I have been bumping on about it for a while. We are playing old fashioned Rugby at its worst at the moment. Sheens needs to move his tactics and play in accordance with the modern era. The rugby we saw in the championship was underwhelming, the games were dull and we didn't even set that league on fire.

We have a winger in Shaw who is good at finishing but is THE WORST defensive back in SL (and was poor defensively in the championship).
Our Centres are unproven at SL level. Minns has been average, Heffernan when fit has had 1 decent game. Salter was atrocious against FC.
Our other winger looks uninterested, although proven at this level, one hopes that he is not here just for a pay day. We have a young winger Oakes who is professed to be one of the brightest talents in the game, every time he turns out he plays well & seemingly can defend but it appears that TS is scared of picking inexperienced players, surely you'd give him a nod over the dross we have seen in the last 2 games. Connor Williams is going under the radar at moment due to injury I believe. Joe Wardill again a bright prospect within the game has real potential and hopefully his injury problems will clear, really like this player.

Halfs, Maguire speaks for himself, done everything in the game but inevitably at his age will pick up injuries. Chris Atkin shows signs that he is capable but only flashes, Matty Marsh is a little way off but the way he is slated by fans suggests his tenure at KR may be short lived. Franck is a million miles off at moment.

Quinlan is a really good FB if he's in a team that plays the right brand of rugby, Dagger has been OK, although the media appear to big him up for carrying out the basics to an OK standard he has just done enough but has loads of time to shine, made some errors but at 19 that's aloud. Bring Moss back as the back up full back until dagger gets up to speed to play a run of games should AQ pick up injury

Forwards......... Where do we start
Masoe - Unable to do the big minutes
Nick Scruton - Quality player but like maguire he will inevitably pick up injuries
Shaun Lunt - We need him fit
Maurice Blair - Steady at best now with age
James Greenwood - Pretty Awful Discipline
Ben Kavanagh - Decent Player when fit
Lee Jewitt - Another that struggles with discipline
Donno - Glad he's getting back to fitness, bring some stability up front
Addy - Massive miss with his utility
Clarkson - Reliable
Lawler - Bad injury, a real big miss, this kid has serious potential, another rising start
Rob Mulhern - Another like Lawler, led from the front all year
Josh Johnson - Another that gives away way too many penalties
Jordan Walne - May be ready for some game time, what with some of our frontline misfiring
Joe Cator - Potential to be Class but is physically a few years off to play every game but certainly worth drip feeding in.
Brad Clavering - Who Knows, never seems to get game time - even in freindlies.
Danny Tickle - A below average signing WHY???

I would switch it up a little. Freshen the team up because at the moment it looks laclustre and beaten before the whistle has gone to start the game.

We need to stop picking people on name and start picking them on form and at present we don't have too many that are playing well so change things. Castleford did well last year without over spending because they played an expansive style. we seem to enjoy playing down the middle but we aren't powerful enough and it certainly isn't working so try playing the game a different way. Move away from the rigid structure like Cas did. Believe that if you make a mistake you can make up for it in the next set.

Not all doom and gloom though. If in a few years we can build a team around the young talent that we have been signing we will have a team to behold, I think we need to tie the below young lads down on long term deals and bring in decent experienced players to help progress them. And if they are ready give them some game time, you only gain experience by playing.

Rob Mulhern
Georgie Lawler
Will Oakes
Joe Wardill
Will Dagger
Chris Atkin (will learn off Mags)
Joe Cator
Heffernan when he's up to speed

I agree about the salt. But we look smaller than most teams, and undoubtedly struggle in the yardage battle and in contact, with all that entails.

There’s a counter narrative I’ve seen that our lack of size isn’t such a big problem and tbf I risk overstating it through repetition. But it’s based on us ‘holding our own’, rather than winning the physical battle, almost as if we’ve accepted that option is off the table.

I don’t want to put pressure on young men whose frames are not naturally suited to carrying extra weight, because that can lead to a dangerous place. However, in my ignorance, it looks like our recruitment and conditioning is out of step with much of the league.

There are so many imponderables, that it isn’t worth worrying much about imo. Assuming you’d specifically want to avoid those away fixtures, you’re swapping an expectation of getting 1.7 of them for 1.3. You could get 4 home games and those be your three away games, or vice versa. Most likely it’ll be one or two.

It’d make my click bait ‘top 5 in my reasons why it’d be nice to beat Widnes’, but only just.

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I actually think the teams conditioning is back to where it was in the Morgan era. It’s the recruitment policy that seems to have back fired, going for lighter more mobile forwards who are grafters but through no fault of their own are unable to win the contact rather than size and impact. Unfortunately the squad are carrying too many players of this ilk. "

I actually think the teams conditioning is back to where it was in the Morgan era. It’s the recruitment policy that seems to have back fired, going for lighter more mobile forwards who are grafters but through no fault of their own are unable to win the contact rather than size and impact. Unfortunately the squad are carrying too many players of this ilk.

In the Morgan era I think, to some degree, there was enough quality around that a different approach was more feasible - for us and some of our rivals. Mobility didn't always work then (England at the 2008 WC for example, and we still took the odd hammering), but it was a bit more likely.

As quality has become harder to find, I think there's been a tendency to rely a bit more on athleticism/power to compensate. Cas have taken a different approach, and won a lot of games too. But we seem to be unthreateningly underpowered [iand[/i conservative. I suspect our squad has really good fitness levels (as opposed to strength), and is trying to tire out bigger opponents. But even Sugar Ray Robinson struggled and lost when stepping up to light heavyweight - and realistically we ain't a RL equivalent of Sugar Ray Robinson.

Tbf, I think Sandercock's Weyman, Poore, Langley and Costigan 2014 round of recruitment was trying to get us that physical dominance, but none of them made it to the start line in 2015.

Always had a lot of respect for Mick. Retired in 2015 with dignity after his knee surgery.

He returned home to run a farm if I remember right , he knew he wasn’t for to play and was taking up a cap space so he did the right thing for himself and more importantly the club , respect to the guy.

Unlike Campese who mugged the club off .