Re: Season over ? : Fri Jul 28, 2023 9:29 am  

Dave K. wrote:

I don't think he does, not sure any club in SL has had two quota players who can't get into their 17, add in Shaul that's a big about of cap that aren't good enough for the side.

He has made mistakes and and will do so, but what coach doesn't.

I never thought we improved in two years under Hodgson and his recruitment was awful.

I think we have improved this season in alot of areas, certainly play much better rugby and seem slightly better mentally.

And for all that we're 9th in the table.

Re: Season over ? : Fri Jul 28, 2023 9:46 am  

Dave K. wrote:

I don't think he does, not sure any club in SL has had two quota players who can't get into their 17, add in Shaul that's a big about of cap that aren't good enough for the side.

We have a weak squad that needs massively improving, which is far easier said than done.

He has made mistakes and and will do so, but what coach doesn't.

He has, everybody does. Had the perfect start to the year winning our first two, impetus behind us, losing the next 7 killed our season.

I never thought we improved in two years under Hodgson and his recruitment was awful.

I don't disagree, Hodgson was a big, big mistake.
Who do we blame for that?

I think we have improved this season in alot of areas, certainly play much better rugby and seem slightly better mentally.

Let's be honest, it would have been disastrous not to see marginal improvement.
We are still miles off, Smith knows it and has mentioned it numerous times this season.
Nothing wrong with him giving that opinion but even so, can come across as fairly demoralising.

Re: Season over ? : Fri Jul 28, 2023 9:48 am  

Smiggs wrote:

And for all that we're 9th in the table.

Not sure what point you are trying to make?

Season isn't over yet is it?

Re: Season over ? : Fri Jul 28, 2023 9:52 am  

WIZEB wrote:

We have a weak squad that needs massively improving, which is far easier said than done.

He has, everybody does. Had the perfect start to the year winning our first two, impetus behind us, losing the next 7 killed our season.

I don't disagree, Hodgson was a big, big mistake.
Who do we blame for that?


Let's be honest, it would have been disastrous not to see marginal improvement.
We are still miles off, Smith knows it and has mentioned it numerous times this season.
Nothing wrong with him giving that opinion but even so, can come across as fairly demoralising.

We have improved in since years, each year getting worse, so its OK saying it would be hard not to improve but it hasn't happened for ages. This is with probably the lowest paid squad in years too.

Smith has a tough job and there isn't an easy fix, but it looks to slowly heading in the right direction. I've certainly enjoyed watching the club more this season than any of the previous 6 or so seasons.

Re: Season over ? : Fri Jul 28, 2023 9:53 am  

Dave K. wrote:

Not sure what point you are trying to make?

Likewise. You're trying to convince yourself that we are making strides forward, right now the table disagrees. That's how it's measured.

Re: Season over ? : Fri Jul 28, 2023 10:05 am  

Dave K. wrote:

We have improved in since years, each year getting worse, so its OK saying it would be hard not to improve but it hasn't happened for ages. This is with probably the lowest paid squad in years too.

Smith has a tough job and there isn't an easy fix, but it looks to slowly heading in the right direction. I've certainly enjoyed watching the club more this season than any of the previous 6 or so seasons.

It's a grim reality like we've suddenly all been brainwashed to believe how cr@p we are (yep, we are pretty cr@p) and to be thankful of any green shoots of recovery.
We won back to back CC and got to 2 Grand-Final semi's in the very near distant past.
Had the squad to win everything according to some on here.
At least we don't have to worry ourselves about things like that now.

Re: Season over ? : Fri Jul 28, 2023 10:20 am  

Smiggs wrote:

Likewise. You're trying to convince yourself that we are making strides forward, right now the table disagrees. That's how it's measured.

You don't understand my point, but have then just clarifed the point I was trying to make, doesn't really make sense does it.

As mentioned season not over yet, let's see how many wins we get where we finish.

The table certainly isn't the only measure of progress IMO.

Re: Season over ? : Fri Jul 28, 2023 10:22 am  

WIZEB wrote:

It's a grim reality like we've suddenly all been brainwashed to believe how cr@p we are (yep, we are pretty cr@p) and to be thankful of any green shoots of recovery.
We won back to back CC and got to 2 Grand-Final semi's in the very near distant past.
Had the squad to win everything according to some on here.
At least we don't have to worry ourselves about things like that now.

I'm more of a positive person and would rather look at the positives rather than the negatives, unlike others on here, couldn't live my life like that.

[Chris71]

Re: Season over ? : Fri Jul 28, 2023 11:03 am  

Dave K. wrote:

Smiggs wrote:

Likewise. You're trying to convince yourself that we are making strides forward, right now the table disagrees. That's how it's measured.

You don't understand my point, but have then just clarifed the point I was trying to make, doesn't really make sense does it.

As mentioned season not over yet, let's see how many wins we get where we finish.

The table certainly isn't the only measure of progress IMO.

My two penneth, I think the issue of being good enough to compete / be at the higher end of the table and improving and making strides forward are two separate things.

Are we good enough?
I don't think anyone would argue that we are simply not good enough nor have we been since the end of 2018. Poor recruitment/retention, mismanaged cap and inexperienced coaches have seen us fall back massively over the last 6 years with each year getting worse. The result of this saw the end of 2022 culminating in to one of, if not the worst endings to a season I can remember and left no one in any doubt what a basket case on the field the club was. That is going to take time to put right and there will be some ups and downs before it is.

Have we improved?
Think it's fair to say that even accounting for the 7 losing game streak we have improved and certainly made strides forward in terms of attitude and mentality though that should not have been a difficult task you'd think , however the lack of any improvement since 2018 shows that's not necessarily been the case. TS by and large still has pretty much the same issues with the squad due to the poor cap management and constrained by this existing deals etc its been a tough ask to turn anything round quickly.
I would say the rugby we play now is far better and more attractive and the score lines and performances have become much more consistent from the massive hammerings and towel throwing we'd become accustomed and known for.

There is still a hell of a lot of change, hard work and improvement to be made but I do believe under Smith we have seen changes which are for the better that show we are moving forward. Yes the current situation on signings for next season maybe a bit of a concern for us fans but hopefully the club will get the next round of recruitment right rather than panic and repeat the same mistakes we've made over the last 4 to 5 years.

Re: Season over ? : Fri Jul 28, 2023 11:45 am  

Smiggs wrote:

It's not an expectation on Smith, it's on the club as a whole. The place stinks of mediocrity from top to bottom and I'm personally sick of it. However it appears many believe we should be grateful for just existing, with that mentality you'll never be disappointed.

Problem is we keep giving the average players contracts

Players like fash, cator, Lane give their all but we are 100% not winning a grand final with them in our pack