Quote lefty goldblatt="lefty goldblatt"I'm not going today.
It's my own fault, but as I saw the fixture with a 3 p.m. kick off time, I naturally assumed it was a Sunday game. As I'm already down on a golf competition's start sheet, with a tee off time of 2 p.m., I automatically thought "why should I disrupt my day, just to go and watch Warrington, when they've been boring the t1t5 off me, for the last few seasons".
.....and there lays the problem. WE'RE BORING.
For a few seasons now, we've been on a steady downward spiral of unimaginative rugby. The last 2 - 3 years have been pitiful, in terms of entertainment.
I went went to last GF with my brother (who was a home regular from the end of the 80's to the beginning of SL, but still watches us on TV, now), and as we left, he turned to me and said "that was awful. Joyless rugby". I agreed with him. IT IS. I couldn't deny it. To use a football analogy, we've almost become like Arsenal under George Graham/Don Howe. Dull but effective. One Nil to the Ars-en-al is now prevalent to us
We don't beat men, anymore. We never look for gaps, 50 yards out. We don't take risks. We have wingers making "the hard yards", and forwards finishing the end of sets of six. SURELY THAT'S THE WRONG WAY ROUND, or am I missing something.?
We've got an NFL "legend" on the pitch, but all he does is shout. I want to see exhilarating rugby from him. All I get is crash balls, or a dive over try from a play the ball.
Patton. He looks to have a great kicking game, but ball in hand, he's merely so-so. As somebody said on the Hudds game thread, bar the stadium announcer calling his name, you wouldn't know he'd played.
Bar the opening few games of last season, when Sandow was playing "off the cuff rugby" we've been painful to watch for 5 years, and it boils down to Smith and his acolyte Agar.
I'd love to know why Poching left the club. An assistant here, overseeing exciting rugby, he then "goes" to HKR to fulfill the same role, but at a club with nowhere near our ambition/capabilities. Very strange. Since then, we've steadily declined, in terms of entertainment. No coincidence.
Let the ostriches on here come up with 2 runners ups and a LLS, for last season. That's their prerogative. I go to rugby to be entertained. Not to have the equivalent of 1980's Italian football served up to me.
So, to those who are going this afternoon, I hope we win, but most of all, I hope you are entertained. You deserve it. I've not been for ages.
I'll have my mobile on silent, but checking for updates. I'm just hoping I sink a few putts on the course.
Come on Wire.'"
I can totally sympathize with the points you make Lefty.
I've found it increasingly difficult (until this season) to find the motivation to get to games, purely driven by the style of play now on offer.
I think we were lucky on a couple of fronts through 2011 and 2012: our style of play was brilliant to watch, and in the main it was successful. I could stomach the lack of GF wins (even though I thought we 'deserved it'), purely as we were fun to watch.
However, the rot had already set in for much of Super League by then, with the dual effect of dropping standards (driven by fewer and lower quality imports), and a change in the style of play. We were saved from this by a coach who encouraged open play and players who embraced it and had the skills to exploit it.
Since then, we've lost those players, not been able to replace them with
adequate alternatives (I don't lay the blame for this on the club, as I'm not sure who else we could have brought in: quality options just don't seem available), and had to adapt our style both to contend with other teams and their changed approach, and utilize the players we have; I don't think this is Smith's natural style (it's not how we played under him at first, or Leeds before that), but I don't think he's had any other choice given available resource.
Now we have no forwards who can offload like Solomona, Carvell, etc, our halves have little creative flair, and our backs (apart from
Atkins) seem devoid of any real attacking prowess. We still have some good players, relative to their peers in SL, but the nature of the game has changed and the standard has dropped. I reckon Saints in 2014 were by a distance the worse team I've ever seen be crowned champs; things have improved a bit since then, but not much.
We've remained competitive through this period which has retained some interest, and for me personally this year has offered the chance to get my eldest daughter interested in the sport. But I largely have little interest in many neutral games now as the entertainment Lefty refers to just isn't there.
With any luck Cas can do something this year to change the view on how to win; ideally Wigan will bomb too, to prove the alternative doesn't work, but I fear the bad will out, and the current vogue will continue for a while yet.
This for me is a stronger reason to switch away from Smith than the fact we haven't won a GF under him, or lost our first 6 this year. I no longer remain convinced he is the best man to lead the players likely to be at his disposal to victory in a league played under these type of conditions.
I expect (hope?!) this is just a phase and the game will evolve back into something worthy of being called entertainment again, as dummy half scoots and 'attacking kicks to the corner' really don't float my boat.
