Re: Season debrief, send in your questions : Fri Sep 30, 2022 10:52 am  

The most concerning thing for me from that interview was the talk before the Toulouse game by the playing group, that they just had to 'turn up'. Shocking attitude and its no wonder Powell has pushed for change and the frightening thing is it doesn't surprise me. I've long felt we get beat more often than we should in games we were expected to win comfortably.

I think there is admission from Powell that he would change things if he could go back, although he seems to allude to the fact this was him being too harsh after the early Wakefield games, for me he was right to be harsh!

Leaders in the group will be key next year, those leaders are likely to be very different from previous years when Hill, Cooper & Hughes i'm sure featured highly. He seemed to suggest this year he had different leaders for different things, for environment (attitude off the pitch, defence and general) I don't think it needs to be that complicated, we need people to drive standards, pick those that do.

Re: Season debrief, send in your questions : Fri Sep 30, 2022 11:17 am  

The players do need to set themselves a far higher standard. Bigger names than what we have had recently have turned up and would run through walls for us, Morley, carvell, Hodgson, monoghans, matt King, Briers, plus players like Westwood, Harrison, grux, Chris Bridge and Louis Anderson who were all very much front foot players.

The attitude needed ripping out of the playing roster and if that meant a lot of changes then I think it was the right thing to do, I'm fed up of the poor performances, I'm fed up of a disjointed team that looks as though they've never met before. I back powell over the players, they need to know its not just the coach they play for but the whole club, they needed to put any differences with the coach aside and do their jobs to the best of their ability and they didn't. I'm not sorry about any that have left given that interview and I'm hopeful what we have going in to 2023 is a far better blend.

A much freshened squad is hopefully a platform to get us back to a self assessing performance culture. I'm really encouraged by dufty, mikaele and hopefully Wardle. But we are so far off the pace I'm not sure we will be much better off next season. I'm not really excited about it anyway. I do think a centre and a half is the right areas that we need to sign so the fact the club are targeting weaknesses in the team is a good sign for recruitment at least.

Re: Season debrief, send in your questions : Fri Sep 30, 2022 11:21 am  

Alffi_7 wrote:

The most concerning thing for me from that interview was the talk before the Toulouse game by the playing group, that they just had to 'turn up'.

I forgot to mention this in my post. I think maybe the comment was made in a slightly different context, but nonetheless it seems crazy that somehow the playing group and also the club hadn't worked out that this was a key area in which we consistently fall down. The pundits have been saying it for years, and so have the fans. At what point did the board sit up and think 'Oh, maybe it's not just a case of bringing in Greg Inglis to fix us'...?

Re: Season debrief, send in your questions : Fri Sep 30, 2022 11:26 am  

CW8 wrote:

But we are so far off the pace I'm not sure we will be much better off next season. I'm not really excited about it anyway.

Hopefully, less pressure and expectation will be a better platform to work from. Realistically, all we can hope for in 2023 is a vast improvement in effort and defence, with some signs that Powell's attacking style is starting to stick. Challenging for 5th-6th at best, with obvious indications that Powell is turning us into something bigger and better.

Re: Season debrief, send in your questions : Fri Sep 30, 2022 11:53 am  

Well challenging for 5/6th 'at best' simply won't cut it for me and hopefully not the board either.

Re: Season debrief, send in your questions : Fri Sep 30, 2022 12:27 pm  

I think 2023 will be a tough season generally.

Saints, Wigan & Catalan will of course still be up there, then you'll have Leeds with an off season under Rohan Smith who they have responded very well to, Hull FC will be expecting better things with TS in charge and Huddersfield will also be up in the 6 so with us that makes 7 clubs going for 6 spots, and Leeds & Hull especially I expect significant improvements from in terms of their league position. Cas & Salford had good years too in 2022 and will want to back that up.

If we can sort out positions 4 & 6 I'm very confident in the squad generally, with younger players who had some exposure at the end of 2022 to offer support, just depends whether the players start buying in to the coach. It's a top 4 squad if we can sort out 4 & 6.

[Uncle Rico]

Re: Season debrief, send in your questions : Fri Sep 30, 2022 1:03 pm  

Alffi_7 wrote:

I think 2023 will be a tough season generally.

Saints, Wigan & Catalan will of course still be up there, then you'll have Leeds with an off season under Rohan Smith who they have responded very well to, Hull FC will be expecting better things with TS in charge and Huddersfield will also be up in the 6 so with us that makes 7 clubs going for 6 spots, and Leeds & Hull especially I expect significant improvements from in terms of their league position. Cas & Salford had good years too in 2022 and will want to back that up.

If we can sort out positions 4 & 6 I'm very confident in the squad generally, with younger players who had some exposure at the end of 2022 to offer support, just depends whether the players start buying in to the coach. It's a top 4 squad if we can sort out 4 & 6.

Perhaps it's just off season optimism, but when you put it like that, the sport could be in for a better season next year with standards across a whole range of clubs going up, making for a much better competition hopefully with us in the mix

Re: Season debrief, send in your questions : Fri Sep 30, 2022 1:11 pm  

Uncle Rico wrote:

Perhaps it's just off season optimism, but wen you put it like that, the sport could be in for a better season next year with standards across a whole range of clubs going up, making for a much better competition hopefully with us in the mix

....off the back of a successful world cup (although looking down the England squad I'm not filled with confidence!)

Re: Season debrief, send in your questions : Fri Sep 30, 2022 1:51 pm  

In a selfish way I’m glad we only have Williams from our club in the international mix this year. We need the squad to be fully focussed on the league campaign. Regarding Williams, he’s clearly full of energy and determination, sometimes trying too hard on his own at times, so spending a few games behind a big pack where he can make a more useful contribution should be good for him to build confidence. Hopefully he’ll come back better for it.

Re: Season debrief, send in your questions : Fri Sep 30, 2022 1:57 pm  

Williams will be a lot better if we can get him in and around the 20m line more for his short kicking game. Having dufty support running will also make him look better from a bit further out. He won't be any better with ball in hand on the last from our half though. I think we have to be within 30 really for his high kick to the corner, otherwise the chasers won't get there to put pressure on the defenders.

Sneyd would have been an excellent signing for us last season. His kicking game can be very effective and would compliment Williams nicely (which I think would also be the case for England).