess and Chambers. 

We were so poor yesterday. On attack it really showed how much we have been relying on Dufty. Williams was our only really creative player and we were desperate for another half back pulling the strings. Hard to believe that we would miss Drinkwater so much from last year. Need to persevere with Leyland to help the attacking options and work on protecting him more in defence. 

Karl, please come back looking after recruitment - all is forgiven!

Isn't Hayes expected back for the Saints game?

The half-back situation just looks like muddled thinking at the moment. I think it's safe to say that most of us expected Stef to be no more than a back-up option this year, covering a few positions in case of an injury crisis. Yet in the first four rounds alone he has already been surprisingly selected, dropped, and then re-selected. It just feels like reactive, knee-jerk decisions from the coaching set-up rather than having a clear strategy and sticking to it.

From a Wakefield fan in peace, I do think Dufty and/or scrum half option hurt.
Williams looked like he was going to beat us on his own but once we started covering him more there was nowhere left to go.


I'm sure you'll be fine when they come back but thanks for a nice day out.

Thanks for the encouragement following a well deserved win.  I think we recognise though that Dufty and Leyland/Hayes isn't going to solve the problem of those walkover tries or falling off tackles. 

The club spent to much money on giving Dufty an increased wage (even despite CTW waiting in the wings) instead of using the money to strengthen the pack. He's on a fortune I believe.

Yesterday was a bit of a mess all round. CTW was named at fullback yet for large parts of the game Ratchford was at fullback organizing the defensive line and CTW was defending third man in. 
I struggled to get my head around that. It went against the whole next man up principal. 
Currie started at second row but when Yates came off injured after 10 mins he moved to 13 and then when lindop went off for HIA he ended up playing centre. 
I don't know which side George Williams is defending on. In the Vegas game Leyland started off on our right edge defence until Nsemba handed him off then the swapped him and Williams so that Williams was defending on the right. 
It is like we are making it all up as we go along. 
Based on the previous 2 games I was surprised that Russell was given a starting jersey yesterday. Looks like he was hooked off shortly after half time. I think he will take time to adjust and to work with a settled partnership with his centre and halfback when defending. 


Also surprised we have not seen anything of Thomas, Wood or Whitehead so far this season. Especially as Musgrove appears to be out of favour.  I guess a couple of them might get the nod for the Widnes game and hopefully get a chance to show what they can do. 


All in all a right mess and a lot of it is our own doing.