Hi guy's as a Cas fan(and no not here to gloat) i think you are missing Sykes badly.
With him out of your team you look woeful at times. No structure going forward and missing him with his defensive skills(from what i have seen).
As for the Agar out thread. Watch the half time section very carefully where it shows you Agar in the dressing room,read his body language and that of the players and lip read Agar,he has lost most players attention.

Good luck for rest of season,except your last home league game of course

Here we go

It's a pointless argument. Even if he had stayed, he would have been the first to be sold by the administrator the year or so after.

Can't be doing with the sheep stuff either, from you or from the moderator who had it or similar in his sig. People are fans/supporters, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Smith for me should not get a game until he learns or rather mans up in defence.

His attitude is terrible in relation to defence especially on or near the line. Desire is a major part of making a tackle and he is showing non.

I dread to think what Farrell will do against him next week.

As others have said I think he needs a dominant running half partner. Let Smith run the plays and guide you round the park early doors, first 3 plays on defensive sets coming away from the line, then have a more direct half finish the sets off.

Smith is not a half that takes the line on so unless the pack give him go forward he will always be fighting a losing battle, playing on the back foot. His biggest asset is his ability to pick a pass and much if the feedback coming his way now is similar to when he was at Wigan under Brian Noble.

Noble had a very simple style of play with few bodies in motion running at holes, again if you fail to give Smith options then you are waisting his talent.

The Wigan game is going to be a massive test for him, he us going to have 2 strong runners in Farrell and Thornely to deal with, but if he goes well it could give him the confidence to kick on in this element of his game.

Seeing as he is injured i doubt he cares how many strong runners wigan have.

Just got back from the weekend and reading all your posts on here, there's a few things I've read (or ratehr, not read) which I'm surprised about.

I think in summary, we won because your guys didn't move up fast enough and Chase had a ridiculous amount of time with the ball in hand.

The reason Carney didn't trample Fox down cas is cause whenever he got the ball, your line was already up and he didn't have chance to run - unlike Saturday.

With regard to Tim Smith, I've said on here all season, you can't create two tries from nothing, then let two nothing tries in and be called a "great player" - his lack of commitment in defence is appalling, but I agree that as your playmaker, you can accomodate this..... Burrow and McGuire for Leeds are the ones lining up the defence so they can be a speed bump for an impact tackler to finish off. If you can hide Smith along side an impact tackler then you'll be fine. Unfortunately he had was defending inside your centres on Saturday, both of which were woeful in defence, and really exposed Smith, Fox, and Cockayne (hence 5/6 of our tries coming down your sides)

On Justin Poore, again, I said he will be good for you if he remains fit. I honestly feel for you guys as over the last 5/6 years, you've had to put up with massive NRL forwards with a big mouth and big reputation, turning out to be past their best or totally unfit. On Saturday Poore looked like the infamous Jarryd Hickey (and from what I've read, he has done over the last few matches?). He seemed very slow, barely won an impact and struggled to clear the ruck/retreat 10m.

I came to your match with Hemel Stags and watched your kids thinking "oh crap, these lads look sharp" ad I would be begging for a few of them to get starts.

However, I think you guys should judge Mr Agar on next week - if he gives some of those kids SL debuts against Wigan, he wants stringing up. These kids need confidence that they are good enough to play SL. It'd be no good playing them against a wigan team who are on fire in a team who seem to be at their lowest point of the season.

I'd write next week off, try a few different structures wth the current 17 and see what happens.

But don't forget.... you're still only 3 wins off the eight!!!! Not 7 like last season!