Quote Kosh="Kosh"Spot on IMO.
Regardless of concerns about our halves - and there are legitimate concerns - they didn't cost us the game yesterday. Like you, I'm more concerned about our defensive frailties.'"
Not spot on at all in my opinion. Defensive frailties are a concern but the club's biggest issue is at half back. I sat and watched all games up to ours yesterday and the difference in the way individuals in that position played for other clubs was palpable.
I'll use Kevin Brown at Widnes as the example. There was a play in front of us near the Salford line where Brown was first receiver as Salford were going to do a big open shift to the other wing. Right at the last second he sprinted around behind the ptb and called the acting half to give him a short side ball. Having received it he threw a cut out face ball across his centre to the Widnes winger who virtually walked over the line unopposed. He'd seen the difference in numbers and initiated a fairly simple play that resulted in a very simple score. That is the kind of thing I'm talking about. Playing what was in front of him and having the authority to make things happen. He also kicked reasonably well. By the way someone like Brown wouldn't win you a grand final but I'll tell you what he's streets ahead of what we have at our club and is a big factor in their league position. As for other halves - well Chase is just Chase - brilliant at times and ridiculous at others but a bit of brilliance wouldn't have gone amiss yesterday as we already supply plenty of our own ridiculous.
In our own game we moved Rankin to full back through necessity and Azza came on and ripped up KR's left edge a few times singlehandedly. We know he's not a HB just a hooker but we looked far more dangerous with him running at the line taking players on. Having said that out of the two young Aussies Rankin offers a step and some pace and would certainly be the pick of them both. At least he fashioned an opening for Hadley while taking a bang himself with a ball at the line. Miller I'm afraid is nowhere near the level required. He's simply receiving the ball then passing it on to someone else without asking a single question. His kicking game, apart from maybe the high kicks to the corner, is diabolical. Yesterday was no different with several random kicks to their in goal which no one had a hope in hell of chasing down. Easy meat for the opposition. Horne used to get dry bummed on here for better kicking than Miller is producing. Strangely I don't see any praise for Radford on here today for sticking with Miller and Rankin which is what so many people have cried out for. Especially from the 'Miller will be dropped this week' brigade. It's a shame the tactic of sticking with them isn't working although admittedly there's no other choice really.
So I stick by my point entirely. To the poster that you replied to who asked 'Why is it always the halves' fault ?' that would be because we've been garbage at half back for a long time and we've been a garbage team for a long time as a result. Sure we've dropped off defensively in games and it needs fixing but maybe if we asked more questions, and were more of a threat with the ball, we wouldn't do as much defending and the opposition would have less energy to exploit us. Plus you have to factor in that the opposition generally has better halves than us and as a result we are defending better plays against us that we are throwing at them.
The half back situation isn't the only thing wrong - if it makes everyone feel better sack the coach as well - I really couldn't give a toss about Radford and whether he stays or not. But if you were doing a pareto analysis of Hull's problems addressing the poor half back performances would be the top action. Until this area of the team has been fixed we'll win nothing whoever is in charge. I'd bet my house on the fact that the exact side that played yesterday would never win at Wembley or Old Trafford whoever was coaching them because the players in key positions simply aren't good enough. We got to Wembley last year thanks to Holdsworth's performance in the semi final - although average in a lot of areas he had a very good kicking game which got us there.
It's the single biggest thing that has disappointed me about Pearson's tenure. He said he was going to get us some world class play makers yet yesterday we had Miller, Rankin and latterly Heremaia in those positions. That's a bigger fail than appointing Radford in my view.
