You're right there - most of them are players though.

If anyone thinks players are not trying they need to give their heads bang.

I think on the whole the players are trying, especially the front row forwards. Most of the problems are down to either poor application or plain and simple lack of ability.

Someone said that to me in pub . I don't think that there not trying its just that there not good enough .

I'm not sure where that many people have accused the players of lack of effort ? The odd one maybe. Besides which effort isn't just physical it's mental and it's the mental aspect in particular where I think a large number of our players including some of our 'stars' fall down badly. It's why we're so inconsistent and have been for a number of years. Last night we played the bottom of the league and were, by the 80th minute, beaten all ends up in the pack, halves and three quarters. Mental preparation doesn't start ten minutes before the game starts it starts when the previous game finishes and I'm not sure just how well prepared some of our players were to play that game last night.

In any case when our coach is visibly angry and calls the performance "an embarrassment", "the worst performance I've seen at pro level for a long time", "unacceptable" etc and that the staff had tried to avert problems caused by a perceived poor attitude during the week's preparation, then it would seem inevitable to me that fans' reaction would be along those lines also. Or do you think Gentle needs to give his head a bang as well ?

I can honestly state that my head does not need seeing to. Last nights performance was woeful at best. If that was a team giving it 100% effort then god help us. Professional pride alone would make me work as hard as possible to avoid being walloped by the lowest ranked team in the competition. Add to that the chance of a top 4 finish and the chance however slim of some glory. It was simply totally unacceptable last night. Ok lose giving it all against a better team. I can accept, but last night was shocking.

I dont think last night was acceptable, it was shocking. It was one of those nights though were normally reliable players made the most basic errors. I've seen comments about Horne being rubbish, Briscoe the same, Manu and Turner not interested etc.

As for Gentle I think there are more questions than answers right now but he seems to be imune from any sort of criticism.

Spot on mate. Seems to me that having won two difficult games in a row and in the process secured a playoff spot, a number of our squad decided they could take it easy against the bottom side in SL. If you go into a game with that attitude then you can't just switch on when things go pear-shaped. Gentle and the coaching staff clearly saw danger signs in training and tried to address it. Seems only some of the players listened.

I don't think Gentle is immune from criticism whatsoever. People are giving him time to turn the club around. There have been signs early in the season that we have attacked better and defended better than previous years but it's not yet cemented as the 'normal' way FC play and likely wont be until the squad overhaul is well underway. If it isn't better this time next season then fans, but more importantly the owner, will no doubt be asking questions. By your own argument it would be very difficult to criticise Gentle last night when normally reliable players make so many basic errors. I doubt they're coached to do that so the responsibility for defeat rests 100% firmly with the majority of the players and their unprofessional attitude IMO. Which is what a lot of fans are saying.

He isn't immune to any sort of criticism. He's being given credit for the difficult circumstances he's having to deal with this season. I don't think he's got every little detail spot on - I'd have had Horne playing FB a lot earlier last night for instance - but he's getting the big things correct IMO.

I think he's a good coach. What he isn't is a miracle worker.

Exactly. What is more you can tend to predict which players will 'listen' or more likely which ones are professional enough to not even need telling. Certainly our best forward performers were Lynch, Heremaia and O Meley who are all top professionals who have played at the top of the game. There's a reason why they've played at that level and much of it is down to attitude. Our attitude was best summed up not by the farcical amount of dropped ball on show but by our poor line speed and lack of aggression in collision. That's all about attitude and it stunk pretty much from kick off.

Agree again. Although to his credit Gentle did include himself and the coaching staff in the criticism he gave last night.