Now that I think about it, a loan from SL club is the way to go. They don't stay with us but we get a fresh player who wants game time.
Clearly we proved last year it doesn't always work but there are plenty of young players out there in the top clubs.

Just read the championship grand final winners also get a significant 6 figure sum in prize money. I know Matt has been fantastic with what he has put into this club. However I would hope he would get some of it back by winning that prize.

I thought that came in next year but it would indeed be nice if we got it.

Invariably, the injuries we are having are helping with freshening up the forwards, Lino has had a decent rest, we could do with a half though, the young Wigan lad perhaps migth be worth an enquiry. We may get enough iMG points to be in SL, but I'm sure the playing group want to win the title.

Rocky not getting a game at Wigan, Farrimond seems to be favoured, just a option maybe with options very limited

As some have said it’s not the loss it’s the manner of the defeat that’s disturbing!

We have already tucked the 1895 Trophy away and we will top the table, that's not in doubt, but Toulouse have just served notice that the Grand Final isn’t a foregone conclusion.

It was the stated aim of the Club that we would get back into the Superleague not just via IMG but by the traditional way of winning it on the field of play. If we are honest with ourselves the inadequacies highlighted yesterday have been there all season but we’ve been winning our games so there’s been no need for recruitment to fix those inadequacies.

Ye, I know we were missing a couple yesterday with Atoni and Lino being the main absentees but would they have filled a 28 point gap, I doubt it. So, no panic but we now know that should we reach the Grand Final and should it be Toulouse we face then if they turn up ready to play and in a confident frame of mind we might not be favourites to win.

It was one game. It doesn't mean every other game will be the same.

Same for Toulouse how many have they lost this season teams generally lose form at some point we just need to get back on the horse

Agree with this, it was the inept performance, not the defeat, that was rather worrying.

Incorrect!

We’ve been giving cameos of that performance throughout the season but have got away with it.

Yes true, but I am sure their losses were all at the start of the season. Their squad has now strengthened and they are gaining momentum.
From what I saw yesterday some of their backs are better than anything we have . Unless we strengthen I would be far from confident of beating them even at our place

So it's not the same then. Glad you agree.
We've been playing well in patches and beating teams, including Toulouse.

Those players in the previous games haven't become rubbish overnight.
It was hot and we didn't handle tge heat or the game well. Happens to lots of teams. We knew we'd struggle with these games. We all thought it would be the Bradford game.

We just have to refresh and start planning for playoffs.

Incorrect again!

I never said it was the same as anything, I said the signs have been there all season and they have.
Also don’t put words in my mouth, I never said the players were rubbish or even that they’d deteriorated overnight.
The issues that were highlighted yesterday weren’t highlighted because of the heat they were highlighted because we played a higher standard of team and they exposed our inadequacies. Beating part time teams every week is fine, it’ll get us to the top of the league but we’ll face another quality team in the GF, if we get there

Why the meltdown, Wigan lost to hull over the weekend and they are arguably the strongest team in super league as we are deemed in our league, dust down and go again into the business end

Not sure why 'cameos all season' isn't the same as 'the same thing'

I didn't mean you said they were rubbish but it has been said by others. I was just commenting in general.

But.....why does this game mean so much yet the other game we played against them is not considered?

Either way I'm not precious about it. It's a wake up call and we have plenty of time to fix it.

Why have we not had a post match interview from the coaching staff & or a senior player ???

What can the say about that display.? Personally I don't care to hear. What I want is to see us start playing games where we cut out the endless soft penalties and all the sloppy handling. As they say actions speak louder than words

Then you need to be more careful when replying to a single post that you don't infer that something was said by that poster.

By cameos I mean periods of matches where we’ve similarly performed to a lower standard and have been held up or out performed by the opponents or are you going to deny that we’ve quite often relied on our fitness to get us out of trouble in quite a few second halves.

