It’s a shame Hookem got injured when he did, as he may have offered something different. Years of poor recruitment and retention is biting us, and some of these players need to go ASAP. BH’s use of the bench has been poor since the beginning of his tenure, and it was again yesterday. We seem to be putting time and effort into the Academy now, but that will take time to come to fruition. It’s the culture around the club that’s been sloppy for years, and it needs addressing fast.
Joined: Jan 30 2004 Posts: 8185 Location: Never never land away with the fairies
One thing I noticed yesterday and curious about was Hicks stopped the game due to Wynn receiving treatment way back down the pitch in our half when we had the ball on the Cas 20, he was then issued a green card yet Westerman went down injured and the game had to be stopped for him to receive treatment but no green card issued?
I really enjoy long walks especially when they are taken by people I don't like!
Last edited by Chris71 on Mon Mar 07, 2022 10:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
Joined: Jan 30 2004 Posts: 8185 Location: Never never land away with the fairies
Irregular Hoops wrote:It’s a shame Hookem got injured when he did, as he may have offered something different. Years of poor recruitment and retention is biting us, and some of these players need to go ASAP. BH’s use of the bench has been poor since the beginning of his tenure, and it was again yesterday. We seem to be putting time and effort into the Academy now, but that will take time to come to fruition. It’s the culture around the club that’s been sloppy for years, and it needs addressing fast.
To be fair yesterdays performance wasn't down to poor recruitment as the team BH had available was and should have been capable of performing. I'm not sure what BH's game plan or tactics were for yesterday as there was very little on show to indicate that he even had one. His use or rather misuse of the bench is still a big issue and one that cost us massively yesterday.
We don't have a god given right to win any game but in yesterdays game we did more to lose the game than we did to win it. Cas have been poor so far this season but we gifted them the game without them having to really work for it.
The dropped ball from the first pass in the opening seconds and we just crumbled that's not poor recruitment its poor preparation and mentality yet again.
I really enjoy long walks especially when they are taken by people I don't like!
Joined: Jan 26 2009 Posts: 2843 Location: The Cavern Club
wasn't confident during the week and was sadly proved right. I want to believe that Hodgson is the man to take us forward but a now starting to doubt him and his methods. As most have said, he got a lot wrong yesterday including once again terrible use of the bench. 3 wins from the last 17. Is he on borrowed time?
Chris71 wrote:It was a total poop show and personally for me Houghton offered very little and was pretty much ineffective and our right hand side defensively was awful. If BH doesn't change things for the Leeds game then I really question his ability to coach the team. I don't think many come out that game with any credit to be fair as Houghton wasn't the only one and I'm not singling him out but its the fact Lovodua was sat on the bench for so long and BH had the option available to make a change yet failed to do so until far too late.
Yes we had players missing but so did Cas yet they steamrolled us completely it was verging on embarrassing.
I honestly think it's pretty obvious who the ones are who arbt good enough or the ones who's heads and hearts are no longer in it or a mixture of both.
We need Hodgson to be tough now and take them out of the team/squad.
Gets boring reading about attitudes, but nobodys ever named, let's have some accountability. As I say once the 5 I named are back, the questionable ones won't be near the squad. In the meantime can we have Lovodua and Vulikijapani in from the start please, and Hookem if he's available
I don't think we've seen much improvement from the Radford/Last era, results are still inconsistent, the gaps between the best performances and worst performances are still too big. Discipline hasn't improved either, sin bins are still happening each game and we're still making dumb mistakes like not forming a scrum in time. If you keep saying wait till the new coach gets his own team we'll never win anything as it'll always take 2-3 years to get their own team in and remove the previous coaches deadwood. A lot of it boils down to attitude and desire to win, it almost looked as if a few of them had been out the night before and weren't fully in the game mode. I wonder if the culture is still to have too much of a good time at the club? Hodgson said we were going to stop putting square begs in round holes...if that is the approach then why is Johnstone playing at loose forward when he's a hooker, why is Shaul playing on the wing when he's a fullback? Either play them in position or don't play them. Also I noticed yesterday as others have said that the backs took in far too many of the drives. That was nowhere near a first choice Castleford team, mamo, Richardson, Kenny Edwards, fariamo, Massey and a few others were out and it was easily there for the taking given that we were in the match for most of the game without playing well at all.
I couldn't go yesterday, tested positive for covid on Friday, but the attitude was my only concern in this game, I fancied us for a hefty win, but equally feared the defeat if our attitude was off. MAy seem obvious , but, yesterday was one game where Gale may have made a big difference, just for his vocal presence, which may have kicked a few out of that lax and seemingly apathetic approach we all have seen too many times previously. I do agree with many others though, appointing an inexperienced coach wasn't the ideal use of our situation when Radders got his marching orders, Hodgson's rotation seems baffling to the everyday observer and we aren't going to trouble the big boys this year with him at the helm I fear. AP , as much as he is to blame, must be worried sick, those games we should be winning with that squad and , given that we are in line for financial woe, according to his statement, I don't see how we can improve things next year, other than by shipping out those in the squad who have had their time and whose contracts are up - Lovodua needs to feature earlier and from the start for me, if not at hooker then at loose man, he's young, fit and hasn't yet adopted the attitude that blights so many others within the squad.
Joined: Feb 23 2019 Posts: 74 Location: Castleford
Just want to say well done on an amazing turnout from your fans yesterday. Absolutely brilliant travelling support and had a good chat with a few of your fans before and after the game. I quite enjoyed the match to be fair (obviously with getting the win) Good luck for the rest of the season.
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