Two weeks in a row we have been led a merry dance by veterans at Batley and Dewsbury. We have an established England international in Smith. A little slower but healthy in regards to his career (not fitness). He should be bossing the show with Craven doing his running. Why is he doing so little and out of shape. The game is not complicated. I don't understand why some are playing like they have never played before. Where is the pride?
I think the fact these players signed for Sheens is a huge issue.
Based on the mumblings I have heard, there appears to be a substantial disconnect between the players resulting in a deep lack of “team spirit”.
The players have been thrown together at different stages of their careers and although there is no breaks in the squad there isn’t much togetherness either. In part time rugby, players only training twice a week, the main motivation has to come from the crowd and players not wanting to letdown their fellow team mates.
They won’t be a reaction to these horrific defeats, because there is no accountability in the dressing room.
Based on the mumblings I have heard, there appears to be a substantial disconnect between the players resulting in a deep lack of “team spirit”. The players have been thrown together at different stages of their careers and although there is no breaks in the squad there isn’t much togetherness either. In part time rugby, players only training twice a week, the main motivation has to come from the crowd and players not wanting to letdown their fellow team mates. They won’t be a reaction to these horrific defeats, because there is no accountability in the dressing room.
I suspect this might be close to what’s happening, or rather what’s not happening. A big play of Sheens’s reputation getting players to the club was made late last year and the ‘buzz’ such as it was seems to have fizzled out. Like you say, the situation isn’t helped by the lack of crowds as the only ‘passion’ to encourage the players is self-motivation which seems to be in very short supply.
Surely personal pride must come into it. I’m sorry but that ‘performance’ at Batley was shambolic, I said on a previous post about the Dewsbury game that it was a good job the crowd wasn’t there! I think this rabble have massive delusions of grandeur, they think they’re all decent players, they’re woeful. Not a single one of them is worthy of playing for this club, there isn’t one player who over the last two games can seriously put their hand up and say I tried 100%, that for me is criminal! I can take getting beat, if we try, to get beat and not be arsed, that’s a different matter!
Almost like one of them bad phone contracts you can't get out of. I love the classic "teams raising there game to play Widnes"! No pride or confidence. I would love to see our players run hard and switch on.
Lets cut the bulls@%t , teams do not have to raise the game to play Widnes .
After the evidence of a few games Toulouse London York Fev Halifax Bradford Dews and Batley look better than us , we are in the bottom 6 with Newcastle Sheffield Whitehaven Oldham and Swinton .
Our squad is poor , its nowhere near than standard required to compete at the top of this League .
The Vicar
Lets cut the bulls@%t , teams do not have to raise the game to play Widnes . After the evidence of a few games Toulouse London York Fev Halifax Bradford Dews and Batley look better than us , we are in the bottom 6 with Newcastle Sheffield Whitehaven Oldham and Swinton . Our squad is poor , its nowhere near than standard required to compete at the top of this League . The Vicar
Amen to that!
Lets cut the bulls@%t , teams do not have to raise the game to play Widnes . After the evidence of a few games Toulouse London York Fev Halifax Bradford Dews and Batley look better than us , we are in the bottom 6 with Newcastle Sheffield Whitehaven Oldham and Swinton . Our squad is poor , its nowhere near than standard required to compete at the top of this League . The Vicar
So you are basically saying that Batley and Dews have better squads than us? You can’t say this team is poor compared to Fev, Toulouse, London etc but the team sheet in the last two games contained better players than the opposition and certainly wasn’t weak enough to justify the scorelines in the last 2 seasons.
If other teams are raising their game to play us then the answer might be to raise our own intensity which we have failed to do this season.
Lets cut the bulls@%t , teams do not have to raise the game to play Widnes . After the evidence of a few games Toulouse London York Fev Halifax Bradford Dews and Batley look better than us , we are in the bottom 6 with Newcastle Sheffield Whitehaven Oldham and Swinton . Our squad is poor , its nowhere near than standard required to compete at the top of this League . The Vicar
So you are basically saying that Batley and Dews have better squads than us? You can’t say this team is poor compared to Fev, Toulouse, London etc but the team sheet in the last two games contained better players than the opposition and certainly wasn’t weak enough to justify the scorelines in the last 2 seasons.
