Our assessment - 9 games in : Tue Apr 22, 2014 11:33 am  

Played 9 (league)

Won 6
Lost 3

People's thoughts?

Definitely have taken that before the season started.

Positives: joe Mellor - only played a handful of games but can tell he's going to be a superstar
Alex Gerrard - our most consistent forward and for his age, he discipline and work rate is phenomenal
Paddy Flynn - my most improved player. Takes the ball up like a prop sometimes and makes breaks for fun. Set up our winning try yesterday and that tackle of his was amazing

Negatives - after a good defensive start to the season, in our last 3 games we've conceded 112 points. Against good opposition albeit but it's still need improving.
Lack of scrum half backup - Gilmore and Craven haven't been up to the task. Thought Gore did well yesterday but he picked up a knock and had to come off

Performance so far 7/10 for me. Some great performances but slipped up in a few areas. We're still in the CC too which is a positive

Re: Our assessment - 9 games in : Tue Apr 22, 2014 8:12 pm  

We were doing great until Mellor's injury. Since then, Brown's had to shoulder too much responsibility as pretty much our only playmaker - until yesterday when Gore was a revelation. Very optimistic now, with Mellor and Carberry maybe only 4 weeks or so away and Marsh soon to return. Backed us to finish in Top 8, and am pretty confident about the outcome.

Re: Our assessment - 9 games in : Wed Apr 23, 2014 11:29 pm  

I think if you offered us this position before the league started there wouldn't be many who wouldn't bite your hand off. However, we've not had it all our own way. We had a great start to the league contrary to previous seasons and we've took our chances. There have been a few worries as to how inventive we look and when Mellor went so did much of our go forward. It's a real shame.

On the plus side, we've shown on a few occasions recently that we have real fight when we go behind (although the wire game obviously isn't a good example of this) which hasn't always been the case and our defence was solid. We're where we are for a reason and I think the playoffs is still very realistic.