Castleford.....a small club winning the big prize rather than the big club with all the cash

I picked out the last game before Radford took over which seemed reasonable if we were debating the 'firm foundations' that he was supposed to have inherited. My criticism for that game lies firmly with the players, but many who bag Radford as coach seem to think that players are nothing to do with the whole equation. What it did show, as did several poor defeats last season, is that the club has had ingrained issues for years and years, and that Gentle hadn't fixed them. Just like Agar didn't or Sharp before him.

Our demise is complex, but what I would say is that it has also without any doubt whatsoever coincided with a general lowering of the standard of players at the club since 2005. People talk about this squad as being a top 4 or even top 6 squad. This season proves that they are not. When the players that played 2000-2005 are listed out, the likes of Kearney, Swain, Barnett, Prescott, Smith, Best, McMenemy, Cooke and alike, they're all MILES better than most of the current incumbents in their positions. I'm not sure that fans at Hull can actually remember what it's like to have real quality players playing for us any more. Average players are overstated in their ability too often and absolved of any blame. Radford may well fail like his three previous predecessors, but the club has to rebuild the playing squad to a level that can win things. Anyone who thinks this season's squad could ever be coached to success and that changing the coach is a simple answer is, to use a favourite term on here, deluded.

Yet our coach says "This squad stands up to a lot of the elite teams in the competition."

It has done in the last 2 home games - even with Radford coaching it. Where it falls down is it can't perform to a high enough standard on a consistent basis. Didn't Gentle's team get hammered at Widnes ?

You think we played played well in those 2 games? (Serious question)
Last year lost 36-16 at Widnes and won 72-10 and in 2012 won 58-10 at home and lost 42-16 away.

It is easy to pick out a game here and a game there, but overall we were in much better shape under Gentle IMO. Our seasons at least had longevity, yet this season was effectively over with the cup defeat to Salford.
Our current coach stated the team was good enough to compete yet it has failed to do that. It isn't like he was an outsider coming into something new, he knew who was here and how they trained/played etc.
I don't want to go over the same things over and over again as it gets boring, the same arguments for and against are being repeated on a daily basis.

Yes I think we played pretty well without being outstanding. I've never been one to play down victories against the top sides. We threw away the win against Cas although we were undone by some flare that we ourselves don't have. Against Saints we defended well and were worthy winners. In both games our defence was excellent as it has been for 70-80% of games. More structure and flare in attack would have improved the performances. But neither the draw nor the win were flukes.