Probably there are a few more on this forum who like me watched Widnes decades before the 1990’s. Plenty of happy memories to recall, and of course most clubs have good as well as bad times. But, the biggest problem any organisation faces is not recognising problems. Ok it’s very early days, and optimism is a fine thing, but not at the expense of being unwilling to accept that changes are needed. We have some good players, what seems to be missing is a positive team spirit and pride in playing together for the club.
Second that. Always risky shoving new boys into a team but hard when there are more than one. Real worry that we seemed to be leaderless, certainly after Jack left but poor even with him on the field.
It's not without solution but honesty will be needed, a lot of soul searching, and masses of hard work.
The dodgy days of the early 90s? I don't remember us being an absolute dire second division team at that time.Unless you mean 1890s.
Lowest point was during the second half of the 90s wasn’t it? When we were saved from relegation to the third tier by a league restructuring.
Let's's hope we are not looking for a similar reprieve at the end of this season, MT.
We were awful no doubt but they were laying on all game & not penalised once. They were also ripping the ball out with 3 men in most tackles with 2 ripping at the ball. There was only Douro competing in the props & he is hot headed at times. Come back twins all is forgiven! Dewsbury had far more determination but will not be in the top 6. I fear we have just 1 point from 2 of our easier games which means we will finish well down the league. If we do not improve we could be relegated on that form. To improve season on season we need to finish in top half of the league to be able to get more money for league position to improve the squad. It is going to be a long season & people will not pay to see that.
Utter garbage may of happened once with the rip, as for laying on, it is part of the game and has been for a long time it is how you slow the ptb down. Instead we just release and get caught with 1 marker time after time. You should be screaming for us not to do this not trying to excuse them with a nothing excuse.
Dewsbury were well-structured and just played a basic game of rugby league.
I know it's fashionable to blame the coach, but I think that gives the players an easy ride. The coach can't legislate for some of the basic errors being made week on week - constant offloads when they're not on, dropped catches; absolute lack of fitness in some players.
I also don't think you can blame the lack of pre-season friendlies when it's five games in - the West Wales and Whitehaven games might as well have been friendlies; the Salford one as well. It makes no difference that they were cup matches.
Part-time players need to take responsibility for their own fitness. When they're only at the club for a few hours per week, none of that time can realistically be spent getting them fit.
I still think the Tomkins situation is a catalyst to the situation. No leadership or experience in the middle directing the team. The issue is clearly finding an alternative - perhaps best reflected in the fact the only player we could seemingly find was an 18yo part-time hooker from Wigan.
I wonder if the powers that be, if they had their time back, would have tried to get at least a few of the Ottawa lads back - Wilde, Moran, Chapelhow, Johnson. When the French league finishes in June, then a few players become available; Mullally, Moran,
We're potentially heading in to a situation next Saturday where Tom Gilmore plays us off the park at Batley.
The reality is that Widnes have not had a "normal" season in quite some time - 2017 survived last day of season, 2018 relegated (change coach), 2019 administration (change coach), 2020 covid (change coach).
2021 could do with getting through without any major structural changes, because the club needs to build towards being a top Championship club which it absolute should be. We have twice as many fans as half the teams in the league. There's clearly some issues with getting players, which may well be partly down to the fact that the part-time player pool in Yorkshire is more mature.
Sinbad, let’s hope not. This squad really should be better than that. Slightly worrying that we can’t Just dismiss the possibility out of hand based on the last two and a half games.
My expectations at the start of the season were that we would need to strengthen the squad or be very lucky with injuries to make the playoffs. As things stand even that was too optimistic.
Not sure where we go from here. I'm not (yet) with the gloom and doom brigade slagging off the coach and the Board. At least Finnegan was honest in his post match interview. We were simply outplayed and failed to even do the basics right.
I am not sure where we go from here, but the players need to look at themselves and decide whether they actually want to play for the club. As said, some looked unfit and others seemed to not putting in any effort. Further short-term loans cannot be the answer. Maybe a couple of players can be picked up once the French season finishes.
I thought Doro was our best forward. I suppose we have to give O'Neill time to fit in, but is that possible with short-term loans? I am not sure where we go from here, but the players need to look at themselves and decide whether they actually want to play for the club. As said, some looked unfit and others seemed to not putting in any effort.
If we can't beat the likes of Newcastle and Dewsbury, we are more likely to be in a bottom six position rather than top 6 and potentially relegation to League 1.
If we perform like this again next week and against Swinton, I think we will lose a lot of spectators irrespective of covid rules. The loyalty of fans can only stretch so far and if the players don't seem to care, why should the fans?
dodgy doro, was lucky not to be sent off again and yes players need to look for an offload but not every time when its virtually impossible, he would do better to concentrate on his good points instead of his obsession to throw an impossible pass with 4 tacklers completely surrounding him
I remember Hull getting heavily beaten on our ground a few years ago and locking themselves in the dressing room and doing an analysis of their performance. I suggest yesterday’s team doing the same. A question for each team member..did you give your best? If you did then you have no place in the team and if you didn’t then likewise go! You should forfeit your wages as retribution! I refuse to give time and money to witness a shambles like that again. Is the Coach just pussy footing around when he should be laying into them?
was just scanning thru the 1st 20 mins and these were some of the errors.
tyrer strips the ball then loses it in the tackle
lawton strips the ball then loses it in the tackle
lawton tries to offload in the tackle and knocks on
jewitt 1st play leads with the elbow
craven last play kick that bounces back and they re- collect it on the half way
there 1st try when the winger/centre doesnt catch the ball on our line
and things got much worse i think after the 1st 20 mins but cant be bothered watching thru the rest of the game lol
Obviously there are always going to be a few errors like the above examples in a match, but when there are quite so many a possible conclusion to draw is that there was an issue with lack of concentration and focus, or perhaps complaceny.
The individual errors leading to tries were not down to coaching, Cross and Owens dropped high balls.
Certain players are not good at tackling. They have been professionals for a long time: Finnigan again cannot be blamed for them!
A lot of the other errors in my view stem from the idea that we want to be promoting the ball and offloading on a regular basis.
That is an attractive game plan when you have the quality of player or Full Time training. We have neither.
Sometimes, as we saw yesterday, simple, effective tactics work best.
Maybe back to the drawing board?
Lowest point was during the second half of the 90s wasn’t it? When we were saved from relegation to the third tier by a league restructuring.
I stand corrected, your right, the latter half.
It was the old trying to score off every pass when nothing was on. SF's summary was bang on. What we needed was to simply play out our sixes until we knew what we were up against and we were tighter.
Against that, that was our third squad in three games - not the way to gel at all.
At least Roby looked a better defender than we have had of late.