Joined: Mar 14 2003 Posts: 25776 Location: Back in Hull.
Thetalentboy wrote:Problem is we keep giving the average players contracts
Players like fash, cator, Lane give their all but we are 100% not winning a grand final with them in our pack
These are the real issues, they are will be low wage, the issues are players like Shaul, Evans, Dywer and Lovodua, high salaries or quota and not offering anything to the 17, replace these with better players and the likes of those become squad players.
Last night feels like a bitter blow currently but I don't think its a case of season over just yet. We were god awful and was still in the game up until the DG with circa 8 minutes on the clock. By the time it comes to playing Wakey on Sunday, and you would surely fancy our chances against them, we could still be in well in the fight. It is a funny old season this year, lets see how the next couple weeks pan out before ruling the season out.
Chris71 wrote:My two penneth, I think the issue of being good enough to compete / be at the higher end of the table and improving and making strides forward are two separate things.
Are we good enough? I don't think anyone would argue that we are simply not good enough nor have we been since the end of 2018. Poor recruitment/retention, mismanaged cap and inexperienced coaches have seen us fall back massively over the last 6 years with each year getting worse. The result of this saw the end of 2022 culminating in to one of, if not the worst endings to a season I can remember and left no one in any doubt what a basket case on the field the club was. That is going to take time to put right and there will be some ups and downs before it is.
Have we improved? Think it's fair to say that even accounting for the 7 losing game streak we have improved and certainly made strides forward in terms of attitude and mentality though that should not have been a difficult task you'd think , however the lack of any improvement since 2018 shows that's not necessarily been the case. TS by and large still has pretty much the same issues with the squad due to the poor cap management and constrained by this existing deals etc its been a tough ask to turn anything round quickly. I would say the rugby we play now is far better and more attractive and the score lines and performances have become much more consistent from the massive hammerings and towel throwing we'd become accustomed and known for.
There is still a hell of a lot of change, hard work and improvement to be made but I do believe under Smith we have seen changes which are for the better that show we are moving forward. Yes the current situation on signings for next season maybe a bit of a concern for us fans but hopefully the club will get the next round of recruitment right rather than panic and repeat the same mistakes we've made over the last 4 to 5 years.
The problem is Chris you mention the rugby we we are playing is better and more attractive but thats mainly due to three players who are leaving the club Clifford,Swift and too a lesser extent Satae. keep saying this but we are playing catch up with most S/L clubs and can see some real panic buys coming into the club however until the club know how much they will receive from the newTV deal my opinion is they cannot do any overseas deals.
bonaire wrote:The problem is Chris you mention the rugby we we are playing is better and more attractive but thats mainly due to three players who are leaving the club Clifford,Swift and too a lesser extent Satae. keep saying this but we are playing catch up with most S/L clubs and can see some real panic buys coming into the clubhowever until the club know how much they will receive from the newTV deal my opinion is they cannot do any overseas deals.
Don't you think Smith has anything to do with the way we play?
The second point is you just making a massive assumption to fit your negative outlook. You literally have no proof that we are playing catch up with recruitment. We're not the only team to have announced no signings yet.
Warrington - Lachlan fitzgibbon Wigan - Walters, Keighran, Chan, leeming Leeds - Goudemond St Helens -Mbye, Clarke Huddersfield - George Flanagan jnr from Bradford plus probably swift Catalan - Satae Hull kr - Gildart Wakefield - Griffin Cas - Putt, Horne Salford - singleton Leigh - Dan norman
Don't think all of those signings have been confirmed.
If you stuck Tindall and Ashworth on our list would it look better than Salford or Leigh only having 1 signing.
We're all desperate for us to announce something but let's see where we are September/October time. If we've only announced Tindall or Ashworth by that time then we can start panicking.
Smith has a big chunk of cap space to play with, he needs to get the right players in, in terms of playing and the type of person they are. The players we're now linked with in aus are a good sign.
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