Re: 2020 | Squad talk : Wed Dec 18, 2019 10:17 pm  

Jeez, no optimism on here then!
Personally I think we are already miles better off than than this time last year. With a classy centre and another second row for cover think we should be looking to make a final this year.
We spend too cap and are the best supported team with best stadium in SL too. We gotta be aiming for some silverware next year. The standard of SL isn't very high, doesn't take much to turn things around.......

Re: 2020 | Squad talk : Wed Dec 18, 2019 10:25 pm  

I noticed Agar mentioned warm weather trainong in Southern Spain early January.

I think the team lacks pace which is a concern for me and is the pack big enough? Not so sure.

Re: 2020 | Squad talk : Wed Dec 18, 2019 10:35 pm  

Marty Grrrrrrrrrr! wrote:

I noticed Agar mentioned warm weather trainong in Southern Spain early January.

I think the team lacks pace which is a concern for me and is the pack big enough? Not so sure.

I agree, we aren’t big enough to go through teams and we aren’t pacey enough to go round them either.

Re: 2020 | Squad talk : Wed Dec 18, 2019 10:57 pm  

You need a certain amount of go forward, and to not give away silly penalties, so you have a chance to win the territory battle. However we've moved on from the one dimensional Bradford brute force, and a well marshalled defence means pace alone isn't enough. Its nouse that unpicks defenses!

Re: 2020 | Squad talk : Wed Dec 18, 2019 11:04 pm  

Danibo160 wrote:

I agree, we aren’t big enough to go through teams and we aren’t pacey enough to go round them either.

Absolutely agree. Only Walker with any real long range strike. Newman may get there but a way off yet

Re: 2020 | Squad talk : Thu Dec 19, 2019 3:13 am  

Be nice if we could put the odd side to the sword and move away from every game being a battle (or us being put to the sword!). That'd ease the pressure and make life a bit easier. To do that we need yardage, we need improved defence and we need better direction and kicking. That's a lot of improvement and it's difficult to be confident that all last season's weaknesses have been addressed.

Re: 2020 | Squad talk : Thu Dec 19, 2019 6:46 am  

Too many times when we thought we were comfortably in front and got the game won and lost in the last 15 minutes

Re: 2020 | Squad talk : Thu Dec 19, 2019 6:56 am  

The majority on here seem to be settled with our BR options, but for me we are short of quality there. Especially now Merrin has left. Hopefully some young players can use this as a chance to break through.

Re: 2020 | Squad talk : Thu Dec 19, 2019 6:57 am  

Short of 1 more quality prop, second row, and outside back imo.

Re: 2020 | Squad talk : Thu Dec 19, 2019 7:27 am  

I am looking for a huge improvement on last season and I think the club need to be bold in the challenges they set themselves and the players this season. They shouldn't advertise this externally but internally I would want the senior management to be targeting;
Top 3 finish. Yes it's a big challenge but we should aim high.
Finish the cull of the old guard. The likes of Briscoe, Myler and cuthbo to me three but there are more.
Blood the youngsters in a controlled way and develop genuine paths to the first team.
No panic buys. If we can't get anyone in the off-season then sit tight. Get the right players in.
Proper succession planning needs to be constantly in place and understood by scouts at all levels and the coaching teams of the lower age teams.

I think we are making reasonable progress on all of these fronts already but we need to keep going and really push this club back to the top again.