My family and I have been supporters of our great club for 38 years. We have also been regular season ticket holders for the same time period as well

I have witnessed some disappointing team performances over the years (and you don’t become and remain a Trinity fan if you expect otherwise), and during that time I have never taken to social media to ventilate my frustration about a game, but I am unable to contain my sheer anger and embarrassment at today’s woeful performance which was quite frankly a disgrace.

Our club has always prided itself on its grit, team spirit and determination but there was none of that on display today. I accept that there were injuries in the game, and that obviously has an effect on the level of performance, but those injuries do not excuse the complete lack of effort and leadership from minute one of the game. The players who took to the pitch today – a virtually full strength side - were highly capable of competing with that Catalans side but they delivered up a performance devoid of effort and any attacking threat and need to take a long hard look at themselves. Whilst many rational fans can overlook a number of issues, a complete lack of effort is not one of them. If many supporters had turned up to work and put the level of effort in that those players did today, the reality is that they would be sacked or at the least be facing some kind of disciplinary process.

It is not just the players who must take responsibility for that performance but also the coaching staff because the team is seemingly incapable of executing basic rugby league skills in both attack and, on the basis of today’s performance, defence. You did not need to listen to the embarrassing Sky commentary of the game to put your finger on the issues with the performance, which have not just appeared overnight but have been gradually developing ever since John Kear’s departure from the club and have often left us, and many supporters we know, feeling more and more disheartened with the direction of the team’s approach to playing the game:


1. There was no structure in attack whatsoever and at times you could throw a blanket over the whole team in the middle of the park. It may be unfair to draw comparisons with other teams but look at Salford, a team very similar to ours in terms of the calibre of playing personnel and budget constraints, who week in week out play free flowing rugby, utilise a deep attacking line, run onto the ball and use dummy runners to confuse the defence. In far too many games our attacking line is too flat, players do not run onto the ball, the passing is laboured/misdirected and there is too much one out rugby which makes it is so easy for defenders to gang tackle and pick off our runners. We desperately need a midfield general who can organise attacking structures because we seem rudderless in attack and have done for some time.

2. The kicking on last tackle of sets is woeful. In both this game, and the Wigan game last week, we did not contest kicks and kick pressure was virtually non-existent. We also seem unable to get any appreciable distance on kick-offs compared with other teams so whilst we end up taking first tackles on our 10m line, the opposition manage to reach the 20m line before being tackled.

3. Leadership from the captain was non-existent and often seems to be. It was plain for everyone to see today that there was no leadership on the field when heads dropped and when stood under the sticks - try after try - there was little, if any, communication from the captain to the other players.

4. The defence, which has been decent and has so often kept us in games over the last couple of seasons, deserted the team today but that is not the issue which concerns so many supporters.

5. The players last week and this week look completely unfit, lethargic and uncommitted to the cause. General fitness and match fitness are different but look at the NRL teams and many other Super League clubs, who right from the restart, are competing at the level they should be.

I am no coach and don’t profess to be one; just someone who cares passionately about my club and is frustrated by regularly attending matches and seeing points 1 – 3 identified above game after game, which have been issues now for a couple of seasons. I don’t know what the answer is but maybe an attacking coach to assist Chris Chester and a half back who can marshal the team around the park. I fear that if we continue to perform like we have for the rest of the season there will be a significant reduction in season ticket numbers, supporters will fall away and attracting new fans will be extremely challenging.

I listened to Chris Chester’s post match Sky press conference and I am all for blooding the younger lads in the squad and giving them a chance to prove themselves for the rest of the season but, let’s not be under any illusions here, that is not the panacea to issues 1-3 above, which many fans perceive as fundamental problems which urgently need addressing if we are to compete and survive at the highest level.

All of my family and I have committed to forgo any refund/rebate on our season tickets and have indicated that we will purchase season tickets for next season but, unless the level of commitment that Trinity deserves from its team and coaching staff is significantly raised over the next few games, I am afraid that regrettably we will no longer be season ticket holders and will no longer be sponsors in the future. For supporters for nearly 40 years this really is not an easy thing to say but it is unfair to expect loyal fans to give up valuable time and spend significant money supporting a team not willing to put in the effort and with seemingly no pride when they put on the red, white and blue.

You may be right regarding Koppy but unfortunately the pack are a unit and sometimes the eye just sees them as one.

Arona is a key man, definitely a cut above. We always look better with him on the park. Fifita can win you the odd game by his own but Arona seems to ensure we are competitive even if we don’t win. He’s my number one first forward on the team sheet every time.

I think Arona is a real leader and never really noticed it until he was out last year. He does a lot of the things that we have been missing. Working from marker, pressuring the kicker etc. I actually think he’s more of a pack leader than most of the other forwards inc Fifita.

Interesting reading some of the comments

When you watch the players at the mo the ones who had the bad injuries don’t look like the players of that amazing 2018 team (I believe they still are those players) So it’s understandably they aren’t quite at the races currently

I can remember Bill and Tinni would both hit the line and pump there legs like a steam train, like there lives depended on it and it was near guaranteed to put us on the front foot

A typical kick return would be Tommy first , then Bill, the defence are already all over the shop because of the effort to put those two down, at this point and were maybe in our own 30-40 yard line
Then Dave booms it in and produces an offload shifting the ball to our left away from Bill and Tommy
Then arona comes in links the play to Miller who is buzzing back over the left
The defence don’t know if he’s going to hit Ashurst or Bill or take the line on but something devastating is about to happen

We were so effective from deep, almost unstoppable

It’s understandable after awful injuries particularly to legs that the foundation of what we we’re so good at we can’t do at the moment

I do think we need an organising scrum half like Tim but I also think we need a few of there players back at there best, it may come quickly, who knows

They need to find that amazing confidence in themselves and each other again

The only way to do that is to grind some wins out, we have an excellent team we are very capable

Interesting.

Truth is we are all guessing as we don’t true team dynamic. Unlike individual sports there are so many factors that determine how a team performs.

Injuries play a huge party but when you really think about it the challenge to get 20+ young men to function as an effective unit frankly baffles the mind. Here are just a few things that can seriously effect a teams performance apart from injuries.

Personality clashes, most likely with new signings.

Age

Confidence loss

Personal/family issues

Monetary issues

Pressure from agents and other outside issue

None RL related health issues

And there are many more, bad enough in a single sportsman but multiply that by 30 and it looks impossible at times. When to many of the above collide it gets hard to motivate a team or even just get it to function correctly.

At some clubs like Saints there is a level of inertia that helps stave off the worst but at Trinity where failure is more the norm it gets harder.

Being a team manager in sport has to be one of the hardest jobs on earth. It’s hard enough to motivate 30 young men to sell life insurance efficiently, how hard must it be to get 17 of those 30 to perform at their peak ability for 80 minutes for roughly 26 weekend a year.

Being a coach or being a top player, not as easy as it looks.