Let me say again in as many words, it’s not about the loss it’s about the performance!
What I pointed out and what you seem unable to understand is that we’ve shown that level of poor performance on a number of occasions, the deficiency has been there all season but has thus far been inconsequential because the teams we’ve played haven’t had the quality to make us pay. Toulouse have that quality and maybe even Bradford should they continue to rebuild their team. Now we can bury our heads in the sand, because god forbid we say anything that doesn’t amount to fullsome praise, or we can try to fix the issues in the team and win the Grand Final as we stated we would at the start of the season.

The defeat could be for the best because I wonder if the pressure of staying undefeated has impacted our recent performances.

from my perspective (I stayed up all night and shelled out $50 for a vpn) it was a really disappointing performance... (I've only seen the club play 4 times streamed live and 3 have been losses [Leeds, Feath and now Toulouse)

So I wish to take full responsibility... Its my fault... sorry!!

Some other observations though... Max Jowitt seemed out of sorts with his colleagues almost from the kick off... body language and verbal until he screwed up for the Bolt hat trick try, when he just disappeared from the game.
The combination of Walmsley and Croft looked soft … I could see the holes on that side of defence and I was watching from 1300 miles away!
Liam Kay was pressured out of the game by the rush defence... his pass selection and decision making were very poor.
The starting front row was slow (sometimes static) in offence and defence.. Uele improved the go forward a bit but not much...
The edge and loose forward positions all looked a season beyond their sell by date or looked to be suffering from a lack of squad rotation options.
Off the bench I thought Doyle looked the pick of the players but lacked support pushing through.
Gale ... Did he touch the ball?

but that said I promise not to stream any more live games until seasons end!

If the teams shortcomings were glaringly obvious to you spook watching the game, I’m sure Powell wasn’t a happy bunny watching ,and also with the manner of the defeat either , being rolled over by one our nearest competitor in the comp without so much as a whimper . Heat , absentees will have played their part , but I suspect a touch of Complacency has crept in recently where we can overhaul teams going into the latter stages due to our superior fitness and power and skill set. I’m sure the coaching staff will be all over this and making adjustments to stamp this out and doesn’t become a regular feature ,(which I’m sure it won’t ) . We’ve always had a game or two like this in us ,same as every team , Wigan included . It’s how we deal with this adversity that will define us in this division and beyond

I understand what you are saying.
There are many reasons we lost this week. One of which is we are not the finished article.

Sone of the players playing this weekend would not be first choice in the championship. Quite a few more will not be first choice in SL.

The performance and reason for defeat needs looking at but I don't draw the same conclusions as you.

I don't think we always rely on fitness to win. We probably are fitter but not more so than the top sides. Powell has made the point that we don't do more fitness work than the part timers. We do other things though that help.
We do batter teams down the middle until they tire out though. That's a different think.

I'd really like to see us swing the ball about more but against some of the lower teams we break them in the forwards before we get to that point.

I did have really high hopes when I saw how fast we moved the ball when we played Wigan but we've only done that in patches in the main season I agree.
In some cases injury to some players has caused that but more likely other teams are just rushing our weaker players like Kay.
Depending on how long Lino is out we might need a loan player but a small improvement in halfbacks will jump the team on.

This team is only about winning the GF. Next year's team will be different and probably play different.
I'm still confident we'll be playing at home in the GF. I'm not actually sure it will be Toulouse.

fwiw - my take....Players playing out of position for too long and the squad, with a few playing busted over the last few weeks and some players not missing many games has taken its toll. We looked tired and the heat didn't help, hopefully we can start and get a few back ready for the play-offs and freshen a few up.

We have to remember we played our first game 4th Feb! and haven't had many weekends off in that time? maybe we might need to bring a couple of loans in to help some players get back to 100%. I'm sure Powell/Mills will have a plan

Question have the players been told who is staying and who is going Some thing did not look Wright on the pitch .Club have been very quiet about the match but have said you will get your 10 pound back if you were at the ground

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4nZ2vf ... e=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4nZ2vf ... e=youtu.be