Re: Does the club need a reality check? : Mon Jul 24, 2023 7:27 pm  

Itchy Arsenal wrote:

Ok the board have gone.
What do we do next?

Apparently win everything according to everyone on here

Re: Does the club need a reality check? : Mon Jul 24, 2023 7:33 pm  

Egg Chasing wrote:

Apparently win everything according to everyone on here

I’m not everyone but I’ve never said that.
I think we need some experienced proven players. That might or it might not work. Hopefully more signings to be announced.
What do you suggest? I’m not being aggressive but genuinely interested on what you consider we should be doing with the squad.

Re: Does the club need a reality check? : Mon Jul 24, 2023 7:39 pm  

Itchy Arsenal wrote:

I’m not everyone but I’ve never said that.
I think we need some experienced proven players. That might or it might not work. Hopefully more signings to be announced.
What do you suggest? I’m not being aggressive but genuinely interested on what you consider we should be doing with the squad.

Exactly what we are doing with it. We're bringing in players that will improve us and there are more apparently to come. I never like losing games and obviously semi finals and finals always hurt more, but you have to reach them to lose them. At least 8 sides would have swapped places with us this weekend and wanted to play in a semi final.

As I said on the other thread, the test now is what we learn from these defeats but as usual it's baby out with the bathwater and we see a handful of posters (not you) come back to the board that always seem to vanish when we win.

Re: Does the club need a reality check? : Mon Jul 24, 2023 9:57 pm  

Egg Chasing wrote:

Exactly what we are doing with it. We're bringing in players that will improve us and there are more apparently to come. I never like losing games and obviously semi finals and finals always hurt more, but you have to reach them to lose them. At least 8 sides would have swapped places with us this weekend and wanted to play in a semi final.

As I said on the other thread, the test now is what we learn from these defeats but as usual it's baby out with the bathwater and we see a handful of posters (not you) come back to the board that always seem to vanish when we win.

The announced signings aren’t going to improve us that much let’s be honest.

Out
- Singleton, Powell, KPP, King

In
- Chan, Leeming, Walters, Keighran

Re: Does the club need a reality check? : Mon Jul 24, 2023 10:15 pm  

nathan_rugby wrote:

The announced signings aren’t going to improve us that much let’s be honest.

Out
- Singleton, Powell, KPP, King

In
- Chan, Leeming, Walters, Keighran

Let’s see where we finish up.

Re: Does the club need a reality check? : Mon Jul 24, 2023 11:19 pm  

For me, what we lack most is 2 extra coaches - Both of which we've had before and lost/given up.

The first is obvious - A full-time replacement attacking coach.
We've played at our best when we had Briers/Deacon coaching the halves.

The second is a short(ish) term specialist kicking coach.
I know that we have a kicker joining us for next year, but we need someone to both instill confidence in Harry and to train at least 1 more player to be a decent backup kicker, in case of injuries/suspensions.

Re: Does the club need a reality check? : Tue Jul 25, 2023 2:23 am  

Pie Eyed wrote:

For me, what we lack most is 2 extra coaches - Both of which we've had before and lost/given up.

The first is obvious - A full-time replacement attacking coach.
We've played at our best when we had Briers/Deacon coaching the halves.

The second is a short(ish) term specialist kicking coach.
I know that we have a kicker joining us for next year, but we need someone to both instill confidence in Harry and to train at least 1 more player to be a decent backup kicker, in case of injuries/suspensions.

Improve coaching, yes.
Massive fans of Tommy and Lockers but straight in as coaches? Peet also, but he is head coach and I think he will be a good coach in time but he needs help. On the positive side Peet picked us up off the floor and we played good rugby and won some silver. Going backwards now. Some promising signings for next year but need at least one metre eater at prop and more faith in the lads coming through.

Re: Does the club need a reality check? : Tue Jul 25, 2023 5:43 am  

Pie Eyed wrote:

For me, what we lack most is 2 extra coaches - Both of which we've had before and lost/given up.

The first is obvious - A full-time replacement attacking coach.
We've played at our best when we had Briers/Deacon coaching the halves.

The second is a short(ish) term specialist kicking coach.
I know that we have a kicker joining us for next year, but we need someone to both instill confidence in Harry and to train at least 1 more player to be a decent backup kicker, in case of injuries/suspensions.

Isn’t Tommy L our attacking coach?

How can we lack a coach we already have?

He isn’t good enough is what you’re saying.

Re: Does the club need a reality check? : Tue Jul 25, 2023 6:17 am  

nathan_rugby wrote:

The announced signings aren’t going to improve us that much let’s be honest.

Out
- Singleton, Powell, KPP, King

In
- Chan, Leeming, Walters, Keighran

Our recruitment isn’t over, and neither are the departures from the club.

The biggest single short term change to be made is to get French back on the wing and Cust in at 6.

Beyond this season we need to bring in a 6 and let Cust go.

Keighran can play 6 so we may need to bring in a centre.

Whilst there is a hole in my rear Bevan is not a 6.

Miski has been great especially on our early set carries, his highball work has significantly improved too, but defensively in regards positioning he gets it wrong and he lacks the pace to take advantage of the half opportunities.

Ultimately we won’t get the best out of the team with French at 6.

Re: Does the club need a reality check? : Tue Jul 25, 2023 6:38 am  

nathan_rugby wrote:

The announced signings aren’t going to improve us that much let’s be honest.

Out
- Singleton, Powell, KPP, King

In
- Chan, Leeming, Walters, Keighran

You can add Mago and Cust to the departures, and then possibly Isa, Thornley (club needs to be ruthless with these 2 i'm afraid). that must give us some scope for addtional recruits. We have Faz as senior 2nd row, and we need to be planning for him playing less time next year, so either a signing alongside Nsemba or other junior(s) coming through. Thornley can be replaced by one of our kids, if we are planning on Wardle / Keighran being 1st choice centres

Most fans (especially on the warriors fans forum) dont rate Powell or Singleton anyway, so they arent a loss are they, so Leeming and Chan or Walters have to be upgrades, until they have a poor game, and then arent good enough

In reponse to one of the earlier posters we brought Mike Cooper in and to an extent Singleton to be our pack leaders, one hasnt really lived up to the billing and Cooper season cut short through injury. Many fans have said we needed centres for the past 2-3 seasons, we sign 2 and some still arent happy, so what are the club to do

with French and Field we have 2 of the most destructive players in the league, and the challenge is clearly how to get them both in the side, with hands on the ball and retain a functioning team. I think if Cust hadnt been injured, we may have seen a slightly different outcome and French may possibly have stayed on the wing and Miski could have been leaving. However, Miski took his chance, and whilst he hasnt got the speed of French, he does offer a massive return when bringing the ball out from our own end, and has a decent scoring record