Trojan Horse:



This may not be a popular post but there were a few questionable calls by Powell imo for the Hull game that played part in us losing. 

1. Pratt isn’t a winger. He plays centre or not at all imo. He’s not involved as a running threat enough as a winger and without Max and Trueman his evasiveness and time on the ball in space on wing wasn’t going to be effective. Against a young lad Russell should have been in doing some damaging runs unless he wasn’t fit. I feel like Pratt was moved purely to fit Scott in who was ok but didn’t have best of games. 


2. Mckmeeken being moved from middle to second row late in 1st half. I think Hull tactically hit our edge early game with Croft and made him defend a lot forcing this change. Asiata and Hulls middles noticeably had more time on the ball when Mckmeeken moved out wide and we lost something in the middle. Scott should have been on the bench to slot in SR which is his best position watching him at hull last season or Pitts to SR. 


Otherwise, there were a few areas that cost us. Halls knock on from scrum put us defending our line and Lino’s kick out on the full. Lino had enough time to kick central and shouldn’t have kicked it close to touch. Those were momentum killers. 


That said these are all fixable. It was a positive performance and small margins defined that game. We don’t need to re-invent the wheel. What we are doing is working but just needs tweaking and fine tuning. 


I do believe if we keep this level of attitude and focus that this team can nip into the playoffs or be very close. 


The forwards are very good and have been imo the shining light so far this season. There’s some flashes from the backs we have seen like Pratts evasiveness and TJs huge yardage and stats he’s getting through that shows there’s promise. 


The halfbacks are going to take a while imo to get going and the injury to Max has rocked the boat. I feel the more they play together we should see some good link up. We noticeably though haven’t seen the level of expansive play we saw vs KR and Cas and we seem to be going more direct recent games for some reason. 


Anyway, I have faith we can get 2 wins vs Leigh. It won’t be easy but I’ve seen enough that we can get results if we tidy up. 

Pat_Bateman:



I can’t disagree with any of that mate. 

Seeing Scott getting done on his inside shoulder by chamberlain was poor and I feel that wouldn’t have happened against Pratt. Scott looked to have the turning of an oil tanker. Pratt has fully deserved in my opinion that starting centre spot over anyone in the team, he’s played against quality opposition already this year and more than held his own. I had my doubts about his size etc but over the moon he’s proved my opinion fully wrong. Hope Russell is back against Leigh and then it’s a fight out between Hall and Scott for the other centre spot. 


I said in an earlier post we are a quality winger, centre and half back away from being a comfortable top 6 team pushing for trophies. That’s twice this season now Lino has put it out on the full, when the chips were down and we needed a player who could control the intensity of the game and produce a play when it mattered, not turn over cheaply. 


Mention to Tom Johnstone. After a non existent pre season, he’s knuckled down, doing 170 + metres a game with tough Carries and now seems to know where the try line is again. I believe he is a confidence player. He’s lost a yard or 2 of pace and feel he’s had to develop another part of his game ie his size and strength. Hes now like an english Nick Cotric. I know he’s come in on a very hefty salary (top NRL winger Money). If he stays fit he should be our main Ariel threat for sure with his yards out of our 10 priceless. 

alegend:



You can not blame Lino for kicking the ball out on the full as a reason why we lost against Hull ,He his the one person in the spine who looks any thing like a threat to the opponents.You could say why is Trueman in for one game and  missing the next, why were our centres getting banged into touch ,why have we stoped  moving the ball as much over the last two games.The Hull defeat was down to some bad calls by the coaches ,but how many of the four changes would have been in the team if we had  got a full squad to pick from ,only the coaches know .