Oh No, our season is over!

[Sutty]

I wonder if Wire fans are calling for Smith's head, after they only just scraped a draw against Hull FC?

I admit we were very poor yesterday, and very very little was shown in terms of clinical attack or ruthless defence. But, it's the first game of the season and I fully expect us to get better and better. All this call for Wane to make changes is a little premature as well, IMO. I know he said that if a player wasn't performing he'd make changes, but to do it after just one game and the first game of the season as well, will do nothing at all for team spirit, player confidence etc.
Cue all the calls from fans saying "well it was Wanes words, not ours".
If anyone has ever played the game, they'll know that even amateur coaches rarely drop players for not quite performing after just the first game of the season. It certainly never happened to me anyway. I don't think there were any players who had absolute shockers yesterday. I agree that our kicking game was totally non existant, we fell off some very soft tackles (one of which led to a prop putting a step on Sam and going under the posts) and we had little direction or cohesion going forward. But to start playing the blame game so early is a bit too soon. At the risk of sounding like Nobby, you show me a team that has won or lost the Superleague after just one game of the season.
We're going to have to be 10 times better than yesterday, if we're going to have any sort of chance of beating Leeds at the weekend, but I think we'll improve game after game. Huddersfield aren't as bad a team as people are making out, they had some players missing but still had some outstanding players on the pitch.
I think people should look at the defeat with understandable disappointment but at the same time keep a perspective of where we are in the season and one or two of the other results from the opening weekend.

Keep the faith, we WILL get better and better.

[DaveO]

I wonder if Wire fans are calling for Smith's head, after they only just scraped a draw against Hull FC?

I doubt it. They had several first team players missing (like Huddersfield) yet showed enough spirit to grab a point. I would imagine it is Hull who are kicking themselves for not killing Wire off when facing a weakened side.

We're going to have to be 10 times better than yesterday, if we're going to have any sort of chance of beating Leeds at the weekend, but I think we'll improve game after game. Huddersfield aren't as bad a team as people are making out, they had some players missing but still had some outstanding players on the pitch.
I think people should look at the defeat with understandable disappointment but at the same time keep a perspective of where we are in the season and one or two of the other results from the opening weekend

The perspective is that at this time in the season we should have had no trouble in winning that game against a side missing so many regulars and the performance was inexcusable. Wane will be gutted as he says because he knows that is the case. The fact they had some but not all regular 1st team players on the pitch is no excuse. It is one of those games that got away last season that Wane said he wanted to win this.

[Sutty]

It was either Lockers or Rads who was talking about the Marines camp (can't remember which one) and the reason why they didn't think they needed it this year.

Basically they said it was more of a bonding exercise than anything else and working and living together in those conditions helped them immeasurably as a team. The management felt that the place that the team spirit is at the moment, that they wouldn't have really benefited from a weekend with the Marines.

Anyone who read Rad's blog will have been able to see that the boys weren't in Floriday on holiday. Granted the warm weather will have been nice to train in, but I very much doubt that the fact that they went there instead of living with the Marines, has any bearing at all on the level of fitness.

As was mentioned in a previous post, after all that Bitcon has done in the last couple of years, do you really think that our fitness levels are deliberately lower now than in previous seasons? I certainly don't.

[Geraldine_Papadopoulos]

I'm not going to say we played bad, but I did snap my season ticket in half at full time.

[Pietastic]

Ah well here goes, I've misplaced my Nobby book of excuses so will have to think of something myself.
Don't want to press the panic button just yet, it's early days, it's a long season, it's not how you start but how you finish etc, etc.
However there were some worrying aspects coming out of Sunday's "performance".
Fitness, weight, attitude, invention, body language, kicking game, all in very short supply, unless that is you were a Giants player.
I've never been a bit fan of Finch but he was certainly given the runaround by Brough and if he really thinks Superleague is better than the NRL he needs to book in for some therapy.
Anyway, I've got my Humble Pie recipe but on the strength of yesterdays C- showing it's hard to see us turning Leeds over.

[Panchitta Marra]

Heard in the South Stand bar after the game that Waney is not going to rely on a good kicking game to get out of trouble, and instead use skills to get us out of our half.
Brough run the show yesterday, he took time to see where our back 3 were and planted the ball away from the lot of them. A very clever player.
Sam, Tommy and Finch just punted the ball forward not even looking where to place the ball and they were as good as passes to the Giants back 3.
On most occasions we were returning the ball from deep in our 25 and the Giants were gaining near the halfway early in the tackle count.
Rads said that their back 3 had a better game than our back 3, but with kicking like ours yesterday a championship team back 3 would have had better games than our back 3.
OK it was the first game back, but we really looked a tired side after a short period of the game. On the flip side the Giants looked much fitter and sharper team.

[i'm spartacus]

but I very much doubt that the fact that they went there instead of living with the Marines, has any bearing at all on the level of fitness.

But the fact remains the whole team looked much bulkier than last year, and they were all walking back after the kick down field by the Giants. All the players commented during Madge's reign at how tough the pre-season was, and the sharpness of the team from game one was a whole lot better than it was yesterday. Team bonding you can find during games, fitness is something you need from the start. Most of the team looked much heavier than last season and the way they soon got winded only made that obvious

[mike binder]

we have to move sam to 6 , finch to 7 and lulu to 9 , lulu is in the top 3 in the world as a hooker but he no number 7 , finch is not a number 6 hes not light enough on his feet , and lockers at 6 as never worked . sam as to have the ball more in hand when we have the ball . need to find a full back from some were fast or a world class 6

[Hanley the God!]

Did nobody else notice that Hudds played 70 mins with 13 men in the line. No fullback. Why no kick chip over the top. Why did nobody see this, especially the coaching staff?

[thomo]

Roberts to full back when he is fit?

and for godsake get the forward right - not four second rowers on the bench again please.