Quote: carl_spackler "That doesn't read to me like you thought we were making gradual progress up until that point, and I wouldn't call the amount of improvement we've made since that point in the space of a month gradual.'"
I wrote that because when we play poorly I don't accept garbage about 'blokes not turning up'. I don't accept anything other than 100% effort and commitment to the cause as an absolute base minimum. When I think it doesn't happen then I will be the heaviest critic on here. Hence the post. To be fair to Radford during his tenure there's generally been bags of effort at most games with the players clearly backing the coach. If you want an illustration of a big improvement I would say there's one there for you. Think about the game just prior to Radford's first game in charge.
I've been entirely consistent with my approach this season. I said before it started that Radford needed 10 games to continue on the improvement that we made at the back end of last season. After the KR defeat at Easter I thought that 4 points wouldn't be enough, however the completion of the 10 games saw us on 8 points after impressive wins against Saints and Widnes. So I then thought he should have until the end of the season to see where we finish, particularly as we'd also lost two games by one point against Wire and Wigan. If we stay relatively injury free I hope we can rally into the end of the season and do OK. The new players Radford has brought in in Minichiello, Pryce and Sneyd have settled in well now. Watts is playing some of the best rugby of his career under Radford and in general there's signs we're playing to our potential. Good on Radford and long may it continue - I'm glad Pearson has stuck with him while some fans gave up attending but the end of the season will determine the ultimate level of success. If we fall away again then it wouldn't be acceptable.
That's the end of this conversation from my side - I'm bored with it so everyone else must be suicidal.