It boils down to attitude Spike. If your heart isn’t in it and you aren’t up for a fight, you’ll get beat. End of.
Lets cut the bulls@%t , teams do not have to raise the game to play Widnes . After the evidence of a few games Toulouse London York Fev Halifax Bradford Dews and Batley look better than us , we are in the bottom 6 with Newcastle Sheffield Whitehaven Oldham and Swinton . Our squad is poor , its nowhere near than standard required to compete at the top of this League . The Vicar
So you are basically saying that Batley and Dews have better squads than us? You can’t say this team is poor compared to Fev, Toulouse, London etc but the team sheet in the last two games contained better players than the opposition and certainly wasn’t weak enough to justify the scorelines in the last 2 seasons.
The squad is weak and unbalanced.
Forwards.
We have 1 hooker at the Club. Out from preseason with a long term injury.
We have signed 4 local forwards in their 30's almost at the end of their careers. 3 are ex Super League not far from the end 2 have got injured early on.
We have 3 very young forwards who prior to this year had one First Team appearance between them.
We have 3 forwards in their prime all of whom have recently being playing amateur.
We have a good 22 year old prop with 20 first team appearances.
That's it. It would be a massive leap of to believe we would get through the season unscathed without any reinforcements.
Forwards win matches.
Comparing to us. Swinton with 25 percent of our crowds and surely a lower squad spend have gone into the season with 15 Forwards, 2 hookers, 10 Forwards at their peak aged between 24 and 27 and 5 forwards aged between 19 and 21. We should be better than Swinton hopefully but based on an age profile only but their squad looks more sustainable, robust and open to improvement this season.
I was only quoting the guy of commentary in regards to game raising. This question was about England international Smith looking out of shape and not leading the team around the park.
Lets cut the bulls@%t , teams do not have to raise the game to play Widnes . After the evidence of a few games Toulouse London York Fev Halifax Bradford Dews and Batley look better than us , we are in the bottom 6 with Newcastle Sheffield Whitehaven Oldham and Swinton . Our squad is poor , its nowhere near than standard required to compete at the top of this League . The Vicar
So you are basically saying that Batley and Dews have better squads than us? You can’t say this team is poor compared to Fev, Toulouse, London etc but the team sheet in the last two games contained better players than the opposition and certainly wasn’t weak enough to justify the scorelines in the last 2 seasons.
The squad is weak and unbalanced. Forwards. We have 1 hooker at the Club. Out from preseason with a long term injury. We have signed 4 local forwards in their 30’s almost at the end of their careers. 3 are ex Super League not far from the end 2 have got injured early on. We have 3 very young forwards who prior to this year had one First Team appearance between them. We have 3 forwards in their prime all of whom have recently being playing amateur. We have a good 22 year old prop with 20 first team appearances. That’s it. It would be a massive leap of to believe we would get through the season unscathed without any reinforcements. Forwards win matches.
Most of us said before a ball was passed (and most probably dropped!) this squad was weak, but we were led a merry dance by the club saying the squad would be competitive, everyone can see that it’s miles off where the club should be. Yes people got giddy and said we would be right up the top of the league ( I include myself in that) but a few said we’d be mid table, but not one single person on here said we’d be in a relegation fight, which, however way you look at it, we are and that is simply not good enough.
Lets cut the bulls@%t , teams do not have to raise the game to play Widnes . After the evidence of a few games Toulouse London York Fev Halifax Bradford Dews and Batley look better than us , we are in the bottom 6 with Newcastle Sheffield Whitehaven Oldham and Swinton . Our squad is poor , its nowhere near than standard required to compete at the top of this League . The Vicar
So you are basically saying that Batley and Dews have better squads than us? You can’t say this team is poor compared to Fev, Toulouse, London etc but the team sheet in the last two games contained better players than the opposition and certainly wasn’t weak enough to justify the scorelines in the last 2 seasons.
In the past 2 games have we looked better than either of Batley or Dewsbury , I'd say no but if you think different then please enlighten us with your reasoning.
I can say this team is poor compared to Fev Toulouse London York Halifax because those 5 are better than us and will finish higher in the league than we will. Again do you think we'll finish above any of those teams with the current squad we have . I dont .
The Vicar