Hampshire. Though Walker may have been signed before Hampshire's contract was extended.

For me, the Gigot signing was the perfect example of what a lot are saying on here, and that is signing players that are available, but not necessarily what we need, which us what the problem has been with our recruitment in the past couple of years.

The negative stuff is as a result of finishing last season with a whimper and currently on a losing streak of 8/9 games.
Even the most optimistic fans struggle to take too many positives from that, although, there was significant improvement last time out and we hope that Trinity can back that performance up this aft.
When your side is in a hole, it's about getting a "W" any way you can.

The comparisons with Salford are interesting though.
On paper, we look to have both a better and more settled squad but, on the field of play, they are head and shoulders above us and you do have to ask - WHY ?
Certainly, win, lose or draw, the demeanor of the 2 coaches are polar opposites and when you hear Watson talk, he always seems to have a clear plan and objectives.
Also, they (Salford) have been a selling club for the last 3/4 seasons, with their better players being sold every season.
You could say that they got lucky with Hastings and they havent been close to the same side this season.
However, the one stand out difference is that you feel that their players are hitting 8/10 every week, Trinity, taking out last week, have been hitting 5 , maybe 6/10.

As for burning it down, I still believe that we have a lot of decent players but, for whatever reason, they aren't playing as a unit. probably time for a change.
Our only chance of a win may be against KR but, there is every chance that we may not see one this season.

I can’t think of another example in team sports where a coach at the helm of so many soul destroying performances with a win percentage of 16.7% or 25 losses from 30 games yet keeps his job!

Yep, 1-17 they were excellent.
I bet Pauli is having a good laugh about Chester now.....
Playing for a coach who uses him correctly and according to the stats has lost nearly four stone in weight.

I would say the way you look at things is laudable, but I would also say you are in a very small minority! You said on here weeks ago that players/the coach haven't become bad overnight, but this hasn't happened overnight?! You said on here weeks ago that Chester will turn things around........be patient and build slowly, what exactly are we building?! Rome?! If there actually was relegation would your outlook be slightly different? I think the comparisons with Salford are fair enough, who would have touched Kevin Brown with a bargepole seriously, at his age and coming off the back of a serious injury, yet he looks like he has turned the clock back, is that down to their coaching staff?? Why couldn't we have been in for Parcell instead of Josh Wood, I know which i'd rather have. The only positive for me since lockdown has been Bailey getting some game time, that's about it!

There’d be a certain irony if our only post lockdown win was against Cas - the only team we usually CAN’T beat.

That would be funny......law of averages?!

As ever the truth lays between PT over optimism and the bitterness of others.

What people are forgetting is that through most of CC time at the club the team has been great. Better than any team that I’ve seen at BV and that includes the 2004 team. Some of the tries scored especially by TJ and BJB have been as good as you’ll ever see in SL.

So what’s gone wrong?

Well CC has probably made some errors, opinions on what they are will differ.

However Chester’s biggest mistake has been to somehow offend Lady Luck.

She hasn’t just deserted him but given him a grade A kicking, what the hell did you do Chris?

People trot out the nonsense that injuries are no excuse, get a grip and stop being foolish of course they are.

This is most notable with the much vilified new signings, how are they supposed to cement their place when they are having to be used like sticking plasters! Come on it’s obvious.

Ditto COVID-19, I’ve no idea why we are suffering more than most but we clearly are, again it’s obvious how that affects any team.

As for a bit of luck during a game, forget it, we can’t beg a break at present.

Yes we are not playing well, yes some players are not pulling their weight, yes some of CC’s selections have looked odd to me also but then I don’t know what he knows.

Whatever the problems in the team there can be no doubt to those thinking rationally that a good proportion of it is coming from sources beyond our control.

If there were an instant fix I’d take it as I hate watching id flounder like we do at present but there isn’t. We are where we are and all we can do is dig deep and hang in there, at least for this season.

I think we need to start climbing rather than continue digging because we are currently so deep we are losing the light at the end of the tunnel.
We can hope it is for this season only but with it starting during the last there is nothing to suggest it will be especially if we go on a budget reduction squad.

Well, I hope that everyone involved with Wakefield Trinity; the Board, the coaching staff and the conditioning staff et all all watched yesterday's Salford/Wire semi. Salford, a club with a very similar heritage both historically and recently to ours showed just how the underdog can achieve that Wembley dream with the right coaching staff and belief in themselves.

Just recall how we met Warrington very recently in a sem-final and simply succumbed to an embarrassing defeat. salford persevered to the very end and came up trumps.

Well done Salford!

Take a lesson from that Wakefield Trinity.

I never realised that the opposite of optimism was bitterness!

I never thought bitterness was accepting mediocrity or being sick to the teeth of watching utter dross but you learn something new everyday

FickelFingerOfFate think Robinson the new coach of the giants answered your Question he said you need a good conditioner and back room staff and a good spine in the team and some one who knows what the team needs to strengthen it

Couldn't agree more.

I remember a football manager being interviewed when his team got promoted into the premier league, when he was asked where the target was for the season. He said we dont want to just stay up, we want to be in the top half. His money quote was "if you set your standards low, you will achieve low", and this has stuck with me for about 25 years, and I think of this every time I read the comments, and listen to people on the terraces, when they accept mediocrity all the time

You can get all them in but the fact is CC as not got the knowledge or the willingness to change