Great post from Mr Hicks and absolutely sums up the state of the club at the minute. I've been saying this all season the players just aren't good enough to compete. We have been struggling this season so if we do go up we are going to get slaughtered next season without a major overhaul of bodies.

So why have we been re-signing all this season players? The re-signing of Scott Law says it all, this bloke hasnt been good enough for years. The loss of Shickell and Hesketh this season has been a major one.

Jurys still out on the coach for me. There were moments last year where we were the architects of our own downfall, the knock on against Batley and the last minute against Featherstone spring to mind. That was 4 lost points right there, down to coaching/tactics.

As for the Widnes debacle that for me was embarrassing and bordered on bringing the game into disrepute. Whether that was the clubs or the coaches decision it shouldn't have happened.

So in response to the original topic "what next" I honestly have no idea.

Oportunity, professional team, put the blame squarely where it lies. March picked the team of sacrificial lambs in that game. Even if by accident he had managed to pick the most effective synergistic team out of our entire roster of players we would have lost. Perhaps some of his superstar mates were not up for getting battered by a much better team and were happy to have the get out clause of the must win game at Workington. So much for that strategy. In truth I think you are showing a large degree of disrespect to the lads that gave there all in that game

Apologies the next game was whitehaven, the meaning is the same.

My original point was regarding March and as I said earlier I'm not sure if it was the coach or the club that made the decision but someone did. Also I thought I made it clear that the application and effort of the young blokes on the night was not in question. It was the fact they were put in that position in the first place I have an issue with.

Putting your reserves out in a cup quarter final just shouldn't happen in professional sport. Whatever the circumstances.

Reserves? How many of the Keighley team were not first team squad members? My post made it clear that I do not believe that the team that played that day was our 'theoretical' best but I know of no sport in which in a competition the team selection is made by someone outside the club based on their perception of the teams players abilities and seek to maximise it in specific games. The choice of team that day was down to Keighley,be it the 'coach' or the club in a broader sense. Tactical choices are part and parcel of nearly all sports, my issue is that March is not able to coach players, he is only able to plck them. When we were relegated it was mooted that he would have to manage with a severely curtailed number of players due to financial constraints, circa 22. Can anybody tell me how many players we have had this season? How many of these players have been acquired from supposedly better clubs rather than bringing on the less experienced players that we already have. Is this an admission that March is incapable of improving young players and that he has to trawl the higher level clubs for fringe players hoping that they are the finished article having benefitted from better coaching, ln the true sense of the word, that he is incapable of providing?

I think the club need to make changes on and off the field to move forwards;

1) Community
Firstly Just ask yourself, why did Cougarmania really take off in 1992?? Community, the club became this common bond between people in the town, it was our club. Mick O'Neil and Mike Smith came up with all these ideas to get the club involved with the community, things like the trip to wembley really stood out, the cougars cubs had at least 1 team at every age group between under 8s and 18s. Joe Grimma organised an annual interschools rugby tournament at under 8s and under 11s. later on Jason Ramshaw and Matt Foster coached the under 16s Keighley schools side. Surely this is something the club look at again, I have mentioned this on here before but I am sure there are some things which could be mutually beneficial between the club and Keighley/Craven college, e.g. maybe getting the students who do the media courses to put the programme together, it would give the students experience of actually working on a publication and to deadlines and the cost of putting it together could be covered by sponsorship. Similar things could be done with the website etc, getting local people involved in the club and people who may not have shown interest in the past may start showing up to see what they are playing a part in. Also, I think the club needs to be more invovled in the youth set up, as I believe that what was the Cougars Cubs has gone and is now being run by Keighley albion.

2) Match Day experience
As someone has already mentioned on this forum, there are things like the stand up bingo which would just appear to have disappeared but if people are turning up to watch and getting more of a day out than just the match they are likely to come again, and if there are other things going on around the ground, there are things that can probably be done quite inexpensivley and make some money off, things like facepainting for the kids or maybe a wooden board with some holes in it, and people have to pay £1 for 3 chances to throw the ball through one for a prize. Jam on top based on dalton lane is a rehearsal studio for musical groups, we could even look at doing something with them to get some live music before the matches, again this all comes back to getting the community involved.

I am going to have to cut this short as my lunch hour is coming to an end, I will post the rest of my thoughts this evening.

JP