Usual response on here when we lose …..
One significant difference is that no one has blamed the referee for this defeat.
I thought he had a very good game, and couldn’t help wishing that we’d had him for the Featherstone match.
How many do we win though VM ? The league table tells its own story.Not good enough.
Like some have said, I thought we were decent for 80 yards of the pitch. But we were bereft of ideas near their goal-line.
Brown was poor at acting HB but so was Fozard before him. Just one of those nights.
I think Halifax are better than us, I don't think we can begrudge them the win. But I don't think there is as much between those teams as the scoreline suggests.
Next year's recruitment needs to prioritise creativity and centres and forwards who can run lines much better. We are a bit predictable.
Absolutely - no involvement of the officials today...he had a fair game tbh for once. We lost the game because having had 60 ptb in the Fax 20 in the first half we could not score. We absolutley dominated territory, but they still led 10-0 at HT, haing had 3 forays into our 20 and coming away with 2 tries. That inevitibly told, as they just stayed in the armwrestle and then with the second half being more territorially equal, their class told with some well worked tries. It tells us that we need more quality all over the park and JK will know that. I just hope that they can finish off the season with a win at the Bulls next week and send us into the winter with a smaile on our face and the optimism of decent recruitment and strengthening for next season......of the 17 on the teamshhet yesterday, I would only keep 7.
@sinbad I agree, you'll see at the end of my original post that we need to be competing at the top end of this league and we have massively under performed for some time now dating back to our final year in SL. That's a team effort, coach and players.
The team isn't balanced enough - we struggle when we need to rotate and a lot of players are switching positions and moving around to be able to create some consistency. The posts are like a rollercoaster dependant on whether we win or lose (expected). Matty Smith is a good example, gets lots of praise when we win but is 'past it' when we lose. Certainly don't think Smith is one of the reasons we lost on Monday night!
The squad needs to improve and freshen up, and a whole pre-season under Kear will do us a lot of good going into an important year next year.
I enjoyed the game, thought we played well and made enough breaks to have won it but as others have said lacked that killer instinct as has been the problem all season. We scored a couple of tries that some weeks would have been given but some of the tries Halifax scored came from off loads that should not of been allowed, their first in first half and two under the posts in the second, needs addressing BUT Halifax are third in the league for a reason. They were fast, they played the ball fast and they tacked the ball. I know Bent has been congratulated for his tackling but he offers nothing in attack and is top of my “bin” list
of the 17 on the teamshhet yesterday, I would only keep 7.
Great in theory but is it actually do-able ? Where will we find ten players of better quality and would they want to come here anyway ?
I think that you can only afford to keep a single workhorse like BENT if you have quality in the second row or loose forward aswell. Not sure we have that either, and to make an addition would strengthen the case for retaining BENT IMO........he is certainly one of the most improved players under KEAR - which is what a good coach does for you.
The 64m. dollar question. The point I was making was that 10 of the 17 are not good enough regardless of whether we can replace them. There were 2 who were not in the 17 who I would retain last night - DIXON and BAKER - so that makes 9 to start with!
in my opinion, we have big problems in the forwards. With the exception of Doro and Baker, all our forwards are too predictable. I thought Grady hade a reasonable game , but any half decent defensive unit will hold their line all day if all that is coming at them is straight running carries of the ball.
The frustrating thing is, that for the first quarter we had no problem getting into the Fax 20, but caused little in clear cut chances , though it amazes me how the officials see a very slight forward pass (and I have no problem with the decision ) , but continually miss balls at least a metre forward.
I think Kear has had long enough to assess the squad and he has made significant improvements , but if we do not perform fairly major surgery on the pack and half backs, we will be in the same position next year.
I have never been a fan of playing a half back / hooker at loose forward, if you have not got enough ball players in the halves and hooker , with an attacking full back, then you have problems and putting a half at no 13 , just loses the team a forward.
I can not think of too many half backs playing no 13 in the NRL.
The 64m. dollar question. The point I was making was that 10 of the 17 are not good enough regardless of whether we can replace them. There were 2 who were not in the 17 who I would retain last night - DIXON and BAKER - so that makes 9 to start with!
You are going to be disappointed Erik.
Paulie xx