: Mon May 18, 2009 11:16 am  

Trimalchio wrote:

...

Interesting that the player getting the most stick is a survivor from the glory days (Deacon) - not one that your current coach brought in.

Seems to me that we went wrong at the time we bought Jeffries (and I said so at the time) unless the plan had been to play Jeffries at 7 and promote/buy a 6. Of course we now know the plan was never to drop Deacon so the question what we bought Jeffries for remains unanswered. By the way Jeffries was pish-poor yesterday but it is unlikely to be a co-incidence that this happened at the same time as he was back to stand-off next to one of the Deacon twins (non-identical), the one who can't play and can't kick.

As for Deacs, in recent times, IMHO, he's had too many hard knocks, and seems to get head injury after head injury, like a boxer who's had too many fights. I have always been a big Deacon fan, but he's become a miniature of the team as a whole - one good performance then very poor. Just now he's too often not only a pale shadow of what he once was, most of the time, he is prone to bouts of kicking like yesterday that are frankly disastrous, are a real liability for the team, and must knock the stuffing out of them.

: Mon May 18, 2009 11:28 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

Seems to me that we went wrong at the time we bought Jeffries (and I said so at the time) unless the plan had been to play Jeffries at 7 and promote/buy a 6. Of course we now know the plan was never to drop Deacon so the question what we bought Jeffries for remains unanswered.

Were Mogg and Bird the possible sixes? What about Rooney? What six should we have picked up? These aren't intended as rhetorical questions btw. I remember you said you wished we picked up Thorman but Hull fans seem pretty pd off with him of late.

: Mon May 18, 2009 11:37 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

But TBF you're just dying for McNamara to get the chop, and have a child-like belief that this one thing will instantly remove all mistakes, dropped balls, needless penalties, will transform the kicking game, will turn the defence into an impenetrable steel wall and will turn our attack into a cross between Buzz Lightyear and the Harlem Globetrotters.

At the end of the day I do think it is down to the coaching. You can have the most talented group of individuals in the world but, eventually, a lack of respect or self-belief will come through. There are many analogies in football.
I would look at HKR, Cas & Catalans as role models. All are similar in stature & ability to Bradford, maybe less, but they have gradually grown each season under quality coaching & steady recruitment (Cats are declining this year due to an inferior coach IMO).

: Mon May 18, 2009 11:47 am  

af wrote:

Were Mogg and Bird the possible sixes? What about Rooney? What six should we have picked up? These aren't intended as rhetorical questions btw. I remember you said you wished we picked up Thorman but Hull fans seem pretty pd off with him of late.

Thorman and Jeffries seems like a potentially top-4 halfback pairing to me.

TBF though we couldn't have predicted the extent to which Deacon's almost total loss of form has become a positive problem, or I suppose the terrible run of knocks and injuries he's had, the latter must be a factor in the former.

: Mon May 18, 2009 11:48 am  

af wrote:

Were Mogg and Bird the possible sixes?

They may have been, but they did not come on board so we will never know.

What is more pertinent is whether people feel that the coach is getting the best out of a group of players he declared himself happy with at the start of the season?

: Mon May 18, 2009 11:52 am  

tigertot wrote:

At the end of the day I do think it is down to the coaching. ...

What, all of it? Everything? Nowt to do with the playing?

: Mon May 18, 2009 11:54 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

TBF though we couldn't have predicted the extent to which Deacon's almost total loss of form has become a positive problem,

If only you'd asked...

: Mon May 18, 2009 11:56 am  

mystic eddie wrote:

What is more pertinent is whether people feel that the coach is getting the best out of a group of players he declared himself happy with at the start of the season?

Who on earth would feel we are "getting the best out of" this group of players? Are you drunk?

: Mon May 18, 2009 11:56 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

What, all of it? Everything? Nowt to do with the playing?

All of it. A team with no players but a great coach will always beat 17 world class players with no coach.

: Mon May 18, 2009 11:56 am  

tigertot wrote:

If only you'd asked...

Not having that, to you, he never had any form to lose!