Middle 8s

Quote: knockersbumpMKII "Are you talking about Radford or Griffin?
I'd rather see both go, it's pretty clear that unless he (Radford) has a fully fit over the salary cap squad he hasn't a hope in hell of taking us forward as a club.
We've had one game this season were we've had a full game performance. Yes we've had some outstanding 20-30-40minute periods including against Warrington/Wigan in the first half (though winless and full of kids respectively) and the comeback win plus that Cas game were the players were galvanised by the sending off.

Mentally as has being mentioned by others and myself, we are weak.
Are we without Ellis our main leader, yes we are, but then LR should know that there was a more than evens chance he would be injured this year and not for just the odd game or two. So you ensure you identify other players to step up to that role, you build up how players think about situations in games, how to overcome times of duress, what to do and not what to do. You instill mental fortitude and so making the right (or better) decision/s by the players is the default choice not the natural instinct to go into meltdown/heads down/panic mode which we've seen far too often.
In a similar vein the giving away penalties with awful indiscipline, just why? I know it's a fine line between a penalty and not at times but christ we are shocking for pens at the wrong time, again that's down to coaching and mental preparation/decision making.

This is the part of sport (psychology) that Radford simply does not have nor will ever have and clearly needs external help in this dept and with the best will in the world as we've seen we don't have a plan B either. He still makes the same/similar mistakes with the subs bench, he's still tried to fit square pegs into round holes.

We have a fantastic squad of players with enormous talent but lose a few and he simply can't cope even against the SL whipping boy rabble that are Leigh, remember they hadn't won a game in 9 before last night and had a few out injured themselves.

Can we remain in the top 8, of course we can, I'd be shocked if we didn't. Can we reach the top 4 by the end of the season to have a shot, yes we can do that also.

However Radford needs to do something to turn the players around from a mental POV and pretty fecking quick because if we are going to be without our seemingly only leader on pitch for a while and a few others then as pointed out above where is the next win coming. He needs to identify his own weaknesses and get help to address those weaknesses (which as far as I can see he hasn't except for the realisation of needing to use squad players/youngsters more frequently) or he'll not be able to change/adapt/improve as a coach.

The Catalans game could prove to be THE pivotal point in our season, snatch a win and confidence/worries are allayed for a short period at least and rebuild again from there.
Lose and i don't really want to think how that might impact the players.'"

I agree with some of your post..

LR has alluded to some post match interviews,regarding some player's attitude
in preparation for games.,

In my opinion this is his role as Head Coach to ensure this is not happening.

Maybe some players are still 'dining at the Challenge Cup winners table'??- or could it be that, our pre-season this year, has not bred the mentality that it produced last year? when they were 'beasted' which produced a never say die attitude...

Regarding the coaching assistants, I personally feel, that coaching jobs
should not be awarded due to club loyalty, but based on purely coaching ability.

Sometimes, it is better to appoint an assistant,externally who has a new set of eyes - IMO