Well my opinion for what it's worth.

What a show that was.

It was like watching a bunch of deers in headlights lady night.
Like they never knew the rules, never played with team mates before.

N.brown, was playing hot potato all night, never did anything with the ball. Neither he or Smith took the ball to the line. Hoy did better than both when he came on.

Okunbor, whilst he tackled pretty well and did have some energy about him, looked slow and turns like a tank.
Ligi looked good. Strong carries , good offloading (never a red, but Kendall was vr)
Esse esse didn't look too bad, harsh yellow. Going to be a lot of cards this season for sure.
Ashworth looked good too.
Pele looked decent until his brain fart... he'll be out for 5/6 weeks I reckon.
Not much to say on the rest.

Big disruption losing Sutcliffe just before KO, cator minutes in, then the yellow, then the red, then Houghton goes off and fails HIA, then walker off, think he was ok in the end.

All in all,I think it's going to be a LONG season, with many more downs then ups...and I'm not even a fan that's usually negative

What does Stanley Gene bring to the table in terms of Coaching, we all know Smiths credentials but just not sure what Genes are other than Smith trusts him.
Even taking in to account our obvious deficiencies we looked so far of it on Thursday it was as though they'd all just got together for the first time that night.

For me it was our backs what looked second rate. Yes we have injuries but boy did we look weak. I know Tuime and Sutcliffe aren't world beaters but boy do we need them back. Martin definitely looks the part. Smith and Brown invisible most of the time.

Halfback situation im hoping Hoy and Trueman can stay fit and get us by, needs majorly addressing though.

Backs we massively lacked the man strength of Sutcliffe and Carlos. Lewis Martin coped but i thought Litten and Walker are very lightweight bringing it out from the back, we need better options to get us out our half.

Get your point about Hasler etc but I just think he’s a bit long in the tooth, old ideas and methods. Same with Stanley Gene, absolutely cracking player but what coaching credentials does he have ? Think I’m just looking for reasons. If Rovers had better mentality is that down to coaching ?

2 words BRIAN SMITH

That is all anyone needs to know about the impact coaches can have and what you pay them for.
I chatted to an ex NRL UK SL player here in Aus and he was quite interesting about how he talked about different coaches that we all know.
Matt Elliot/Dave Furner etc

He said some of the coaches were bang on average and some were amazing.
Yet we may all have thought they were high pedigree.

We really need the reincarnation of Brian Smith but who?