A quest for survival??? The remaining fixtures... : Fri May 30, 2014 12:49 pm  

These are the remaining 13 games to play, six at home and seven on the road...

June
Wakefield Wildcats (h)
Salford Red Devils (a)
Hull Kingston Rovers (h)
Warrington Wolves (a)

July
Catalan Dragons (h)
St Helens (a)
Huddersfield Giants (a)
Wigan Warriors (h)

August
Leeds Rhinos (a)
Hull FC (h)
Castleford Tigers (a)

September
Widnes Vikings (h)
London Broncos (a)

We play each Super League team once more and the question is which of the remaining games do we think are must wins?

Me personally, I feel that July will be a horrendous month and I think we'll struggle to win one of those games. However, games in June are definitely winnable and the run in after Leeds away could be our saviour... three out of the four we should be competing in.

In each of the last 5 seasons (since moving to a 14-team competition) 15pts has been enough to secure 12th place. Therefore, depending on points deducted after the appeal we would need as follows:

0pts back = 8 wins from 13 games
2pts back = 7 wins from 13 games
4pts back = 6 wins from 13 games
6pts back = 5 wins from 13 games

I'd say the must wins are: Wakefield, Salford, Hull KR, and London
Could wins are: Catalans, Hull FC, Castleford and Widnes
No chance of a win: Warrington, St Helens, Huddersfield, Wigan and Leeds

I might not think we have the right coaching team, but I still think we have a strong enough team on paper to at least compete in eight of the remaining games.... which gives us a chance!!!

Re: A quest for survival??? The remaining fixtures... : Fri May 30, 2014 1:00 pm  

I sense another spreadsheet on the way...

Re: A quest for survival??? The remaining fixtures... : Fri May 30, 2014 1:03 pm  

haha... not from me you aren't. Haven't got a clue how to attach them on here!!!

Re: A quest for survival??? The remaining fixtures... : Fri May 30, 2014 1:03 pm  

hindle xiii wrote:

I sense another spreadsheet on the way...

The spreadsheet is still where it was before. It still has us going down, after the recent debacles. I could devise one that fiddled the figures to show us staying up however badly we play, if enough people want, but I don't think in terms of the real league table it will work, frankly.

Re: A quest for survival??? The remaining fixtures... : Fri May 30, 2014 1:16 pm  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

The spreadsheet is still where it was before. It still has us going down, after the recent debacles.

Eh? I'm beginning to think your "Bulls by 50" predictions are fibs.

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

I could devise one that fiddled the figures to show us staying up however badly we play, if enough people want, but I don't think in terms of the real league table it will work, frankly.

Go on, it is Friday, go crazy!

As for OP:
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L


One "L" of a season I'm sure you'd agree, fnar fnar.

Re: A quest for survival??? The remaining fixtures... : Fri May 30, 2014 1:32 pm  

At my most optimistic, we could only win seven of those fixtures. Wakefield would need to have an absolutely abysmal second half to the season for 14 points to be enough to stay up.

I'm not factoring in the points appeal because I don't for one second think we'll get anything back from that.

Re: A quest for survival??? The remaining fixtures... : Fri May 30, 2014 1:54 pm  

Whilst I'm reasonably confident we'll beat Wakey by a convincing score, i sadly fear that we haven't seen the last of that version of the team that mystifyingly doesn't bother turning up. So I reckon Nothus has it about right, and I can't see any reason to be optimistic about the appeal either. Not on the very little we know.

But doubt even 6 points back would now be good enough given the way we lurch from competent to absurdly rubbish for no obvious reason. Even with points back, we would need to string a consistent run of reasonable level of performance together, and that is precisely what the players have so convincingly shown they are incapable of.

[Bulliac]

Re: A quest for survival??? The remaining fixtures... : Fri May 30, 2014 2:11 pm  

Well, we seem to be getting the 'cream of the crop' back for the business end, so providing we can keep them fit for the rest of the season we may have an outside chance, and to be fair it leaves few excuses if everyone is playing in their 'normal' position.

Re: A quest for survival??? The remaining fixtures... : Fri May 30, 2014 3:15 pm  

I'd just settle for us at least being competitive in those final 13 games. I think we'll win 4 or 5 more at best and that just won't be enough.

Re: A quest for survival??? The remaining fixtures... : Fri May 30, 2014 3:33 pm  

We have to treat evey game as must win. Providing we win on Sunday we are 6 points behind Wakey (let's forget about the appeal for time being) that means we have to win 3 more games than Wakefield from the last 12. Lets replicate Wakey's form from the first half of the
Season and say they win 4 games again. So we need to win 7 games from the last 12.. That will put us level on points. Unfortunately due to our excellent character, our points difference is way worse than Wakey's so theoretically we have to win 8 from out remaining 12.
The chances of us winning every single one of the "winnable" games (Widnes, Salford, Hull, KR) is slim. Especially considering we have already lost to all of them already this season. It really is looking bleak.