Quote: Theboyem "Do you actually face the pitch whilst at the games? Because quite frankly your take on things borders on ridiculous. Being of a positive disposition us commendable but your defence of the indefensible is making you out to look rather daft i'm afraid. I try to stay away frim this mad house of a forum these days because of the 'special' people who seem to populate it these days. But i have to say that if you can't see something is seriously wrong within this team and its structures then you need either professional help or a crash course in what rugby league us about. Still i suppose if living in your fluffy little world makes you happy then carry on i suppose. The rest of us will live in the real world.'"
Of course I can see what's going wrong, we are getting beaten by better sides, sometimes heavily...
It's because of the financial problems we have had and the lack of resources that we have a squad not as good as 75% of the league....
We have been honest and huffed and puffed our way to 2 good wins away at Hull & Widnes....on the odd occasion the majority of our team will raise to a level enough for us to scrape a result....we've the odd match winner who may pull something out of the bag, in the main though we have struggled....
Our struggles have all been against the teams sat at the top end of the league (barring Hull KR away)
What happens and what has been clear as day in the last two is we are getting murdered around the ruck.....we are too soft in the tackle thus allowing opposition teams to get a quick play the ball.....the good teams have all done this to us....that then puts us on the back foot and gives quality opposition and quality players time and space, which when given can damage you....we are all at seas defensively....I'd say we've been brave still....battled it out, scrambled the best we could but the quality and clinical sides will punish you.....it's down to the qualityof playing staff we have plain and simple....look at the wingers for instance....all absolutely caned on here time after time.....Fox, Lyne, Mathers, Owen today....only one who hasn't really copped it is Riley, and that's maybe because he's a little bit better quality, come from a better side where he's been successful, used to playing well and winning.....all the same criticisms have been given to all our wingers no matter how hard they have tried....same all over the park really....
Around the ruck when we have the ball against quality opposition is exactly the opposite to when we defend.....Our forwards are being comprehensively beaten in the collision....we are being stopped, wrapped up and put on our backs by 3 men tackles....this is what the better teams do best, they slowly peel off and have killed any momentum you are trying to get.....we just can't get a quick play the ball and on the front foot....the better teams defensive line is so well set they are moving up as a unit and stifling us quickly....that has happened against all the quality sides.....that then puts you under pressure.....forwards are catching the ball stood still....halves are getting the ball with very little time to do anything and at times they are trying too hard and forcing passes that are never on.....much easier when you are on the front foot and plenty of time with ball in hand....I'm pretty sure that's not the gameplan and our forwards are professional rugby league players who know to run onto a ball....once you get sucked into a game and are being dominated so much though that kinda goes out of the window.....in games against the lesser sides and teams more on our level we have managed to get rolls on at times and get more on the front foot....
If we had a squad the quality of Leeds or Wigan and our results and performances were the same I would have seriuos doubts about defensive structures, attacking moves etc......I think some people need to wake up and smell the coffee and realise what sort of squad we are running with and then comprehend why we are getting comfortably beaten by top 6 sides.....
Have a look at teams around us in the table with similar resources, similar squads and their results are pretty similar to ours....Salford are a great team to compare ourselves against to see if we are under achieving as much as people are making out....they've had similar shake up of players....not quite as many as ours.....have on the whole, looked to have signed a little better quality and a bit more super league experienced players than us, yet if we had sneaked a win against them opening day we'd be sat above them in the table.....
As the season goes on judge us more on performances against the Bradford's, London's and Salford's....the teams around our end of the table....not the Cas's and Warrington's who are rightfully up the top end....
