Joined: May 28 2002 Posts: 7395 Location: Isca Dumnoniorum
A great first 20 minutes, but this team tends to be gassed far too early playing Arthurball, unfortunately.
When we were on, we scored some great tries - some of the best we've seen of Frawley, Miller, Croft, and yes, the Momster. Momirovski showed us what kind of player he can be if we stick with him - classic centre play a la Brad Godden. Nice contrast with Newman's more direct approach if he ever gets back into form. And we can forgive Momster for the pass into touch towards the end - plenty more to complain about from Lisone, Martin and Bentley - just awful.
Not sure Sangare went too well at the start. Our pack really is dire.
Its not really "Arthurball" though is it? Its just rugby league the way it is supposed to be played. There are signs some of our players will be fine playing normal rugby, but others have been shown up for just being really poor players. I include errors and penalty counts in that as they are absolute momentum killers, and we have too many players who seem unable to go through a game without losing ball in contact, throwing ridiculous offloads or terrible passes, or give away the stupidest of penalties. Oddly enough one of our worst offenders in that regard, Miller, has at least shown he can control himself.
Joined: Dec 22 2001 Posts: 31932 Location: The Corridor of Uncertainty
It's going to take a while to see what players are actually up to playing RL how it should be played after so long playing to Smith who I think was trying to be some kind of RL revolutionary but his ethos didn't stand up on the field.
"If you start listening to the fans it won't be long before you're sitting with them," - Wayne Bennett.
I think the success he had straight off the bat in 2022 convinced him he'd found a new way to play the game - play rope-a-dope in defence and counter attack from anywhere on the field. It worked that year because we needed to fix our awful defence and was probably the only way that side had a chance to win games. As confidence built we took a lot of teams by surprise, and lets be honest it really did work that year.
Again just my opinion but I think he believed the problem last season were the likes of Austin and Sezer, and not the way we were trying to play. So the plan was a proper clearout for this year, and the problems that probably caused among the squad last season were just something that had to be lived with to make the changes he wanted.
I reckon he knew early this year he'd got things badly wrong but he'd built a squad to play that way and knew they couldn't try to play 'normal' rugby very well. I think that's why he kept on about the ruck needing to be cleaned up - he's right of course that it does need to be, but the helter skelter rugby will only generally work off quick PTBs. Without that its just hail Mary high risk plays and once opponents worked out how to play us - which really means playing basic RL themselves without panicking - we were cooked.
I quite like the guy and he seems pretty smart. To paraphrase though it seems he's not as clever as he thinks he is....
leeds owl wrote:That game was the last straw for me. Pathetic crowd, pathetic officials, and pathetic input from the the commentary team. I’m struggling to watch the game at the moment, and like Ploinerrhino I’ll be bailing out of a season ticket next year. The most worrying thing for me is the officiating. We have officials making decisions based on other things than what they actually see with their own eyes. Call it cheating, call it what you want. How Lafai didn’t get sent off is unbelievable. Direct, forceful contact to the head jolting a players head back and leaving him poleaxed. Was he not sent off because he was a home player, was he not sent off because there were only 4 minutes gone, or was he not sent off because he’s not called Zane Tetevano ? For Barrie McDermott to suggest it was Miller’s own fault for putting his head down shows what an absolute buffoon McDermott has become. Is he saying stupid, ridiculous things to create an edgy, controversial t.v personality ? What he is in fact doing is projecting himself as a slack, oafish ex hard man that is trying to be the bloke down the pub. He followed that up with his “Momorovski is having a terrific first season with the Rhinos”. At that stage I thought the men in white coats with sedatives would soon be there to take him away. Absolute numbskull. As for Handley’s 3 yards backwards “knock on”….I think we’re all speechless on that one. The standard of officiating is the worst I’ve ever seen, and that’s the main reason why I won’t be renewing. Too many games decided on officials clearly ignoring transgressions and choosing which players/incidents they deem fit to penalise. The whole sport is a mess, they’ve killed off the amateur game and are well on the way to killing the professional game.
Joined: Dec 29 2005 Posts: 2246 Location: with the barefoot girls
Once were Loiners wrote:I think the success he had straight off the bat in 2022 convinced him he'd found a new way to play the game - play rope-a-dope in defence and counter attack from anywhere on the field. It worked that year because we needed to fix our awful defence and was probably the only way that side had a chance to win games. As confidence built we took a lot of teams by surprise, and lets be honest it really did work that year.
Again just my opinion but I think he believed the problem last season were the likes of Austin and Sezer, and not the way we were trying to play. So the plan was a proper clearout for this year, and the problems that probably caused among the squad last season were just something that had to be lived with to make the changes he wanted.
I reckon he knew early this year he'd got things badly wrong but he'd built a squad to play that way and knew they couldn't try to play 'normal' rugby very well. I think that's why he kept on about the ruck needing to be cleaned up - he's right of course that it does need to be, but the helter skelter rugby will only generally work off quick PTBs. Without that its just hail Mary high risk plays and once opponents worked out how to play us - which really means playing basic RL themselves without panicking - we were cooked.
