[Mild Rover]

Middle 8s 2018 : Sun May 06, 2018 4:11 pm  

With today’s heavy defeat in what was really a must win game, and only 3 wins from 13, I guess it’s time for the club to start planning for the middle 8s.

The fact that more teams than usual are having really bad seasons and that we’ve gone close 2 or 3 times has kept some vestiges of hope for better alive into May. But we realistically, we don’t have enough points on the board, or the quality, strike or power to add that many more.

So how much do we ‘manage the squad’ and ‘give youngsters opportunities’, and how much do we try to secure four home games and build some confidence?

The 8s themselves will be challenging, with Toronto, for example pushing hard for promotion. If we do go down, the £500k parachute payment will give a bit more breathing space (if multiple SL teams go down, do they all get it?), but I think there’d need to some serious thought put in to what the club wants to be.

Re: Middle 8s 2018 : Sun May 06, 2018 4:33 pm  

Mild Rover wrote:

With today’s heavy defeat in what was really a must win game, and only 3 wins from 13, I guess it’s time for the club to start planning for the middle 8s.

The fact that more teams than usual are having really bad seasons and that we’ve gone close 2 or 3 times has kept some vestiges of hope for better alive into May. But we realistically, we don’t have enough points on the board, or the quality, strike or power to add that many more.

So how much do we ‘manage the squad’ and ‘give youngsters opportunities’, and how much do we try to secure four home games and build some confidence?

The 8s themselves will be challenging, with Toronto, for example pushing hard for promotion. If we do go down, the £500k parachute payment will give a bit more breathing space (if multiple SL teams go down, do they all get it?), but I think there’d need to some serious thought put in to what the club wants to be.

What we should ask are we that bad if we are why and has any one got the answer if so please tell us fans

Re: Middle 8s 2018 : Sun May 06, 2018 4:48 pm  

Time for the wizard to go and bring in someone else? Just listened to his blunderside interview and he was harping on about a disallowed first half try and how much difference it would have made if it had been given. Sounds like he's lost the plot

Re: Middle 8s 2018 : Sun May 06, 2018 4:52 pm  

I can't fathom our team selection today I appreciate we are down on troops but we had a centre on the wing a wing on the bench and a 2nd row in the centres

[Mild Rover]

Re: Middle 8s 2018 : Sun May 06, 2018 5:06 pm  

Someday wrote:

What we should ask are we that bad if we are why and has any one got the answer if so please tell us fans

I think after 13 rounds, the league table is a fair reflection, give or take. We’re missing a few, but with the exceptions of Lunt and Carney, and maybe Heffernan, we can still cover steady-away SL squad players with other steady-away SL squad players.

The club lost its way a bit after Morgan left. The drift accelerated in 2016. We bounced back well in 2017, and huge credit to everyone involved. But we must look like an accident-prone organisation to outsiders. Also the clean slate that gave us was in an empty-shelf recruitment market. Cas must currently provide a fairly attractive career option, but they signed James Green and Mitch Clark to boost their front row options.

Our benefactors still deserve huge credit, but it is increasingly for resilience rather than striking signs of drive and ambition.

I’m not sure what Peacock’s role is now. He seems like the sort of guy who, faced with a 15 foot high brick wall, would try to run through it. Even if it was only 15 feet wide. That’s harsh, and I respect the fact that he offered his resignation after we lost the MPG, and i’m sure he contributed in 2017. But I can’t help feeling that his strategising will be based on SL conventional wisdom. You learn more from failure than success though, so we’ve probably been good for him!

Sheens knows what he’s doing, but you can’t make bricks without straw. The most baffling thing there is that he identified the need for more strength and size after Wire in last year’s middle 8s, but by the new year we were going ‘mobile’ yet again. I know quality is thin on the ground, but that was a surprising failure. I see the logic of getting more minutes from him, as our biggest forward, and he’s gone pretty well, but we seemingly couldn’t wait to get Masoe on the lettuce and skimmed milk.

And breath...

[Mild Rover]

Re: Middle 8s 2018 : Sun May 06, 2018 5:16 pm  

Jake the Peg wrote:

Time for the wizard to go and bring in someone else? Just listened to his blunderside interview and he was harping on about a disallowed first half try and how much difference it would have made if it had been given. Sounds like he's lost the plot

The fact that you’re suggesting it reinforces, my feeling that should be a ‘no’. Nobody else will get us 8th anyway. I’ll largely judge him on the 8s - if we stay up he’s done his job for this year.

Where I will admit, through gritted teeth, that you were right a while back is in us becoming the archetype of a perennial middle-8s team, unable to escape the cycle of shizzle.

Wakefield have come a long way since winning their MPG in 2015, so it is possible. I just don’t you can do it with gradualism. Or maybe the difference is more that they won that MPG and we lost ours. Credit to Carter and Chester though.

Re: Middle 8s 2018 : Sun May 06, 2018 5:46 pm  

eastul105 wrote:

I can't fathom our team selection today I appreciate we are down on troops but we had a centre on the wing a wing on the bench and a 2nd row in the centres

Said the same when I saw the team sheet. Moss would have finished both those opportunities that fell to Salter before h/t yet he sat on the bench for an hour.

Re: Middle 8s 2018 : Sun May 06, 2018 6:18 pm  

Having been at today's walk over. I think we could struggle in the 8's. From strange team selections, to changing our tatics of what was working (getting it wide), to running it up the middle 1 man, to a lack of heart and fight, to our big name players (hi Danny you going to turn up for us sometime this season) just not performing. We looked like a team going down.

Personally I'd look at giving some of our youngsters a chance ( Dagger fb, Moss wing, Quinlin hb). They can't do any worse than what we're producing know.
I don't know what we do in training as we make the same mistakes week in week out.

The only thing we can do is target the games against teams around us to win and hope that by some miracle we get 4 home games. As I don't fancy our chances in 4 away games.

Re: Middle 8s 2018 : Sun May 06, 2018 6:53 pm  

We Need a quality half back ASAP and why did we get rid of docker clay we still have a over seas spot and we need a cover hooker big mistake getting rid of him imo..... we need a few players bringing in and fast McGuire is class but I think he needs a good half back partner can’t rely on him to do everything

Re: Middle 8s 2018 : Sun May 06, 2018 7:22 pm  

There’s a limit of 40 players per season per squad. The wizard has had 38 so far. Not much room now to bring anyone else in.