Not wanting to bite being unable to withhold I'll go for it.

I'm not sure of your club allegiances or agenda for spouting tripe so I'll do this on a purely neutral perspective.

I'd say that dropping into the middle 8's will not paper over the cracks it'll highlight the fact we didn't deserve to be in the top 8. Struggling into the top 8 would have papered over the cracks and more than likely seen us getting stuffed week in week out in a competition that we had no chance of doing anything other than just making up the numbers.

Stating we only play 3 games to get into the semi is as inane as saying you only won 5 games to win the cup!!! I'd agree if we'd played 3 championship sides to get to the semi but we had the team sat 2nd in the championship, the current holders and a current top 8 SL side, so I think we've earned the semi. Will we win the semi? We've certainly got more chance than any team not in it.

Have we moved on since 2010? I agree we should have spent money on facilities, oh wait is that a new stand I see? This year we have more academy products playing, playing a better style of rugby but like a hell of a lot of clubs seem to be unable to play away from home (Wigan, Widnes, Catalan even Cas to some extent) and lets be honest are we on our own in not moving on since 2010.

Wakefield
Salford
Widnes
Hull
Catalans

and even Wire are showing signs of being on a downward trajectory over the last couple of years.

With the exception of Leeds, Saints and Castleford I'd say most fans (I'll include Wigan in this as well) are disillusioned with the state of their clubs and the direction they are heading.

I still think our coaching / mentality needs work, should Chester be sacked? probably not just yet all coaches need time. Is poaching up to the job of defence coach, that's maybe a review that's needed.

The irony there is that all of that stuff (apart from the semi final talk) could be spun around and applied to your club. Getting Sheens involved is the first sensible thing Koucash has done since he took over.

I think Rovers' problems, in a nut shell, are very similar to Hull's. Poor coaching, too big a turnover of players, and no obvious long term plan. Both clubs need to work out what kind of club they want to be, and what they want to achieve, and start planning towards this. Instead they seem to change their philosophy every other year and sign players for no apparent reason who just don't fit the model.

One thing Hull have going for them is that we have a handful of young players who (hopefully) won't be going anywhere anytime soon and we can look to build a team around them. Abdul, Sneyd, Watts, Taylor etc. I'm not an expert on who Rovers have ready to break through, but I don't see many guys of the same mould there. Your most exciting talent is from overseas and probably won't stick around long term.

Can't disagree with a lot of that and with the merged academy I struggle to see how this can be moulded to lead into what could be 2 very different types of club.

In answer to the bottom bit we had a handful of young players Watts, Taylor etc unfortunately Taylor became the Raheem Sterling of rugby league

Seriously though I think Walker (if the current issue goes away), Green and if we could get hold of Greenwood on a permanent then we'd have the crux of a good pack that would just need an old head impact player or 2 adding. Shame that Cox doesn't look to have what it takes. Ollet could make a good 2nd rower if he bulks a bit, Dixon needs to play he can be exceptional. Not sure if Salter is more than a good back up.

Poaching was the one in HDM saying at beginning of season he will sort out our defence.????

SACK HIM..........SIMPLE

You would think that after 20 something games including those in the cup, that the defence would have been sorted out by now, unfortunately its only improved slightly if at all.
The fact is, we now have I believe, the second worst defence in super league which is simply unacceptable in my opinion and someone has to take the blame plus the consequences of that statistic.
I wonder if Neil Hudgell was referring to a possible change in that dept when he commented on the radio yesterday, that some changes would be made to the backroom staff at some point between now and the beginning of next season.

hudgel said something on radio roverside yesterday about some coaches moving on and some new ones coming in. poching doesn't seem to have added much to your club

I hate doing this but I have to agree with you we need someone to put some steel into the players especial the pack

And here I was dreaming that the clubs academy had now been rated as good with more homgrown players playing for Hull KR then we've had since joining the Super League.

As for facilities we've a brand new 8 million pound stand, granted not all financed by the club.But we've also extended the East stand at the cost of £400k along with a massive overhaul of the physio, doctors and changing rooms, new floodlights also which all cost huge sums but go ahead you obviously know nothing about Hull Kingston Rovers

No idea who El Red supports but pretty sure he's not a Salford fan as don't ever recall seeing him post on our board.

Oh and it's spelt Koukash... I'm sure you're still attempting the highly amusing play on words with his name rather than generally just being illiterate. HTH.

Cheers

*cough* no comment *cough*

FWIW I think you goys will be fine if you end up in the middle 8's with us. I only fear for Wakey out of the SL teams likely to be involved. I'd love Leigh to fook up big style tho... I really enjoy watching them play but their fans are arrogant beyond comprehension! ;(

Sounded like hudgel is relying on jamie peacock to pretty much do everything to transform the club from bottom 4 easybeats to top 4 contenders

I bet it's an appointment you'd wish your club had made eh jake a proven winner got to be a good thing

Personally, i think it needs to go further than just this. i think Paul Hatton & Billy Mallinson need replacing.
I think Rovers have looked undercooked in terms of fitness for the last 2 seasons at least. I just don't think they're being prepared to be in peak condition to start a SL Season and are playing catch up fitness wise from the off. this all has the snowball effect of:

Missing tackles.
Losing defensive shapes & structures.
Giving away silly penalties via laziness.

The defence and fitness levels are very much codependent, if you don't sort both then you can't sort either.

I've said for the last 2 seasons opening matches that Leeds have looked far fitter, in far better condition than Rovers, yet both squads had the same timeframe in which to prepare their players.

The Head Coach needs to take responsibility for this too though as i would like to think that he gives the ok to the training plans submitted by the conditioners.

Paul Hatton left about three weeks ago.