I wonder if hes up for another challenge then nows he turned Leeds in to what they are and come down here and give us a hand.

At least the Hull stewards were kind enough to be giving out free tickets to anybody who wanted them before the match.

The underlying problems haven't really changed from last season because we haven't really addressed them.

1) We lack a quality scrumhalf with a kicking game, Orr is the only player who can organise, but he's more naturally suited to a stand off role than scrum half. Also, whilst Orr's attacking kicking is okay (hence tries for Howell last season and Sharp this season) he doesn't give us great positioning or distance in general play, and nor do any other players e.g. Randall. This hurts because we don't gain easy yards from penalties like our opponents, we never get 40/20's and generally we don't make it as hard as we should for our opponents to return our kicks. Purdo might help a little when he comes back, but Gale and Dorn are unlikely to make any difference.

2) Our pack is underpowered, people say LMS has gone backwards, that might be true, but he plays in a lightweight pack with a lack of go forward. It was good to see Karl back, bad to see him go again, but that he's our best prop only reminds us how little size and depth we have. Of the props I don't see Ben Jones, Danny Ward or Matt James offering us much, I don't think Olly Wilkes is anything but a stop gap.

3) We appear to be signing players to make up the numbers in our reserves and players who aren't good enough to play for teams we should be aiming to be above, a few seasons ago BM was slating clubs who get stuck at the bottom of the ladder because they trade e players with each other, now we take players who aren't even good enough for that. I think the only club with a weaker squad than us is Salford, I think we'll be 13th this season.

We need a coaching clear out and a player clear out, half our squad either simply aren't good enough for this level or are average.

I accept most of kelvin's post, but I would say that if we were going to have a clear out, it would have been at the end of last season after a 10 game losing run and a 48-0 thrashing by Cas in a vital game. Major surgery was needed to arrest the alarming lack of confidence (which is what Bradford and Hull have done). It hasn't happened, all we did was to lose 4 experienced players (Heckenberg, Gafa, Robinson and Haggerty) and replace them with youngsters - which is why I pointed to a long term benefit perhaps if we could keep them when they mature.

There is clearly not the resources to compete for honours, so all we have to be thankful for is that there is a Super league club at all in London. Surely the RFL could be more pro-active in seeking investors.

While this is true, is the situation that different than we have experienced at other times ? Perhaps Tony Rea, for example, did a better job of managing his limited resources.

RQ is spot on as most supporters stated towards the back end of last season, if nothing major was going to change with the coaching/playing staff close season, how were we going to perform any differently in 2010.

As to the point on managing resources, I truly cannot believe that our squad costs have increased year on year since 2005, and the income from gates/additionals hasn't greatly altered p or down?] either, so what is different?

Are we now paying rent and that is eating a chunk of our money that in the past was used on the squad?

Has the quota reduction meant we now no longer kind find the Scott Crams etc from Australia and instead have to make do with cast off players willing to come to London as they would not get a SL game anywhere else?

Changing the coach at this point of the season is madness other than the fact that perhaps a change there would alter the mind sets of the players we have, but it's almost the last throw of the dice to do so.

Wigan dont have exclusive rights to a ground but seem to progress-They played a home 1/4 final at Widnes last year.

That's....................................depressing then.

Makes you wonder then what is different now to our last stint at the Stoop if all we are is paying tenants again....we could not afford to continue to stay there at that time..................so much for a partnership.

I don't think we do a particularly good job of looking.

Quote: Homer "That's....................................depressing then. Makes you wonder then what is different now to our last stint at the Stoop if all we are is paying tenants again....we could not afford to continue to stay there at that time..................so much for a partnership.'" Ive said on here before that this is what I expected has happened. No wonder we are losing so much money now and DH cant spend any more. I said after 'bloodgate' that when the chairman!? resigned from the RU club that it might have an impact and I wouldnt be surprised if this is it. The other guy was very surportive. Maybe it is time to consider some of the smaller Olympic stadiums now as a serious option as the financial burden iis too great 'renting''. A real partnership with someone else in say the basketball stadium www.london2012.com/games/venues/ ... -arena.php

Quote: Homer "That's....................................depressing then. Makes you wonder then what is different now to our last stint at the Stoop if all we are is paying tenants again....we could not afford to continue to stay there at that time..................so much for a partnership.'" Ive said on here before that this is what I expected has happened. No wonder we are losing so much money now and DH cant spend any more. I said after 'bloodgate' that when the chairman!? resigned from the RU club that it might have an impact and I wouldnt be surprised if this is it. The other guy was very surportive. Maybe it is time to consider some of the smaller Olympic stadiums now as a serious option as the financial burden iis too great 'renting''. A real partnership with someone else in say the basketball stadium www.london2012.com/games/venues/ ... -arena.php

The Stoop is a top class stadium purpose-built fror rugby. Don't forget the implications of the licensing system. To move again would create a return to the nomadic existence from before, as well as rendering meaningless the Harlequins branding. We must have stability.

A by product of losing Tony Rea?

Could not agree more, always thought this was last chance saloon and we need at least 10 years in a community to even begin to start to think about the club becoming part of it........but..........can we continue to afford to stay there?

I always remember that in the previous incarnation at the Stoop we had some ludicrous figures being charged for every kind of incidental cost imaginable, seem to recall something stupid like £31 just to set the table for the pre game luncheons.

Mind I always thought though that this was a case of HRU taking the mickey and Broncos not always being as diligent as they could be on costs as Branson was footing the bills and people perhaps thinking it was a bottomless pit, at least until Nic got some kind of financial controls in place.