Agree....poor end to what has been, in my eyes, a poor season.

Earlier this week Boston Briuins coach Clause Julien gave great quote when commenting on his young centre Ryan Spooner. Commenting on the defensive aspects of his game he said he didn't expect him to be as good as Patrice Bergeron or Chris Kelly(the Bruins best defensive centres) but that he needed to improve his commitment. He then went on to say "Skill is good but commitment wins you championships".

That could be applied to the Giants. Not enough of our players have the commitment. We have an too many players who want to take short cuts in big games.

We genuinely need 6 or 7 new players this season. We won't get them because of the strange attitude that "top clubs don't make wholesale changes". That's true but top clubs don't constantly choke in big games either.

Agree with you 100% mate. Personally I would look to replace Grix and Robinson. Use Bailey as a permanent 13 and find a captain somewhere - Brough is a great competitor but not a great captain IMO. Jamie Ellis is not the answer for me.

Anderson has to take some responsibility. He has been unable to motivate this team. They haven't been a sum of their parts this year. They fell in love with themselves and think they just have to turn up to win. Then when they try to switch on find the key is in the ignition but the engine hasn't turned over.

They've not learned. They've not looked motivated for a full game all year. They lack leadership on the pitch and they haven't learned any lessons as the year has gone on. They're a dumb as soup and something must change.

Good thread. I'd agree with most of the comments, especially the need for a new 1 and 7. I'm also not sure about Baloos coaching of our attack. Disappointing season for me also.

Tbf Danril -many coaches, a few with fantastic pedigrees, before baloo have tried to motivate a Huddersfield side- all have failed!

Only Tony Smith has made the Huddersfield team greater than the sum of its parts.

As a season it's been frustrating but anything but getting to a final was always going to be after winning the LLS last year. Up to only 4 teams were going to do that and I don't think we are ready for a grand final yet. If we would have won last night (which by the way, I don't think we played bad considering our previous playing form against a Catalans team who had just knocked Playoff kings Leeds out) I don't think we would have beaten Saints or Wigan.
We'll get our chance if we continue down the path Wire have done. (Remember they are stuck to losing the super league grand final at the moment).
Times change... We are better off than where we was years ago.
We don't turn into a bad team overnight but we don't turn into a super league grand final team overnight either.

Our time will come.

...........yeah ...but sadly, for many who remember "53" like me , will it come soon enough !

Like many whove been around the club for a "few" years -- I `m starting to think we`re "nearly" men!--and its frustrating Im afraid

Not a bad team overnight - but a slightly above average SL team that has become poor as soon as the league finished. What is it about us that means we cannot perform in play off games?

Catalans did similar to Wigan in that they got in our faces, were very quick in the defensive line, slowed the PTB and ran hard at us all game. Apart from one or two exceptions none of our players did that.

Last season was built on a solid defence - we have not seen that at all this year. That has been our biggest issue - players wanting to put the effort in to the defensive line cannot whilst others are hanging back - that just creates gaps and the better SL teams will be quick to exploit it - just as Wigan did last week.

Is this lack of effort by some of the players, or simply that they are not being coached to play the basics? Teams that succeed in play off games move forward in defence the second that the ball is on the floor, referees bare not penalising this very often, but we wait for it to be heeled and then don't move forward with any intensity. The opposition get momentum and any team would struggle after giving the advantage to the opposition. Far too often this year we have had to rely on a flash of brilliance to win games scoring tries from Brough, Lunt or Ta'ai to snatch games rather than dominating for 80 mins.

Basically I would sum up our play off games failure again this season as being simply dumb - Catalans are a good team with some very good players - but they are no better than us. The difference is in their attitude, basic coaching application, and willingness to work as a team that won them the game - but as said above we gave them the opportunity to dominate and they took it.

Will watch the game back on Sunday - if I can bear it - and see whether the opportunities we did create could have changed the result - but we are out and next year seems a very long way away.

totally agree, anderson has failed to rectify this season after so many poor performances.. starting to lose confidence in him , got a big task ahead of him next season

the one thing we fail to do and have failed to do for most of the season is to get a roll on, we never get a quick PTB, never fight for one, and we just don't ever seem to get the opposition on the back foot.

We are out-enthused. Catalan wanted it more. It's worrying enough that a team with the talent this team has can't motivate themselves but for the performances to have been as they have all season and the same mistakes to be made and enthusiasm consistently lacking, eyes are on the coach.

If Anderson is with us next season we need to see is playing with more commitment, enthusiasm and hunger. Like meast says, quicker PTB's. No standing off the defensive line. We must move up and close down the space to reduce the time the opposition have to think. Less arrogance, more application. We can be the best team in the world but if we don't try we will lose.

ln my opinion its not just the team, the whole club seems to be living in the comfort zone, fans come on here complaning about every aspect of the club, if one particular aspect is wrong it should be easy to isolate and rectify, but everyone is complaining about everything, nothing seems to work efficiently, the team, the backroom staff, the back office, but we seem to just carry on bumping along, l think its time for some root and branch overhaul, followed by some serious @rse kicking.

another thing, which danril is always alluding to is how dumb we are, game management at times is very poor.
last night was one example, we managed to edge in front 16-12 with 15 minutes to go, rather than trying to build pressure,play out sets, turn the opposition around, force them into errors etc, we get a set 20 yards from their line and immediately try to score a try which resulted in the ball smashing patrick in the face, we lose possesion, they make yards upfield quickly and score the winning try.
we are unable to turn the screw and to see games out when we are top, we always play like we are 6 points down with 5 minutes to go.

coach or players fault or both?