Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Sun Aug 16, 2015 6:18 am  

I don't buy this Championship v SL gulf in class theory. Our opening quarter performances have been largely pathetic all season. Fev, Batley, Halifax, Dewsburyx2, Sheffield have all dominated us in the middle. We struggled to overcome Workington. Batley's prop went in under the posts from the 20 m line.

As with above today our defence was rooted to the spot, Our props looked exhausted. We started the biggest game in years with no ENERGY. Teams with a fraction of our budget have come to Odsal and bullied us.

Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Sun Aug 16, 2015 6:37 am  

M@islebugs wrote:

I don't buy this Championship v SL gulf in class theory. Our opening quarter performances have been largely pathetic all season. Fev, Batley, Halifax, Dewsburyx2, Sheffield have all dominated us in the middle. We struggled to overcome Workington. Batley's prop went in under the posts from the 20 m line.


Very true. It's something I've struggled to understand. Strangely it was more the edges against HKR. I look at our forwards and think that, individually, any one of them could play in SL and they have done but as a group it doesn't seem to work. Maybe it is just down to coaching and conditioning or could it be enthusiasm, or lack of it.
There would be little point in getting promoted as we could not recruit enough real quality in the time available and we would be in a battle to survive from the off. Brian Smith has shown that effective coaching can make a difference.
As with above today our defence was rooted to the spot, Our props looked exhausted. We started the biggest game in years with no ENERGY. Teams with a fraction of our budget have come to Odsal and bullied us.

Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Sun Aug 16, 2015 7:15 am  

Theboyem wrote:

I heard the chants you referred to and quite frankly i cringed with embarrassment. Banter is one thing but overstepping the line isn't acceptable and that well and truly jumped over it. I can only apologise on behalf of all decent wakey fans and hope that the imbeciles are rooted out.

Way too many incidents for this I'm afraid. It's time the suspended fines were enforced because pussy footing around doesn't work.

Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Sun Aug 16, 2015 7:17 am  

M@islebugs wrote:

I don't buy this Championship v SL gulf in class theory. Our opening quarter performances have been largely pathetic all season. Fev, Batley, Halifax, Dewsburyx2, Sheffield have all dominated us in the middle. We struggled to overcome Workington. Batley's prop went in under the posts from the 20 m line.

As with above today our defence was rooted to the spot, Our props looked exhausted. We started the biggest game in years with no ENERGY. Teams with a fraction of our budget have come to Odsal and bullied us.

I've got some questions over team selection but the defensive effort in the first half is simply not acceptable.

Hopefully it's the wake up call that sees us push on but is it too late?

Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Sun Aug 16, 2015 8:28 am  

M@islebugs wrote:

I don't buy this Championship v SL gulf in class theory. Our opening quarter performances have been largely pathetic all season. Fev, Batley, Halifax, Dewsburyx2, Sheffield have all dominated us in the middle. We struggled to overcome Workington. Batley's prop went in under the posts from the 20 m line.

As with above today our defence was rooted to the spot, Our props looked exhausted. We started the biggest game in years with no ENERGY. Teams with a fraction of our budget have come to Odsal and bullied us.

^ this

[Bulliac]

Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Sun Aug 16, 2015 9:27 am  

Theboyem wrote:

Today just goes to show the difference in class between the very worst of superleague, which we have been all season, and the top of the championship. The players you have, bar maybe a couple at best, are playing at that level for a reason. They are players who either got you relegated last season (below a Wakefield side that before this season kicked off we all thought was worse on paper than this one), have dropped down as they haven't been able to get a top flight club for a reason or have never played successfully at the higher level. It is easy to get carried away when you are beating inferior part-time sides most weeks but the reality is this country has few real quality players and not enough regular intensity below the elite level to prepare for the step up and most of the better players are already in the top flight. As a club Wakefield don't deserve to survive this year due to extracting the urine all season but the rules mean we likely will as there just isn't anybody good enough to replace us, including Leigh. That is a worry for the depth of RL in this country as much as anything else.

Much of that I'd agree with, though the reasons for our relegation were probably more to do the the players we didn't have [like the the three props we lost before the season started] rather than with any particular deficiencies in the ones who remained. Also the current Wakey side is much different from the earlier one which did most of the losing.

There is a problem with the championship too. As mentioned previously, it is too slow and referees only allow the games to proceed at the pace of the slowest team and not, like SL, at the pace of the quickest. Believe me there would be 100 point thrashings if the PTB was at the same speed as SL. When you play at that pace all year, with the best will in the world, it's difficult to bridge the gap and step up.

At the end of the day, most of these players have played at that speed and intensity previously in SL, but yesterday it was Wakey who played with real intensity and we couldn't match it. End of, really.

Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Sun Aug 16, 2015 9:49 am  

We've played at that intensity now and the fact they pushed for that last try is good for us going into next week. Two matches now to put it right

Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Sun Aug 16, 2015 10:07 am  

mystic eddie wrote:

I just hope he wiped his feet on the way out.

Enjoy another few years in the Championship. You've found your level.

Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Sun Aug 16, 2015 10:16 am  

Just watch the interview of Jimmy on Bulls Tv and can say that I loved him as a player but don't like him as a coach. His attitude and the way he answers people asking reasonable questions is not good. I wouldn't employ someone in a high position who comes over like that. Even Hetherington finished with a little comment about him lately. He just will not accept we were absolute garbage yesterday saying we were OK in the second half - even though we lost that also.
He constantly says it is just one game. No Jimmy, it has been a full season of "just one poor performance". If we were to stand there and list them he would offer us outside.

England are going to put the fear of god into Aus and Nz with Macca and Jimmy coaching the team.

We can now only hope that Leigh lose all except Fax and Sheff and we then beat them so we finish 5th and get a one off chance at promotion.

Should we now keep Mullaney, Gaskell and Addey in cotton wool and use them in the Leigh and Fax game and hope this gives us 6 points and Leigh only beat Fax and Sheffield? Is this our only chance left to us?
I would take another trip to Wakey in that £1m game with a full team. They could re-name the ground for the day as "The last chance saloon stadium".

Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Sun Aug 16, 2015 10:55 am  

I have to agree with the point about Jimmy, I have thought all along that he was the wrong choice but hoped he would prove me wrong. He rates players that we can all see are offering nothing to the squad - such as Lauaki and pushes them too hard in training, they all look knackered.

We should have gone back for Nobby - like Jimmy he is ruthless but he is a winner and, importantly he can spot a player - think of the players he signed in yesteryear who no one had heard of but proved to be world class - Withers, Henderson, Hape....I could go on.

Also - he is great with the fans and media - Jimmy is becoming an embarrassment.