Funny how we see things sometimes because I thought Hill played well when he came on. He looked difficult to handle and was carrying players with him. On the flip side Dupree and Byrne need to really pick up their games. We know Byrne can be easy to handle with the ball but Dupree is at walking pace at the minute and needs to find some intensity.

I’m quite pragmatic about the lethargy in our performances.

Given how many games we have played over the last 2 seasons it’s impossible not to have peaks and troughs. In performance.

These will often be due to pre planned peaks and troughs within the training program.

I’m guessing we will have planned to drop off the intensity at this point of the season with a view to peaking again ahead of the play offs.

If you look at the current period we are in, it’s one of the only times where we can pull back in training and prepare to peak again for the playoffs.

I’d love to see us play 100% all year but it’s just not realistic.

You can plan to peak twice maybe 3 times a year successfully, and it requires a lot of skill planning and management from the coaches and particularly the performance/conditioning team.

I could obviously be wrong, I just think this lull will precede a strong build up towards the post offs which we will start to see signs of in a few weeks time.

There’s too many variables in the playing staff for us to cope with any planned tapering at the minute unfortunately so we’ve just got to dig in (and it isn’t great to watch sadly!). A on the flip side, a rested Smith and Ellis shouldn’t be a risk to the side like a returning and rusty French and Farrell but to have them firing in the play offs is obviously the aim. Top 2 is going to be difficult and probably decided in the next two games.

Job done. Nice to see so many academy graduates in the team.

Get though next week then we’ll hopefully have our full spine back for the first time since Wembley.

Last 3 games all at home on Friday nights. Statement win against KR then win the final 2 to secure the shield.

Week off before the semis would be vital for a team who’s not caught a break all year.

Would be great to inject Cooper back into the team if his concussion is behind him.

Nail on the head. Compare Aaron Moore’s refereeing compared to other performances from the officials over the weekend, it’s chalk and cheese. Forber, in my view, is integral to what we do over the next few weeks, his distribution is far better than Leeming’s and it gives our playmakers extra thinking time. Must win next week.

Apart from O’Neill. Brad is a big miss.

If we win our next two games we will win the LLS. I’ve no worries about Bevan or Faz providing they are both injury free. Bevan buys time for all those around him and Faz gives us leadership and glues the team together.

I think you're likely spot on. This side has done really well over the last couple of seasons in learning when to peak and hit full throttle and I expect we'll really see the players ramp up in the next few weeks. I got the feeling Peet expected a little more intensity today going off his post match comments but I wouldn't be surprised to see our intensity go up several notches away at Catalans next week, just as it did last year. That was the start of our run to OT and I think the timing of this one is positive as well. The players can get away and spend some time together and really be challenged.

What if we lose our two final games?
The only way we are guaranteed to to win the LLS is by winning all of our remaining fixtures.
We’ve no guarantees that French will just pick up from where he left off. We all hope that will but I’m pretty sure that we will see a more conservative play form French particularly in his first couple of games back which for all we know could be in the playoffs.
Our intensity for the last 6 weeks or so has been poor and there is no guarantee that we can just switch it on when required.

Not a personal jab Jon but the peaks and troughs in your post did resonate with me.
I’m in the first past the post are the champions guy. The playoff system more or less makes certain that some games/results aren’t important. I didn’t turn up today because watching effectively a poor championship team versus a team playing for “troughs” just didn’t appeal to me. I started watching on tv but after 5 minutes switched over to the athletics where for some unknown reason a guy decided to peak after the olympics to break the 3000 metre world record that had stood for over 20 years.
I don’t buy a ST for peaks and troughs. I will accept losses and loss of form but for the life of me I can’t accept “planned” troughs.
This season and particularly the last month have on the whole been pretty forgetful from a league perspective. Obviously injuries have played a part but the more I think about it the more I feel that I’ve got to accept peaks and troughs. I can on the whole, predict the troughs so this season I didn’t attend the following home games Castleford, Hull, Huddersfield and Leyth part 2. That’s over 25% of home games where I wasn’t remotely interested in the game either because the result was a forgone conclusion or I’d understood that those games were the “trough” games.
I want us to win and I’m more than happy sometimes just to get the win because it’s unrealistic to assume that we can peak every single game. What I can’t accept is that we “plan” for troughs.
For what it’s worth I think our current lethargy isn’t down to peaks or troughs I just think that our strength in depth, particularly in the front row, is due to lack of quality versus quantity available.
I still think that we are more than capable of winning the GF but that’s probably more due to a very low quality competition rather than we can just flick a switch to turn the magic on.
For me the reason why we are struggling to click at the moment is due to the loss of Cooper, Isa and O’Neil plus the interim losses of French and Field ie lack of experience rather than tiredness. If you tell people that they should be tired then the natural reaction is to feel tired. Peet and his staff hopefully can get us on the front foot starting from Saturday at Catalan. To do that he can start by letting Farrimond play his natural game rather than be a supporting role particularly from a kicking point of view. Take the shackles of Matty or at some point(s) we will lose the arm struggle over the next 6 weeks or so.

Obviously, we will probably need to win our last two fixtures to win the LLS and I think we will if we can turn over Catalans and HKR. I accept there are no guarantees about French hitting the same heights that he was prior to injury. However, what I can be certain of is that he will make those around him perform better. It is not just French though, the return of Smith, Ellis and Farrell is equally important. Take the equivalent players out of any other team and they will struggle. Interestingly, Wigan had nine players missing today and there was not one mention of that by the commentators. I do however, agree that our form has been bang average over the last six weeks and we will need to step it up.

Our form is bang average, no doubt about it Zig. Interesting, though, that we've still won 4 from 5 in August whilst missing many of our best players for much of it. Take the equivalent of French, Field, Smith, O'Neil, Cooper, Ellis, Faz etc. out of any team, many at the same time, and I seriously doubt they'd return 4 from 5. Hopefully that bodes well for the end of the season.

Has Cooper played his last game for us?

One player you missed off there is Isa. Now attacking wise Junior has come in and improved our right edge attack (and now recently left) with solid runs, but has been caught out a few times in defence which has exposed that right edge with our new centre-wing partnership in Keighran and Miski. I do think we've missed Isa's defence on the right.