shades of Lovodua

Second game of the season as well. Wait until we have a real injury crises later in the season.

Certainly not the start we wanted. Wasn't really in the game last night. Our forwards did ok but am afraid our backs where way off. I still think we have the man in charge to turn it round. Total madness to even think of him going.

Certainly doesn’t look like we are anywhere near the cap limit and if we actually are then there’s something massively wrong in our recruitment and over paying massively.

Based on last night I'd say we have three really pressing issues that we need to resolve. Number one, and it obvious, but our discipline is very poor. I actually think the pack can go OK for us, individually they all showed flashes of decent stuff, but they have to sort out the discipline and channel their aggression the right way.

Number two, our back three are just not big and strong enough. Lewis Martin did ok, but the other two were dominated in every single collision. If we can find a way to get Okunbor on the wing I would definitely be doing that. It wouldn't solve all our problems there but at least it's a big body to cart the ball up for us.

Number three, and the most worrying is that we don't seem to have half backs, and that's only compounded by Walker who isn't a creative FB. Hoy has to start at 1 for me, get Brown at hooker, and I would seriously be thinking about putting Jack Charles in there with Smith until Trueman comes back. I know its a lot to ask of the kid but at least he has the right skill set and isn't a square peg in a round hole.

I'm not abandoning all hope yet, it's only one game, but last night did highlight some glaring issues and we need to do something about them.

The lack of not just quality in the halves but the actual lack halves is a huge problem for us and it was glaringly obvious last night.
Doesn’t matter in a sense how good the forwards are when we have nothing in terms of creating or using the platform created.
We never looked anywhere close to scoring

Whilst we look weak in the backs I think there’s enough there to work on that can improve us there but again with the halves we have very little in terms of the ability to link it all together.

The only plus point for me last night was the team didn't give up. However when you have no cohesion in attack your defence can only stand up to so much. We seem to have taken that step back of playing hookers and fullbacks as halfbacks yet again. I thought with Smith we would not go down the route of trying to place square pegs in round holes and that the youth would be brought into fill injuries etc. Maybe that will happen as the season progresses because we clearly cannot continue to playing players out of position when they are putting in sub par performances.
My big worry is that with every game being televised this season we will soon lose any walk ups who will not be tempted to come and watch abject performances over and over again when they can watch it in the comfort of their homes or in the pub.
Before the season started I was hoping for mid table mediocrity but on that first performance I think we are looking at a dogfight at the bottom with London.

So what you want rid of smith?

Personally think he will walk when Pearson starts to get on his back.
Cant say im impressed with what i have seen so far on the pitch under his leadership.
If he cant solve the on field indiscipine then you have to wonder what goes on behind the scenes.
If the new culture within the club is what we all witnessed last night then he certainly is not the right man for the job.
Cant deny his success in the past but maybe we have wrongly bought into that past success and now in his later years his passion for the game has gone in this new era of rugby league.
We will wait and see but the future for the club from both a financial point of view and a playing point of view is dire,and just waiting wishing and hoping that several of the younger reserve and academy players become S/L quality is hardly going to catapult us into a Wigan or Saints.
You have to have a balance in the team but quality is essential and this current squad its quality that is missing.
As i previously said if you look at our backline last night we are the laughing stock of S/L

For me, sorting out the indiscipline has to be the no 1 priority. Fix that and then work on the rest of the faults/omissions.

The discipline is the key for me and thr errors, I was worried mainly from a defensive point of view but given the amount of possession and territory rovers had I though we stood up well, especially given they have some very good backs and halves, I thought our backline would be absolutely shredded but they held their own for the most part.

Think you make some fair and valid points.

What is a worry for me is that like Hodgson, Smith has been here a year and had a complete off season to make improvements in the basics and discipline. Given the experience of Smith it’s not to much to expect to have seen a fair degree change/improvement.
From what we saw on Thursday it’s like Groundhog Day with discipline as poor as ever.

We may not have the quality but that doesn’t excuse the ill discipline and errors.

Fans will & do accept defeats but it’s when we see the same issues that bite us hard season after season going unresolved you begin to question everything. Let’s face it we’ve gone through Coaches and now players yet we still seem to have the same old issues ingrained.

He's had two off seasons to make changes and make improvements but there haven't been any, he's got one more off season and recruitment round to make changes and see some improvement, but agree an experienced coach should be able to get a team doing the basics correctly like passing, not giving away penalties etc. Brian Noble was a top coach at the time, but the game has moved on since then, I wonder if Smith still has the desire and whether the game has moved on a bit since he was at his peak and more ambitious coaches have also come in to superleague wanting to make their mark. We didn't look like a happy team either on Thursday night.

I really want Smith to be a success, but... IF he can't iron out discipline and ensure the team play the basics of RL at a competent level, he could be on borrowed time.
We all know, he has one arm tied behind his back,with regards to financial resources, but Salford are probably in a worse financial situation, and dont have marquee players, but still look competitive.
I hope we see some green shoots soon