Re: Never Mind George, Next Year Eh? : Sat Sep 25, 2021 4:30 pm  

Egg Chasing wrote:

His leadership at Salford was superb

it was so was his overall game, at Wigan not so much

Re: Never Mind George, Next Year Eh? : Sat Sep 25, 2021 4:31 pm  

Pieman wrote:

it was so was his overall game, at Wigan not so much

It doesn't take a genius to work out why that was

Re: Never Mind George, Next Year Eh? : Sat Sep 25, 2021 4:39 pm  

Egg Chasing wrote:

Pretty much.

Abdull has had a decent year, but so has Jackson.

Aside from his kicking game though I don't see a single attribute that he has that is better than what Hastings has.

A kicking game is a pretty key element in top flight RL.
Hastings doesn’t appear to have one at all. If he played to instructions then that’s even worse to me. As senior player he should he ignored Lam when it was apparent to everyone that the continuous high bomb wasn’t working. What could Lam have done? Hook him off?

Kicking in British RL has always been a bit of an afterthought. No real skill required and very little coaching if any applied. Every HB and hooker should practicing 6 days a week. Every week.

Arguably Abdul or a similar style player overall would be a better team player than a Hastings whose work rate and enthusiasm is unquestionably but at times he tries to do too much and as a few have pointed out caught out on 5th numerous times.
We haven’t replaced SOL and it’s probably impossible in this day and age to do so but more of a play making HB could cover off part of those lost skills

Re: Never Mind George, Next Year Eh? : Sat Sep 25, 2021 4:55 pm  

Egg Chasing wrote:

It doesn't take a genius to work out why that was

Re: Never Mind George, Next Year Eh? : Sat Sep 25, 2021 5:35 pm  

CobraCraig wrote:

He’s a much more dangerous runner, better passer. I like Abdull as I have said in previous posts but Hastings is a former man of steel winner and has arguably been our best player in his time with us, one where we came close to winning the league.
Abdull controls the game better and is a much better kicker for me but he needs to do and achieve a lot more to be compared to Hastings. I just think people are making hyperbolic statements off the back of an awful season and fans are thinking everything within the club is bad.

There have been some very, very OTT reactions on here, which, as the disappointment fades, I think some people will, if not regret, certainly reconsider. It was only last season when the single bounce of a ball denied us the title.

Re: Never Mind George, Next Year Eh? : Sat Sep 25, 2021 7:00 pm  

Cruncher wrote:

:twisted: There have been some very, very OTT reactions on here, which, as the disappointment fades, I think some people will, if not regret, certainly reconsider. It was only last season when the single bounce of a ball denied us the title.

I’m quite a reflective person and try not to be too intransigent, if appropriate, on views that I hold and I can change my mind or reassess my views but unless there are radical changes between now and March 2022 I won’t be getting a season ticket. It’s highly unlikely I’ll be attending any matches other than maybe Toulouse away more for the craic than the rugby.

I’ve seen for worse teams than the 2021 version but none of them drained my love of the club or the game like that shambolic lot. This was strengthened by an absence of management that didn’t have the guts to bullet Lam when the team was literally decomposing before everyones eyes and the silence at the ground was deafening.

I have genuine sympathy for IL and KR re COVID and the issues with the new Latics owners but I have nothing bit dismay for their sheer incompetence on their handling of Lam and the cap space over the last few years. I will always be grateful to IL for buying the club but unfortunately it looks like he has lost his edge as a businessman making some baffling decisions or in the case of Lam lack of decisions. Lam should have gone during his first season or at the end of that first season. Lam has been totally and utterly out of his depth.

The 2022 squad unless something miraculous happens is not going to put bums on seats.

My views on Peet as I’ve said are irrational and I think that’s because I see (without seeing) a continuation of the siege mentality, stats stats stats and playing by numbers that plagued SW latter years.I wish the guy well and if he can a team playing like 2012 squad then maybe I’ll drop in on the odd game.

Today I went to Thatto Heath to watch Orrell St James land their league title. I loved it. It was fun, raw full on rugby and absolutely no playing by numbers. We then watched the final 20:minutes or so between Siddall and Thatto Heath with a great atmosphere with two well matched teams.

I am going to stick with amatuer rugby until the senior management is sorted out and we start acting and looking like a professional outfit fully integrated with its fan base and being forward looking incessantly driven for improvement across all areas of the club.
Simple regular communication with fans should be a given and continuous process not a knee jerk 2 days notice affair.
The current marketing is almost nil subject to lower prices. It’s an untenable approach. What are the plans for increasing the number of spectators aged under 30 particularly the 16 to 24 age group? We spent a fortune on a new badge seemingly at the expense of all other initiatives.

I am in hyper critical mode primarily due to frustration that there are some easy wins with the right mindset and the right people. Currently we don’t seem have either. As an outsider looking in for a business that really is pretty appalling.

I hope IL gets his mojo back and turns things around if he hasn’t got the energy he should pass the mantle on to his son. Unless some serious and focused energy is pumped into the club very very soon things will get worse very quickly.

Re: Never Mind George, Next Year Eh? : Sat Sep 25, 2021 7:10 pm  

I think 'taking it to the line' for Hastings has too often meant in practice just taking another hit-up. Sure, halves have to take on the line and expect to be tackled at times, but Hastings is surely tackled too much. And too often on the fifth tackle!

Re: Never Mind George, Next Year Eh? : Sat Sep 25, 2021 7:45 pm  

Hastings for me has had a very poor season but he’s obviously not alone in that. A large part of the season he had KPP outside him plus Bibby on the wing and largely failed to make use of them. I, and others used to give Marty Smith a ton of stick on here but I watched some games from previous seasons today and Smith looked twice the player.

You can blame his lack of impact on Harry Smith all you want but a lot of sides cope with one very dominant halfback.

The amount of hit-ups he takes compared to other halves is a joke and I’m not alone in thinking that has an effect on our ability to put points on the board.

Re: Never Mind George, Next Year Eh? : Sat Sep 25, 2021 8:30 pm  

Somebody made a point last night about how we don’t have a halfback who will play at the line and they’re right. We have Smith who plays well before the line and whose timing of a pass is currently so poor and we have Hastings who doesn’t play at the line because he instead tries to run through it. I will give both an awful lot of slack though because when you don’t have runners what do you do? We don’t use dummy runners, we have nobody willing to run off the ball and it totally isolates you and takes away your options. I’ve never seen a side play side to side as much as we do.

Re: Never Mind George, Next Year Eh? : Sat Sep 25, 2021 10:07 pm  

Just on dummy runners, is it just me, but I remember when Shorrocks first came into the side, he was making dummy left right and centre, But he never got the ball, and obviously opposing defences realised that. So in the end we stopped doing it. That is not good enough.