Time to prove your worth Mr Stone : Tue Mar 14, 2017 2:04 am  

After the Wakefield match which we won with a 20 minute burst late in the second half we appeared at 2/3 with 4 points to be the in for a season of competing to sneak into the top 8 and miss the scramble to avoid relegation.

Two matches on our inability to dominate on the scoreboard has come back to haunt us and we look nothing but a rag tag team.

I never expected to win the Hull match with our injury list but the manner we handed them an 18 point lead was shocking and to follow it up with a scoreless display at Leigh just compounds the misery.

It's been obvious in every match that we are failing to get across the line and seem to get out of the blocks quickly without too much trouble to the scoreboard.

The opposition score on their first and most of their subsequent attacks and we fall to pieces making it look hard to score.

It's like reading the same novel or watching the same film over and over again.

Stone has had a reasonable amount of time to put some blocks in place but even last season we could score points just not finish games off.

So where we had one problem we now seem to have two which doesn't bode well for the rest of this season.

Thus far the Rickster is 4 points up on the scoreboard from last year but his marks for style and creativity are way down and based on the last two games it's hard to see where the next win is coming from.

Unfortunately our most creative forward Symonds got a very early injury and the likes of Roberts have struggled to maintain last seasons improvement.

I'll give it until Mamo gets fit and hopefully Wakeman match fit before I predict 'dire happenings' but on paper Widnes apart we are clearly the worst team in the league
and looking at an 11th placed finish on current form.

Rick can only keep blaming what's gone for so long I never had any great expectation for this season but it was beyond the 'tripe' that is currently being served up.

The attacking structure looks pants, we concede far too easily particularly out wide but that's been the case all season.

I'm not calling for his head but surely by now we should be seeing positives and improvement even when losing but 8-78 in our last two games says the opposite.

Yes there's some positives Seb, Kruise and Ukuma but they say a good coach/worker proves his real mettle when times are bad not good well Mr Stone your time to prove yours is well and truly here!!

Re: Time to prove your worth Mr Stone : Tue Mar 14, 2017 8:03 pm  

very true to a point but i would also point the finger at Thorman and clubs managment after last years escape our signing have not been good enough

Re: Time to prove your worth Mr Stone : Tue Mar 14, 2017 9:42 pm  

I remember reading about Stone in a post from Roopy (i think) when he was appointed and I'm sure part of it was that his team's started the season slowly but developed and grew into the season - presumably as he worked out the best team and combinations. I'm hoping this is the case and haven't lost any faith in him......he did make a difference at ht against Wakefield and I do believe he is working more long term while keeping us safe this year. I do wonder whether a change in the assistant coaches might help....fresh faces and voices....maybe Thorman and Robbo are too familiar to many of the squad. I think Symonds has been a big miss too and will be glad to get him back

Re: Time to prove your worth Mr Stone : Tue Mar 14, 2017 11:07 pm  

I think we would do better to keep Thorman. None of the players in our squad played alongside him now Eorl has gone, and he wasn't involved that heavily with the first team as he was u19s coach until middle of last year. Doing a fantastic job there too- and from what I have heard a very good man manager who earned a massive amount of respect from those players.

Re: Time to prove your worth Mr Stone : Wed Mar 15, 2017 9:38 am  

Can't argue with much of the original post.
We are certainly missing Bruno as much as anyone!
I thought Fergy was getting into the swing of things too.

Re: Time to prove your worth Mr Stone : Thu Mar 16, 2017 11:10 am  

AntonyGiant wrote:

Can't argue with much of the original post.
We are certainly missing Bruno as much as anyone!
I thought Fergy was getting into the swing of things too.

We are missing Lawrence in defense no doubt about that, In attack he offers little or nothing," Que some one coming on and quoting how many yards he has made per game " My point is those yards don't convert to scores because they are just Head down rushes that stop with him. Its symptomatic of the whole side, we have as many good players as most teams but we don't play as well as a team, as most other sides. Mr stone has to do something similar to what N Brown did, and was then later undone.
I don't know if he is the man or not but i don't believe he has had long enough yet to make any impression. I do take all the points about we should be seeing more than we are, and i do agree with much of them. That said he doesn't strike me as some one who can transform a team in quick time, When you talk to him he comes across more as a steady away gets there type.

We have had years with only one creative player on the field, that has to change for me, Is he the man to change it ?. Also we can't afford to have players who can only defend or can only attack, Players who are fast but never get a pass when in position to take one, players who can run decent lines but offer nothing else, Basically Stone needs to make us into a team, He doesn't have the men to make us into a great team but we should be able to survive, which is unfortunately as much as we can hope for

Re: Time to prove your worth Mr Stone : Thu Mar 16, 2017 10:15 pm  

Jo Jumbuck wrote:

We are missing Lawrence in defense no doubt about that, In attack he offers little or nothing," Que some one coming on and quoting how many yards he has made per game " My point is those yards don't convert to scores because they are just Head down rushes that stop with him. Its symptomatic of the whole side, we have as many good players as most teams but we don't play as well as a team, as most other sides. Mr stone has to do something similar to what N Brown did, and was then later undone.
I don't know if he is the man or not but i don't believe he has had long enough yet to make any impression. I do take all the points about we should be seeing more than we are, and i do agree with much of them. That said he doesn't strike me as some one who can transform a team in quick time, When you talk to him he comes across more as a steady away gets there type.

We have had years with only one creative player on the field, that has to change for me, Is he the man to change it ?. Also we can't afford to have players who can only defend or can only attack, Players who are fast but never get a pass when in position to take one, players who can run decent lines but offer nothing else, Basically Stone needs to make us into a team, He doesn't have the men to make us into a great team but we should be able to survive, which is unfortunately as much as we can hope for

Yep