Re: Great test for Tony : Mon Apr 09, 2012 9:09 pm  

Apart from not being able to tackle,have any set moves,not able to pass,and basically no idea how to break a defence down, We are poop hot!!!!!

Re: Great test for Tony : Mon Apr 09, 2012 9:15 pm  

A few points i'd liketo make:

We've been poor overall so far this season. But we've had the toughest run of fixtures I've ever seen for the start of the season. We've player Hull Huddersfield Bradford Leeds Wigan and Catalan away from home already.
I think we're two points better off than we were at this point last season too.

If i were Tony I'd have the whole club stay out there another day and give the lads a day to have a stroll on the beach and a couple of glasses of wine with a meal on the front - take their mind off it all; it's been a tough start and we've been far from fully fit.

There's two weeks without a SL game. I'd get the lads back in on Wednesday and say "okay boys, the season starts here".

Everything will be okay!

Re: Great test for Tony : Mon Apr 09, 2012 9:17 pm  

danburge82 wrote:

A few points i'd liketo make:

We've been poor overall so far this season. But we've had the toughest run of fixtures I've ever seen for the start of the season. We've player Hull Huddersfield Bradford Leeds Wigan and Catalan away from home already.
I think we're two points better off than we were at this point last season too.

If i were Tony I'd have the whole club stay out there another day and give the lads a day to have a stroll on the beach and a couple of glasses of wine with a meal on the front - take their mind off it all; it's been a tough start and we've been far from fully fit.

There's two weeks without a SL game. I'd get the lads back in on Wednesday and say "okay boys, the season starts here".

Everything will be okay!

Couple? It didn't work when Briers was boozing in Aus?

Re: Great test for Tony : Mon Apr 09, 2012 9:21 pm  

danburge82 wrote:

A few points i'd liketo make:

We've been poor overall so far this season. But we've had the toughest run of fixtures I've ever seen for the start of the season. We've player Hull Huddersfield Bradford Leeds Wigan and Catalan away from home already.
I think we're two points better off than we were at this point last season too.

If i were Tony I'd have the whole club stay out there another day and give the lads a day to have a stroll on the beach and a couple of glasses of wine with a meal on the front - take their mind off it all; it's been a tough start and we've been far from fully fit.

There's two weeks without a SL game. I'd get the lads back in on Wednesday and say "okay boys, the season starts here".

Everything will be okay!

Fair point but I disagree. It wasn't long ago some of the players were out together having a few drinks at a weekend - one or two weeks maybe?

Get them back in and working on correcting the errors. You only get better with practice as they say.

Re: Great test for Tony : Mon Apr 09, 2012 9:34 pm  

Still over-playing in defence and attack, going for big hits giving penalties away or losing defensive structure or trying to score on every set rather than building pressure. It's giving other teams too easy a ride, and they know it. Suprisingly it's the 'old heads' that are the worst cuplrits at the mo. As the title of the thread says 'great test for Tony'.

Re: Great test for Tony : Tue Apr 10, 2012 8:07 am  

I think the break from SL this coming week will give the coaches and players a bit of time away from the "crisis" at the club. The one major difference I see between this season and last is how we're starting games - last season we blew teams away, this season we're getting behind by a good few tries at the start of every game.

Not overly worried at the moment as good players don't become bad overnight, and a few tweeks from the coaches here and there will hopefully put things on track again. I'm not adverse to a few of those tweeks being in the form of young players coming into the team. Everyone knows the backbone of the Wire side is ageing and new players are going to have to come in at some point.

Re: Great test for Tony : Tue Apr 10, 2012 8:11 am  

danburge82 wrote:

A few points i'd liketo make:

We've been poor overall so far this season. But we've had the toughest run of fixtures I've ever seen for the start of the season. We've player Hull Huddersfield Bradford Leeds Wigan and Catalan away from home already.
I think we're two points better off than we were at this point last season too.
!

Didn't we win all those fixtures last season?
The idea is to keep improving, I find it alarming when people start making excuses when effectively we are slipping backwards the only caveat is that the 27 games that are the league system doesn't really count for a hill of beans, aslong as you are thereabouts you just need to be good for 4 games at the end.

Re: Great test for Tony : Tue Apr 10, 2012 9:30 am  

Good to see Wires71 dusting off the keyboard after a few defeats.

We were very poor yesterday and I was worried for the first time. We did, however, come up against a terrific team who have been building their entire season so far up that game - if you don't believe me, check the pages of l'Independant or the Catalans official media/website. They got a massive crowd in and played some sublime rugby - I would have Dureau like a shot to be honest.

Our defence is a concern; we look weak in the tackle and some senior players aren't working hard enough. I'm afraid our captain is one of them, not sure whether it's through age, fatigue or lack of fitness, but you can't just swing the arm every time. At the moment a big man running onto the ball close to our line always looks likely to score - that's a big problem and I'm not sure what the answer is.

Waterhouse seems to be suffering from something a Pygmalion effect - the more he gets stick for not playing well, the worse he seems to get. I actually thought he was great for the first 7 or 8 games, but the last few he has given penalties away for fun and made poor defensive reads.

Higham is still the only player offering direction and keeping the forwards moving. They don't half need it though: our props can't be worrying Keighley at the moment.

Re: Great test for Tony : Tue Apr 10, 2012 9:35 am  

Live Wired wrote:

A few things for us to remember;

1/ We are not as good as we think. True
2/ Every team needs 2 half backs on the pitch at any 1 time. True
3/ Our pack is too old. True for the one chosen yesterday - plenty of young replacements available.
4/ o Brien is our hb alomgside Briers. True but Myler is also an excellent half-back
5/ This hammering has been long overdue. True on this season's form
6/ Anymore trips to Australia should be scrapped. Can't see what that has to do with it.
7/ Hodgson's best years were at Huddersfiels, and yet, he is still 1 of our best playes. So?
8/ Westwood ( alongside Nat Woods) has been our best signinging in the last 20 years. True
9/ We miss Louis Anderson......see number 8. True
10/ Smith, by his record, will not be here next year. Very unlikely that TS will leave for a few years yet.
11/ Catalans are a very under-rated team, and in Scott Dureau have ( Alongside Young Sam at Wigan) the best ball-playing-thinker in the game. Dureau is the better thinker.
12/ Bridge is a Hb and not a centre. Tripe. Centre is his best position by far
13/ Myler should be immediately given back to Widnes. Nonsense. We missed him badly when he went off yesterday.

The team is going nowhere fast, and quickly becoming the Man City of RL.

Won a packet today, but that was bloody annoying.

Re: Great test for Tony : Tue Apr 10, 2012 10:17 am  

Am I the only one who though that Catalan were far from convincing yesterday? Some of their play at times was worse than ours. I think for the first time this season, maybe first half against Saints too, I have been as frustrated as I can remember in a long, long time.

The lads who were given the luxury of a night off against Widnes were probably some of our worse players yesterday, and that is a genuine concern. They just look totally shattered sometimes and I can't get my head around it. Although I don't want to single anybody out at all either. Collectively we are just not performing to the standard we know we can. If our discipline and defensive attitude was better yesterday I've no doubt we'd have got the result.

For what it's worth I think Higham is carrying us at times, Benny and Hill too. Dwyer looks a real talent so there are some positives. But a lot of the time this season we look as though we've just woken up from a bad trip or something. There are things in our game that need addressing quickly.