I quite like the guy and he seems pretty smart. To paraphrase though it seems he's not as clever as he thinks he is....
Well said. I think that's a pretty accurate summary of Smith's period as coach.
Woody: Can I pour you a draft, Mr. Peterson?
Norm: A little early, isn't it Woody?
Woody: For a beer?
Norm: No, for stupid questions.
leeds owl wrote:That game was the last straw for me. Pathetic crowd, pathetic officials, and pathetic input from the the commentary team. I’m struggling to watch the game at the moment, and like Ploinerrhino I’ll be bailing out of a season ticket next year. The most worrying thing for me is the officiating. We have officials making decisions based on other things than what they actually see with their own eyes. Call it cheating, call it what you want. How Lafai didn’t get sent off is unbelievable. Direct, forceful contact to the head jolting a players head back and leaving him poleaxed. Was he not sent off because he was a home player, was he not sent off because there were only 4 minutes gone, or was he not sent off because he’s not called Zane Tetevano ? For Barrie McDermott to suggest it was Miller’s own fault for putting his head down shows what an absolute buffoon McDermott has become. Is he saying stupid, ridiculous things to create an edgy, controversial t.v personality ? What he is in fact doing is projecting himself as a slack, oafish ex hard man that is trying to be the bloke down the pub. He followed that up with his “Momorovski is having a terrific first season with the Rhinos”. At that stage I thought the men in white coats with sedatives would soon be there to take him away. Absolute numbskull. As for Handley’s 3 yards backwards “knock on”….I think we’re all speechless on that one. The standard of officiating is the worst I’ve ever seen, and that’s the main reason why I won’t be renewing. Too many games decided on officials clearly ignoring transgressions and choosing which players/incidents they deem fit to penalise. The whole sport is a mess, they’ve killed off the amateur game and are well on the way to killing the professional game.
Agree with most of that. However, Amateur game seems to be thriving in and around where I work in Kippax. I’m def switching more to that these days. Far more enjoyable!
Shabino wrote:Agree with most of that. However, Amateur game seems to be thriving in and around where I work in Kippax. I’m def switching more to that these days. Far more enjoyable!
Glad you have something decent to watch in Kippesh, enjoy your rugby. Sad to say the amateur game in Leeds has been absolutely decimated. The RFL’s drive to run the amateur game alongside Superleague in summer has been an absolute disaster. Their discriminatory attitude to clubs that wanted to stay winter based effectively killed them off, and despite throwing incentives at clubs to move to the summer Conference League the initial novelty has worn off and the lack of players and lack of quality has seen once great clubs languishing in the doldrums. There are only 4 divisions in their flagship league, and three of the biggest amateur clubs from Leeds historically are languishing in the lowest division, East Leeds, Milford and Drighlington. Another one is near the foot of tier 2 (Stanningley), and the only representation at the top level from Leeds is Hunslet Club Parkside. The game is on its backside in Leeds at the top amateur level and it’s been heading that way for years. Ask any of the older generation about the strength of Leeds amateur teams in the past and they will tell you that all the clubs named above are a shadow of their former selfs. They’ll speak of BARLA internationals from teams like Queens, Bisons, Yew Tree and Brassmoulders, now defunct. Like I said at the start, enjoy your amateur rugby mate. I used to, but the halcyon days are long gone in Leeds and I fear never to return.
"Leeds is the greatest club in Rugby League" Alex Murphy 2011
leeds owl wrote:Glad you have something decent to watch in Kippesh, enjoy your rugby. Sad to say the amateur game in Leeds has been absolutely decimated. The RFL’s drive to run the amateur game alongside Superleague in summer has been an absolute disaster. Their discriminatory attitude to clubs that wanted to stay winter based effectively killed them off, and despite throwing incentives at clubs to move to the summer Conference League the initial novelty has worn off and the lack of players and lack of quality has seen once great clubs languishing in the doldrums. There are only 4 divisions in their flagship league, and three of the biggest amateur clubs from Leeds historically are languishing in the lowest division, East Leeds, Milford and Drighlington. Another one is near the foot of tier 2 (Stanningley), and the only representation at the top level from Leeds is Hunslet Club Parkside. The game is on its backside in Leeds at the top amateur level and it’s been heading that way for years. Ask any of the older generation about the strength of Leeds amateur teams in the past and they will tell you that all the clubs named above are a shadow of their former selfs. They’ll speak of BARLA internationals from teams like Queens, Bisons, Yew Tree and Brassmoulders, now defunct. Like I said at the start, enjoy your amateur rugby mate. I used to, but the halcyon days are long gone in Leeds and I fear never to return.
That’s tragically sad. I grew up in Hudds, some richly historical amateur clubs there too. Wonder how that’s going?
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