Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Mon Aug 17, 2015 7:05 am  

The game as a whole wasn't top level SL high intensity but it was certainly a few levels higher than we've been used to in the first 30 mins. We were already 2 scores down when Gaskell went off but I do wonder if the players also lost some confidence seeing our main playmaker leave the field.

Salford look to be in fine form so it isn't going to get any easier anytime soon. We'll probably need to be somewhere near our best to get close to them on Sunday. I'd be surprised if Gaskell is fit for that one as well so I can't see us adding to our 2 points in that game.

Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Mon Aug 17, 2015 7:19 am  

The T and A match report and follow up with Lowes make interesting reading. Lowe' view we were awful whereas Ross says there's a gulf in class.

It's a weird contrast because Lowes is the more correct assessment yet he's the man responsible and some of his decisons re; recruitment and selection are unfathomable. Ross has had a bit stick off Lowes for raising perfectly reasonable issues in the presser with regards to how generally poor we've been all year but his view that Wakey are too good to go down is ridiculous.

Lowes is basically correct when he says our promotion prospects are still in tact. We can play a lot better than we did and it's entirely feasible we could go to BV and win the million pound game but his decision to sign X AN Other instead of Jarrod Sammutt when Siejka, Mullaney and Gaskell were all injured has made him a hostage to his own belligerence. The physical and mental preparedness of the Bulls also says something very deep about Lowes as a coach and his relationship to the players.

During the season Ross has been right in his assesmnet of the Bulls and Lowes has been wrong. A O'B looks like a 30 year old version of Brian Noble, making tackle after tackle. If we don't go up Lowes should go for this alone, and perhaps even if we do.What is extremely frustrating is all the idiots who have talked about the gulf between the Championship and SL are looking smug when the truth is that there is probably very little difference in relative spends between oursleves and Wakey and on Saturday they were there for the taking. Right now this looks like the biggest of missed opportunities.

Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Mon Aug 17, 2015 7:39 am  

The frustrating thing is that we ran HKR close for the best part of an hour when we played them in the cup. It would be hard for any journo to have watched that cup game and then come away thinking there was a 'gulf in class'.
I have no idea wtf happened to us on Saturday but we're better than that.

Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Mon Aug 17, 2015 7:54 am  

We leaked roughly the same points vs HKR & Wakey - which doesn't look like we learnt anything in the intervening months. I think if our attack structure hadn't been disrupted by injury we probably would have put a couple more tries on Wakey. Again, getting roughly the same score as we did vs HKR in the cup.

I hope this isn't the template for the next 3 games...

Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Mon Aug 17, 2015 8:11 am  

We weren't able to think quickly enough therefore we didn't react and organise quickly enough. That's down to the differences in how the game is played and refereed in the 2 leagues. A top SL team would have totally bamboozled us. A team full of players with SL experience have become a team of Championship quality. It's a big ask to get players to play at a higher level than they need to on a week by week basis. Maybe next year will raise the bar.

Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Mon Aug 17, 2015 8:15 am  

The breaking news at Leigh this morning is quite interesting, it's took a while for it to come out

Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Mon Aug 17, 2015 8:44 am  

roger daly wrote:

The breaking news at Leigh this morning is quite interesting, it's took a while for it to come out

Have they signed Keegan Hirst for next season?

Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Mon Aug 17, 2015 8:59 am  

8ULL5HITT4 wrote:

We weren't able to think quickly enough therefore we didn't react and organise quickly enough. That's down to the differences in how the game is played and refereed in the 2 leagues. A top SL team would have totally bamboozled us. A team full of players with SL experience have become a team of Championship quality. It's a big ask to get players to play at a higher level than they need to on a week by week basis. Maybe next year will raise the bar.

Go watch the first 5 tries again. In 4 cases the defence is set and Smith passes to a man who runs through a huge gap. Molloy and Smith have taken a simple pass and walked in. We didn't move up or number off - that's not the difference between SL and Championship, it's the difference between under 14s and under 11s.

Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Mon Aug 17, 2015 10:54 am  

Second Leigh player to be banned soon

I hear he used to play for us

Re: Super 8's Game 2: Wakefield Away : Mon Aug 17, 2015 11:13 am  

I think if there have been any Leigh players not available for selection due to injury over the past 3 months, and there's not been much in the way of injury updates, then people will assume the worst.

Why string this out? Leigh need to get all the bad news out there, one press release, it'll last a couple of news cycles and they can concentrate on their next game. This speculation is bad for everybody.