Grimsby Red wrote:
Nobody can seriously want to get rid of Kelly, on his day he is class but he can't do it by himself, so please give him a break.
Salter isn't brilliant but he doesn't let us down, hardly ever gives away a penalty and he's solid in defense.
Dixon needs better one to one coaching for when he is running the ball in to defenders and for his tackle technique.
Tilse and Allgood are both average for overseas 'stars' and should be replaced.
Marsh is young and learning the game, so get off his back.
Horne and Cockayne are over the hill and should be replaced.
One of our biggest problems is the lack of hard running second rowers, so let me mention three possibilities: Mariano, Cox and Ollett ( we have let these go when we should have kept them, so think again about Marsh and Salter)
A prop that we should have pushed the boat out to keep is Scott Taylor.
Campese will need to make up his own mind about retirement, Lunt was definitely a mistake to make up for letting Josh Hodgson go when we could have improved him.
Our problems come from having novice coaches who can't/don't improve the young players we bring through. We also offer short term contracts to our homegrown talent and then let those contracts run down before offering new deals, just like what we have done to James Green.
Any Professional Sportsperson who comes back from pre season visibly overweight as Kelly simply cannot perform at their peak if they're not in peak condition; people need to accept they will get slated by the fans as its us that are paying for all the burgers he is clearly eating.
Dixon isn't good enough.
Cockayne as above.
Lunt injury prone but on a long term contract
Campese injury prone
Tilse playing better than last season but still bang average.
Horne is having a mare of a season so far.
Our 2nd row is shocking in attack and defence, Blair is getting on, but was signed as a centre/6 anyway, iv'e mentioned Horne, Larroyer had 1 good season on loan then has been average.
Realistically we cannot replace the full squad, but need to replace key positions....definitely 1,6,7,11 & 12
Time for people to let go of sentiment and to embrace reality.