: Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:39 pm  

redeverready wrote:

I'm on about youngster's. Look how long it's taken Brown, Aspinwall, Robinson and Wild to get over being thrown in at the deep end during their time in a struggling Wigan side.

ah right yeah i see where you are coming from, but i still feel you have to do something about these first team players not playing well enough, and the only way to do that is to drop em, and bring in some of the academy players.

: Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:48 pm  

Highlander wrote:

We can choose which weekend to play Harlequins?

Other than that - I got nothing

Probably cos there IS no consolation this time, as far as I can see?

: Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:51 pm  

Least we don't have to wait long to get back out on the field

: Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:01 pm  

Bully_Boxer wrote:

Least we don't have to wait long to get back out on the field

I'm quietly clinging onto the final hope that this is all part of McNamaras crazy plan to fool super league.

Plan is we play poop all the way up to the Leeds game, hammer Leeds by 70, and win every game upto the grand final where we once again play Leeds. We're losing in the 79th minute, with 10 seconds to go. The ball comes to Menzies, who passed it to Platt, who finds a gap, has a brain fart and chucks the ball over his head - which then finds its way to Halley, who plays it inside to Sykes, who plays it back to Platt.. who SCORES!

But wait, in another brain fart, the video referee thinks Platt has knocked on when putting the ball on the line. 10 seconds later the TRY sign appears and once again we are the champions, destroying the hearts and minds of the Leeds site, and fans to which they never ever recover.

Wishful thinking, that'll probably never happen for a hundred years or so (at least with those players, else they'd be running around at a grand age of 120+), but it's nice to dream.

: Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:05 pm  

Paul124897 wrote:

I'm quietly clinging onto the final hope that this is all part of McNamaras crazy plan to fool super league.

Plan is we play poop all the way up to the Leeds game, hammer Leeds by 70, and win every game upto the grand final where we once again play Leeds. We're losing in the 79th minute, with 10 seconds to go. The ball comes to Menzies, who passed it to Platt, who finds a gap, has a brain fart and chucks the ball over his head - which then finds its way to Halley, who plays it inside to Sykes, who plays it back to Platt.. who SCORES!

But wait, in another brain fart, the video referee thinks Platt has knocked on when putting the ball on the line. 10 seconds later the TRY sign appears and once again we are the champions, destroying the hearts and minds of the Leeds site, and fans to which they never ever recover.

Wishful thinking, that'll probably never happen for a hundred years or so (at least with those players, else they'd be running around at a grand age of 120+), but it's nice to dream.

I like it


However I think this one is for you

A nice cup of coffee

: Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:05 pm  

I think you might be having a breakdown Paul, fear not though.. you're not alone.

: Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:08 pm  

Bully_Boxer wrote:

I think you might be having a breakdown Paul, fear not though.. you're not alone.

I'm backing you in your prediction of Brian Smith, back at the Bulls in 2010 by the way.

: Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:25 pm  

Paul124897 wrote:

:lol: I'm backing you in your prediction of Brian Smith, back at the Bulls in 2010 by the way.

It wasn't a prediction.. it was a prayer!!

We'll probably get Darryl Powell and Iestyn Harris.

: Mon Apr 06, 2009 9:08 am  

Adeybull wrote:

Don't be sorry - it was. But still keep wondering what position Macca must have been playing to have missed all those tackles...?

Even so, something is clearly not right in the players' heads right now, and I guess it has to be on the coach's shoulders to sort it - and bloody quick.

Well, the other week when I named them the "Collapsibulls" in my sig, because they are, i would still never have imagined that.

We shipped 40 points in not much over half an hour. To illustrate how bad that actually is, if you played at the same rate all game, you'd concede 100 points.

The players on the field - especially having collapsed and collapsed in several games previously - ought to hang their heads in shame.

The fact that for 45 minutes we had so far outplayed Catalans that it looked like a training run against Wibsey Juniors makes it so much worse, and - well, what's the word ten orders of magnitude beyond 'inexplicable'?

I actually have no clue how a team can look so good, for so long, and then collapse like a pack of cards. The more I think about it, the less sense it makes. It wasn't fitness; at the end we were still going strong and attacking, and with a tiny bit of luck could have salvaged a win. What was it?

Out of a sense of duty I made myself watch the second half again, and all I can say is that as soon as some lasting pressure was applied to us, our defensive systems seemed to collapse, and the sort of ragged lines and holes appeared that I would expect at a junior game. It isn't our first collapse, it is though by far the worst and most humiliating, and I think what I would do if I were coach is sit down and analyse the tapes of all our collapses, identify the worst 4 players whose defensive work disintegrated the most in each game, and drop them.

You note I said "the most", and that's because whatever way you look at it, ALL the team shares collective responsibility for this 19th Nervous Breakdown, but you can't drop 'em all.

The coach carries the can, and it is up to him to sort whatever it is, but frankly I think it's past the point of no return now. An unlikely win against Leeds may be all that can save him as I have that feeling of a coach here who is on borrowed time from his Board, it has, to me, that 'end of days' feel about it now and I am sure Hood & Co. will have had that conversation. Whether it is right or wrong, it seems to be gathering an ominous aura of inevitability about it.

But I refuse to believe that te players do not know our defensive patterns, that plainly can't be possible, and so if you eliminate that then it means they do know their defensive patterns, but simply lose their heads and ignore them for swathes at a time.

Why? You'd probably need a psychiatrist for that one. As an amateur diagnosis, the bottom line is that we clearly seem to suffer from a collective panic, which turns us into headless chickens, until we let the opposition get in front, when we gather our wits about us and start to play again.

It would be less painful if McNamara's team was a poor side, but it's not. There are some top players throughout the squad, and for half the game they showed it and looked the polished part. The trouble was the other half they fell around polishing their parts instead of tackling the opposition, and I really don't understand it, but the players who did that are the ones who we need honest answers from.

[Bullseye]

: Mon Apr 06, 2009 9:12 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

The coach carries the can, and it is up to him to sort whatever it is, but frankly I think it's past the point of no return now. An unlikely win against Leeds may be all that can save him as I have that feeling of a coach here who is on borrowed time from his Board, it has, to me, that 'end of days' feel about it now and I am sure Hood & Co. will have had that conversation. Whether it is right or wrong, it seems to be gathering an ominous aura of inevitability about it.

Seven games gone and no improvement shown, it's certainly looking like the end is nigh.