Good post, Yed.

I think we should wait (at least) until the week before Round 6 before we start commenting on whether we are going to struggle this season.

Without seriously considering the fixtures of other teams, and results are no 'given' these days, I see us coming away with a loss on Friday at Headingley; we'll edge the fixture against Hull; we'll see off London and then we'll be up on confidence and beat Salford the week after. (my prediction competition posts will confirm these thoughts)

Results as I have stated, should hopefully see us back into the top half of the table with 6 points from 5 fixtures and set a firmer base from which to build. The "younger" members of our squad will have had run outs against London and Salford, Wood & Harrison will be back and Russell & Ratchford will have had time to settle into their roles as TS sees them.

Of course, in an ideal world, we will win ALL of these fixtures with each and every man having played the games of their lives each time! We all know this isn't going to happen and should have confidence that when the coaching staff say they will look at the areas that went wrong and work on them, we should believe them.

Let's not press the panic button yet

I was pessimistic when we made so few signings for this year. Although TS won't admit it, he probably sees this year as of one transition, giving more games to Glenn Riley, Laithwaite, O'Brien and Dwyer. Even when Wood, Grix and Harrison return we still look lightweight up front imo and that's where we should have strengthened.
The worrying thing from the Saints game was that we looked so lacklustre. So many parts of the game where we have been strong seemed to be lacking, kick chase, line speed, offload. Maybe we have started the season under-cooked, it wouldn't be the first time but not something that we should expect.

everyone needs to stop thinking so negatively. We lost our first game...so what?

They've had a hard preseason training, got back the week before and played; none of the team has played more than one preseason game, a few injuries and adapting to a new team with many players leaving. It will take some time.

don't forget we lost to Huddersfield in round 1 in 2011 and showed very little in the form of attack (and huddersfield were not that good), we ended up topping the table and scoring over 1000 points along the way.

I am not panicking at this stage!

I agree we lost our first game with 5 players missing who would be in the first 17. 3 of them are forwards so to say we lack grunt up front, how do you know??
One of our key pivot positions (fullback) with Russell is yet to be sorted, and this positional move will change everything. Last thrursday they could be 3/4 players playing out of position due to this and missing 5 players makes the Saints game more understandable

Accepted with respect to the forwards, missing Wood/Grix/Harrison really did weaken us. But when talking about the backs I disagree. Ratchford has played fullback before and O'Brien / Myler have superleague experience albeit not together.

We should have had set moves organised, kicks planned, and we should have put more pressure on Walsh while he was kicking. Any combination of players, regardless of who was missing, should have had those basics at least.

No I agree with what your saying and it was a poor performance, what i am saying is that this may not be as they have trained all winter and things going forward may be different once people are in the correct structure. I was talking to a coach at the club recently and the worrying thing is that he said that 70% of training over the close season has been about defense. Not good when you leak 30+ points in your first game.

Fair enough, defending in positions you aren't familiar with is tough to come to terms with and especially if that position is thrust on you short notice.

My gripe is this though, if 70% of the training camp was on defence then, as you rightly say, how did we leak 30+ points. We shouldn't leak that number of points in any game throughout the season, let alone the first with an allegedly 'fresh' team (aside from injuries that is).

If the attack is 100% nailed on, defence isn't required.

Yeah, lets play like Castleford, i see them competing year after year in the playoffs?

Its logical, ok theoretical too.

Ha Ha i like that lets score on every attack but get beat 58-56 by London

Arrh. Somebody half gets it.
You score on each attack, you always get the ball back.

The closest wire have been was 2011 v Swinton.
Almost 100% attack.

Momentum is a word used quite a lot in these modern times

That term wasn't around when the scoring team restarted play by kicking at halfway.

Going to be a period of transition for a little while. Players who wouldn't normally be taking games by the scruff if the neck are going to have to learn how to do it; and for a lot of players it's not something you can just pop up one day and start doing, it takes time to learn how to do it.

Losing leaders and experience, and so many at once, is a big change to this squad.

I worry about our kicking game (the field positioning side if it). I think Gaz O'B has to get some good game time as he is a good kicker of the ball. But where does that leave the Myler-Ratchford partnership? And if they're going to play where is the kicking game going to come from to get us up the other end if the field turning the opposition around?

I also think we lack a depth of power and really lack some pace in the forwards. Who is going to break a tackle and sprint eight-fifteen metres for us in our pack? I think that's something we've missed in Grand Finals and it's not something we've addressed.

This is the first time in probably a decade that we're starting a new season weaker than we were the previous season. We've known for a few years that that group of players were going to be leaving us in quick succession soon and we had plenty of time to recruit well to push us to that next level. We've won three Challenge Cups, a League Leaders Shield and got to two Grand Finals...but it feels a bit like that is the end of this dynasty for Wire.

I don't feel like we've signed to a sufficient standard to keep us going at the level and going up another level by going to these Grand Finals and winning, then giving the World Club Challenge a go, and maybe winning multiple trophies a season. I feel like that little era of success we've just had has been signed off.

I think it's time to learn how to be patient with the team again and not expect too much.


I am excited about seeing Matty Russel. I like an exciting Full Back and he's one of them!