How to avoid the Million Pound Game
Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 12:39 pm
First, I remain as steadfast a fan as ever, and firmly behind a team which has given me infinite pleasure, including by gloriously winning the GF and WCC in the last 12 months.
Second, I think that 2018 could and certainly 2019 should be fine for the club, as long as we sack the current "experts" and get modern medical support. I am agnostic as to whether the coach should go.
That said, we are in relegation form, and have been for about 3 months. Our strong start hides the fact that we are the worst team in the competition at the moment. We are certainly as bad as Hull KR were this time last year. The club needs to accept that reality.
We need to avoid finding ourselves playing in the MPG, as we could well find ourselves in the same position as HKR last year. Play like we have these last 3 months and we could well lose that game. There is no prospect of our beating Leigh or Wire away. To think otherwise is to ignore the lessons the last 11 league games. But, things could get better after that.
There are 2 ways we can manage this. First, we can target 8th place. To do so, we need to stay above Catalans and Wire, as Saints have now got a better record than us. That will be hard, as they have better squads than the one we have to rely on, but if we could somehow find a way to beat Wire at home, that is a possibility. We need to treat the games against them, Widnes and the Giants as cup finals. We should not bother playing Lockers in any games other than those. Even if we get past Wire, we would stand no chance against Cas etc in the semi, and the distraction could lead to us losing a league game we need to win.
If we fail to finish above Cats and Wire, then we need to take the middle 8s very seriously indeed. We ought to be able to finish 9th (we should be able to win 2 games before the split, if only be luck), so will have 4 home games. Apart from HKR, I would back even our current lot to beat the other 3 championship teams. If we can persuade Sam T and Bateman to pop out of the gym long enough, and can keep our centres fit, then I would back us to win 2 of the games against the Giants, Widnes, HKR and Leigh. Probably our home games.
We as fans have to get behind the team as we did in the great escape games in 2006. There are plenty of players in the squad who deserve our support, as even against the odds they are digging deep. The likes of Marshall and Davies deserve to be playing in SL again next year. I still think we have the talent to turn this round sufficiently to avoid the MPG, but it'll be a close thing and there may be even more non tackling routs to suffer before we do so.
Second, I think that 2018 could and certainly 2019 should be fine for the club, as long as we sack the current "experts" and get modern medical support. I am agnostic as to whether the coach should go.
That said, we are in relegation form, and have been for about 3 months. Our strong start hides the fact that we are the worst team in the competition at the moment. We are certainly as bad as Hull KR were this time last year. The club needs to accept that reality.
We need to avoid finding ourselves playing in the MPG, as we could well find ourselves in the same position as HKR last year. Play like we have these last 3 months and we could well lose that game. There is no prospect of our beating Leigh or Wire away. To think otherwise is to ignore the lessons the last 11 league games. But, things could get better after that.
There are 2 ways we can manage this. First, we can target 8th place. To do so, we need to stay above Catalans and Wire, as Saints have now got a better record than us. That will be hard, as they have better squads than the one we have to rely on, but if we could somehow find a way to beat Wire at home, that is a possibility. We need to treat the games against them, Widnes and the Giants as cup finals. We should not bother playing Lockers in any games other than those. Even if we get past Wire, we would stand no chance against Cas etc in the semi, and the distraction could lead to us losing a league game we need to win.
If we fail to finish above Cats and Wire, then we need to take the middle 8s very seriously indeed. We ought to be able to finish 9th (we should be able to win 2 games before the split, if only be luck), so will have 4 home games. Apart from HKR, I would back even our current lot to beat the other 3 championship teams. If we can persuade Sam T and Bateman to pop out of the gym long enough, and can keep our centres fit, then I would back us to win 2 of the games against the Giants, Widnes, HKR and Leigh. Probably our home games.
We as fans have to get behind the team as we did in the great escape games in 2006. There are plenty of players in the squad who deserve our support, as even against the odds they are digging deep. The likes of Marshall and Davies deserve to be playing in SL again next year. I still think we have the talent to turn this round sufficiently to avoid the MPG, but it'll be a close thing and there may be even more non tackling routs to suffer before we do so.