exiledrhino wrote:
I do find it hard to accept some of the excuses for smith. I actually think on paper, we have a far better squad than McDermott had in 2018, when he was sacked after winning the GF the season before, so I wouldn’t say the roster is the issue.
Too many players are going backwards under smith, cam smith being case in point. Frawley was smiths choice, as was goudemand, who are not the players we need. Every single poster on here knew we were a prop short going into the season, but the coaching staff apparently knew otherwise.
For me it’s not even the losses that are bad. If there was good performances and exciting rugby, I’d be less worried. For me the rugby is utterly dire to watch, and we seem to be getting worse.
Case in point, we seem to run a play most weeks we play where we try to switch the play to make space around the ruck (it’s a play salford we’re exceptional at last season). Almost without exception, we have a player who gets in the way of the switch and completely kills it. Every time I just think what on earth are they doing in training.
I'm not sure this roster IS that good though. The benchmark is Wigan, Wire and St Helens and we're just not as good as them. We need a team which is BETTER than them. Our job isn't to catch them up, it's to overtake them and that's why these constant squad and project signings drive me bonkers. We need several more Croft standard signings, it's not good enough just to have one good player.
Frawley is on Smith 100%. Goudemand, Donaldson and Bentley are all physically too similar and similarly limited. You could use one but not all three - hopefully as some good young talent matures that will change over the next year or two anyway. I suspect Smith was shaken by the mutiny last year with Austin and MacDonald etc., he has over-compensated with steady Eddies.
Re. this idea of playing attractive rugby whilst we lose games, I just think that's a fantasy sorry (you're not the only one to say this). If you play attractive rugby, it includes hard defence and precision at times, it's not all about winging the ball about and miracle plays. It's attractive when it's successful and you beat teams with it. If you're often getting beaten, for me by definition it's not attractive rugby you're playing - you're probably dropping the ball, missing your D and not executing correctly etc. The only exception might be really close thrillers, but if we lost enough of those the knives would still be out.
Which is where I agree on your last point - when we have tried worked moves we have looked garbage, and that does look a coaching issue. The only play which works is the Croft kick out to Handley in space, I can't think of another this season. Leigh in particular throw great shape at you in good ball by contrast.
