Our attempts at spreading the ball wide always stop when the ball gets to our second rowers as both Westerman and Galea (who was very good last night) first instinct when they get the ball seem to angle their runs back in field.

Plus our timing for the McDonnell out of the back behind the second rower is way off right now and the passing doesn't take place close enough to the line its all too sideways and easy to read.

Robbed ? when was this as i thought the officials got all the major calls correct with the exception of maybe the dropout ?

Correct we need to move our play towards the defensive line and start giving the opposition some decisions to make.

I think people are misinterpreting what the poster said. His definition of "robbed" I think was the fact that we had lost players to illness, injuries etc. On that basis I would agree with him. FWIW I believe the officials had a decent game, although the old guy calling a forward pass from 60 yards away (but not able to see one under his nose) was rather strange. Best team on the day won, so no complaints from me.

We seem to be playing with one of the flattest attacking lines I've seen in 30+ years of watching. There's often only a few yards difference in the depth of the PTB and the deepest man. The line looks cramped up and the receiver is having to check his run and slow down. We've also given a lot of unnecessary forward passes in midfield this year, for the same reason. That can become a vicious circle: slow PTB, receivers overrunning the ball and having to slow down, beaten in the collision, poor body position, and so a slow PTB. Last year O'Meley, Moa and Manu could break this by giving us some (at times undeserved) go-forward. At the moment Briscoe and Lineham look like the only players capable o changing this.

I dont think we were the better team, we held you and soaked up the pressure then found an extra gear for the last 15, upto then i thought your forwards were better than ours but the difference in the end was a couple of long range kicks from Brough, your flat - non creative attack and our backs which found a couple of extra yards to finsh you off !!

If you'd have had a creative player playing you would have won i have no doubt about that.

Plenty of men out, plenty scraped through last min. We were robbed in a small sense. The mcdonall drop out cost a try when we were going well. N Briscoes 'forward' was probably no more forward than the 1for Wardles try, n there seemed more reason to give a try for crooks before half time than not to.
Play the exactly the same with no improvement at all we probably have enough to win the next 3. If we win a few we'll pick up confidence n all the play will link and come together. Its there in small pieces. Think we've reigned it back personally, in fact it's obvious. We was trying stuff early games but timing off etc n made lots n lots of errors, ended up defending to much then on the back of that conceded pens as well. So looking at our play it looks like it's been purposefully stripped back. Especially since every game has played in poor wet n heavy conditions with no continuity in the combos on the field. 6/7 centre/wings.
Also regarding bombs to Murphy. By aiming that side your not necessarily saying he's weak but controlling the position on the field. 1st tackles far left so 2nd has to be in field, by 3rd we were bringing wings centres up a little to keep them to the middle as much as possible. So if it hits dangerous right of cudjoe n macgilvary we can probably account for it being on 4th or 5th and account for it defensively especially with our young inexperienced centre .
Personally I think we need a run of games with a familiar regular team in key positions, some key men back and a few wins with some confidence and we'll still end up a good team. Think there is plenty to go at. Only wire (fullish strength) look really strong. Everyone else has a lot of flaws.
I'd have liked more than this but not crying yet. Could really do with 3from 3 in upcoming games though to set us on the way before starts getting to late.

the saddest thing is that I'm not sure what we can do to feasibly improve things. Gentle has got the players motivated and their effort can't be faulted, our defence is of a good standard, and our error count has reduced markedly since the penalty-a-thons at Leeds and Widnes. I also think generally Gentle gets his tactics and team selection right for the players he has available.

the big issue remains the attack, our only attacking threat is Holdsworth, and if is injured, has a bad game or is closed down by the opposition we are clueless.

sadly unless a player gets unexpectedly sacked, suspended or his club is struggling financially no quality No7 is available mid-season, and we've tried just about all of the available options within the squad (the only one not to have played is Nicklas, who unless he's had a transformation since the last time I saw him isn't going to turn things round)

so we are stuck again heading for the lower end of the play-offs, winning most games at home, struggling away and losing to the big teams when it matters.

Starting to feel really apathetic about the club, these mediocre mid-table seasons are killing the club, at least when we were near the bottom and skint there was the 'drama' of relegation and a 'win at all costs' mentality to keep us entertained. The club really has to pull a top No7 out of the bag for next season or our support will reduce even further.

Were to slow to play an expansive game , until we speed the ptb & improve on the handling , Teams will just mop up what little creativity we throw at them with ease .

We've even lost our blind side scrum plays that we used last season. Gentle clearly brought these plays from his time at Wests as they used them alot. But why have we stopped trying them?
Same old drop off routine.

The only real play we have right now is the wedge play but we never get it right and therefore it's easy to read and McDonnell ends up getting smashed. Offloading the ball more would help allieviate our lack of creativity.

If it was played last weekend it was Melbourne v North Queensland Cowboys. I was there.