Quote Pat Bateman="Pat Bateman"Do you think our squad is not capable of winning more than 19% of its games. Strange because it has been a stable, not massively changed team for a fair few years which finished top 5 twice. My expectations are not unrealistic, I do think we have a team that should compete better than what is currently is. Ok expecting us to win the grand final, that’s unrealistic or maybe a top 5 finish this year Is massively unrealistic. Who knows, I just want to see a team on the field that competes and doesn’t consistently not play for the full 80 minutes like it has been doing for too long hence 19% of wins. Everyone has an opinion and expectations of anything in life don’t they, to me that doesn’t seem to much to ask for a professional sporting team.'"
I think our squad is capable of competing with and beating Hull KR and Leigh.
I don’t think our squad goes into a game as favourites against any others.
So 12 teams in SL in my opinion we should beat 2 of them so actually I think we are slightly over achieving.
It’s all well and good saying this squad finished in the top 5 but that is a number of years ago now and it hasn’t really been freshened up or improved it’s just aged, whilst other teams have added quality...we have not.
We added Brough...who was poor, and now Lino who so far hasn’t hit the ground running. We badly needed some quality up front. I rate Crowther highly but he isn’t a 9. Wood is a grafting 9 but lacks the spark to ignite a game and Kyle Wood has his moments but again at 32/33 his best days are behind him.
Our Props are not SL standard with the exception of Fafita when he looks interested, which to be fair so far this year he does.
So with that being said I guess it comes down to our recruitment and retentions, knowing when to let players go and replacing them with a superior player.
We have failed to do that and that is why I don’t believe we have a squad capable on paper of finishing above 10th. If we do finish higher than 10th I think we will have over achieved. This was my opinion before a ball was kicked and that hasn’t changed.
The Hull KR game is massive. It’s already a must win. In reality I don’t expect us to win a game before that and again I thought the same prior to the season starts when I saw the fixtures.
I was shocked during the online sessions held prior to the kick off of the season Mr Carter saying we should be pushing for the top 5. I felt it was totally unrealistic and set fans expectations way too high. I appreciate he has to sell season tickets and I’m sick of saying this myself but I also think it is important to manage expectations.
That’s my thoughts on the situation. Who is responsible for the recruitment/retentions and how they are affected by our financial position is key to our success of failure.
What can we change short term to help? I think we played a cracking style against Leeds playing to our strengths. Last night Wigan’s game plan was to starve out flanks of ball by shooting wide. That worked. We couldn’t adapt to that counter tactic so we need a plan B. With the wide men shooting at us it opened holes in the secondrow channel and I can’t think once when we hit it.
Also out fitness and conditioning look way off the pace. That is a worry at this stage of the season but that can be sorted relatively quickly if the club wish to address it.
Like I said that’s just my opinion, it’s a very tough situation we find ourselves in. For me the key is survival this year and then freshening up the squad, and maybe coach too in the next offseason.