The post match press conference from CC is utterly depressing and quite frankly I am absolutely pig sick of hearing the same lame excuses being trotted out in the wake of yet another lacklustre performance: this player was missing, that player was missing, the moon wasn’t aligned with Jupiter, blah, blah, blah – what the hell does he do with the team in training every week.

His excuses do not wash. On Friday both Leeds and Wigan played with back rowers in the centres and put on a decent display, and against Saints in the Challenge cup the week before Leeds had no recognised half backs in their team but were in the game until the closing minutes. As CC has stated after each week’s dismal showing, the effort is there – for one half at least – but the lads are devoid of ideas and they are not playing as a unit. The buck stops with the coach for these performances and if he can’t get the lads motivated and to start playing as a team for 80 minutes over the course of the next 3-4 games then he has to go; it is as simple as that. And if anyone thinks that Andrew Fifita is going to get us out of this almighty hole in which we presently find ourselves or we are going to miraculously pick up wins from perceived ‘weaker’ teams then think again because it’s not going to happen.

Either CC stops the rot and fast or he should step down. If CC won’t resign (and let’s face it, he won’t get a gig anywhere else so you could see him clinging on for dear life) then MC or JM should do what their directors’ duties mandate them to do – act in the best interests of the company; and that means letting CC go and appointing a coach that can do the job.

MC, who has done so much right for our club, unfortunately got it wrong when he let John Kear walk out of the door and it’s been downhill ever since. Yes, there has been a severe injury crisis to cope with and, yes, there were issues around COVID-19 last year but you can’t escape the fact that CC has made some very dubious transfer calls; CC has been given significant coaching resources to ease the burden on him; and CC has been given an extended off season to put in place the right structures. However, sadly there is little, if any, sign of improvement. No there aren’t the sources at Wakefield but neither were there the resources at Cas when Powell took over nor at Salford when Watson took over but they managed to mould competitive sides with what they had to work with.

The upshot is that MC has been extremely supportive of CC but it is evident that it is just not working out and a parting of the ways for both parties is what is now required. Everyone makes mistakes and we learn from them; MC should not compound the mistake of letting JK go by keeping CC in charge for much longer otherwise we will be fighting it out with Leigh for the relegation spot – and, honestly, as things stand, I can’t see us avoiding the wooden spoo

We are now one of two clubs still to win this season. The problem is that we have had many years in SL to have put together a competitive well trained squad whilst Leigh had only a few months.

The club and Chester have to face reality in so far if the former want to continue with the latter they must loosen the fiscal purse strings and give him more options on the playing front. If they don’t want to do this then Chester must go because he is singularly unable to get the best out of what we have and it is time to give someone with new ideas.
If both prefer the status quo that I personally see a long hard nervous season ahead once again, with this thread getting Longer and longer and the supporters more frustrated.

With all the coming and goings of the last couple of weeks, could the saga of Andrew Fifita be the crossroads for CC?

Mr Chester wasted the Budget last year . No more 3rd choice players or player reaching there last few years

3 day turnaround for both sides no matter what score its still defeats 4 pts for them 2 for us....not cherry picking anything what i say are facts one of the meaningless fixture was bo less meaningless than the other you cant say the one we won was meaningful but the deafeat 3 days later wasnt...oh and no big win at headingley was at saints ground