Whitehaven away : Tue Aug 10, 2021 11:36 pm  

I can't actually believe it has come to this, but whitehaven away (yes thats correct), has become the make or break game for this season as regarding the playoffs....

Win and we are pretty much home and hosed and ready to travel to fax as we make the playoffs in 6th place
Lose and Haven will be level on points with us.... good chance we actually miss out on the playoffs.

just let this sink in, whitehaven away is now our most important game of the season.

Still think we will win, but how are we even here

Re: Whitehaven away : Wed Aug 11, 2021 7:05 am  

It seems to me there are 4 elements to a successful team at this level: (1) strength/size, (2) speed, (3) skill and (4) experience. In my view we are badly failing on (1). Whitehaven like most teams will out muscle us. On 2 we have Miski and Hankinson who are amongst the best in the league. Ogden hasn’t played, Boafo looks very rapid but appears to get injured quite a bit and Ogodo, in my view, looks like he has put on some pounds and it has slowed him down. On (3) we have quite a few decent players but many have been in the stands for some time and we have not been able or willing, to bring in reinforcements. On (4) there’s only a few players over 23 in the squad which may bode well for the future but means we lack leaders. I think Aston and Fozard fill that role well when fit - but they are not fit. The hidden glue to a team is that they all get on well. The team seem pretty happy but even in a game where turn over is pretty fast this looks a pretty ephemeral team with everyone on one year contracts. I’m not sure that helps to build certainty and continuity. I agree with you crash that this is a key game and one we could lose unless we apply ourselves.

Re: Whitehaven away : Wed Aug 11, 2021 10:08 am  

Agree BigTime, some of our younger players on Sunday, made school boy errors! in RL captains do not seem to play the role they once did? if you made an error, a captain would have a quiet word with you, you see it still part of Union.

We are really going to miss Miski and Hankinson, what a goal kicker Chris has been, my hero as a kid was Len Kileen, never forget his conversion at Wembley, in Saints own half.

Re: Whitehaven away : Wed Aug 11, 2021 10:09 am  

We have no backbone in the team

No full back
No first receiver and Sammutt at 6
No 13
No hooker

No team can play without that.

Re: Whitehaven away : Wed Aug 11, 2021 10:27 am  

I’m no expert but it seems to me most players are right handed and pass right to left. Accordingly many attacks end up testing the right edge. I’m not sure Egodo and Leland could handle what came their way. A bit more heft there might assist.

Re: Whitehaven away : Wed Aug 11, 2021 10:33 am  

wire-quin wrote:

We have no backbone in the team

No full back
No first receiver and Sammutt at 6
No 13
No hooker

No team can play without that.

We have some very nice shirts though.

Re: Whitehaven away : Wed Aug 11, 2021 10:44 am  

Yep. If it was a promotion criteria we’d be quids in.

Re: Whitehaven away : Wed Aug 11, 2021 6:47 pm  

Deadcowboys1 wrote:

We have some very nice shirts though.

Stop it

Re: Whitehaven away : Wed Aug 11, 2021 7:24 pm  

Weather forecast 16 degrees and rain.
If speed and fitness is our only asset then we really need to get the basics right for 80 and pray sammutt has his game head on
Failure to reach the play offs would be a fitting postscript to this season, but I suspect we will survive a scare and win by 2 scores.

Re: Whitehaven away : Fri Aug 13, 2021 8:44 am  

The Team leaving today for an overnight stay in The Lake District area, the players need to be in the right mind, last Sunday should help s lot, I trust!