I've heard Kevin Locke is coming back from New Zealand for this match. Tim Smiths picking him up from the airport in Brian Smiths car

Tim Smith is a little more serious than just for an internal investigation apparently it's court Wednesday for him.

Having heard what happened with Tim Smith he is needing a bit of help with issues and I sincerely hope he gets the help needed

Well, yes and I gave solid reasons why that might have been the case, like sitting on their collective 'arrisses, with no reserve grade to occupy their thoughts, for most of the season. The bottom line is that it's part of Lowesy's remit to manage his troops and that includes their mental fitness to take part in games. This isn't a tirade against Jimmy Lowes, as I said earlier, he's done [iexactly[/i what he was tasked to do - get us into the 'big one' next weekend, but it's obvious that some of those squad members who took part against Fax, apart from not being 'match fit', looked 'disaffected' and that sort of attitude comes from the top.

It's not his fault that there is no 'reserve grade' and we certainly couldn't loan out the lot of them but they could have been used intermittently through the season and not just left out. They could have been used to give a break to the regulars a bit more often and made to feel wanted, and whatever the truth is don't know, but some of them didn't look as if they cared over much.
.

There's only one area where I believe the balance between resting and nurturing was wrong this year and that's hooker. AOB deserved a break and Halafihi deserved to be eased in.

But what if Lowes felt that weakening his team by rotating with some of these was too much of a risk to take? As appears to be the case? I should imagine he was picking squads to finish as near top and be ready for the playoffs. And I don't buy this "disaffected" thing. if youare not happy then leave. If your agent can't get you a gig then when you get your chance, why would you play like a disinterested twot, surely you would be putting yourself in the shop window?

But don't ask my why they played like that. I don't understand it, any more than I do when our first team gives up and ships another 50

If that was Lowesy's opinion then it's his right, in fact his duty, to do that. He's the boss and he's hired and fired on that basis. I though, don't have to agree it was the best policy. That's the beauty of being a fan - my team selections never get put to the test, so were always correct!!

As for the disaffected thing, well, yeah you'd think so but I don't have any other explanation as to why so many seemed unbothered by being drubbed.

It could well be that they knew they weren't going to be involved this weekend no matter how they played even if they had a blinder.

As a man being paid a full-time wage for playing, that'd be a bit like committing job suicide wouldn't it?

If it was me, then the way to test that theory is to bust a gut and have a blinder. If after that you still don't make the squad - THEN complain. i reckon not many have played so well that many times, that at least a place in the squad or two wasn't up for grabs for anyone who played a blinder.

But as it is, Lowes doesn't have that problem!

Well there are many incidences of mangers and coaches leaving out players for the game before a big final and saying something along the lines of, "it gives players a chance to play their way into the side", but if you're one of those brought in, you[i know[/i full well that it's largely disingenuous claptrap.

The puzzle is, as FA points out, it makes little sense for the future prospects of those players for them [inot[/i to give their all, since they are clearly on the outer and must realise they won't get another club by looking as though they couldn't care less. I know what I saw last Saturday, and Jimmy Lowes summed it up pretty well, but it still doesn't make any sense.

Getting dropped...not picked even when we're rubbish....fed up....not playing...not match fit.....getting picked on the wing, at full back, at stand off... getting blamed. I felt sorry for Mendeika. How is a lad coming in mid season going to get any form?

Adam Henry was poor last year but then again I didn't sign him on for this season. Fleming (what's he ever done wrong?) and Halafifi were OK in the first half and didn't last because they haven't played.

James Clare - full back, wing, dropped, wing, turnstyle. Most of these lads are actually very young.

It's a combination of some not good enought to start with, a good few not match fit, honest lads who look like they've tried but had their confidence badly knocked by a coach who sends them to Coventry after a poor performance while sticking with Luaki, not bothering with half backs while doing his best to get O'brien retired by 25.

You can't watch what we've watched all season and put it down to players can't be bothered. Watching us against Wakefield my friend said look how nervous we are in defence and I think this might be it. Our confidence levels are wafer thin. We don't trust ourselves and we don't trust the next player.

It clearly is a type of disaffection which has manifested itself all year and in particular in the absence of a fit Gaskell and/or Mullaney who the others believe have the ability to make things happen. It is a critical absence of leadership and experience in key positions which has been apparent from pre-season and blatantly obvious from HKR in the cup when we were facing a long period without Siejka and Mullaney.

Jimmy's analysis is indeed correct. Now he needs to go find a mirror.

Cripes I hate to think what you'd be like if we'd actually had a poor season rather than having proved ourselves the best of the division by some margin and made the big game

That we haven't been able to prove ourselves the best in the second divison by 'some margin' is rather the point.

Not at all. If we don't get promotion, then whether we were the best team in the division or not couldn't possibly matter any less

That probably isn't an Absolute Truth. It may matter to some people or just one person.
However the two questions as I see it are:
Does it matter?
Does it matter that it matters?

So if we don't get promoted the club will decide not to carry out any assessment as to why this is the case.

OR, in carrying out some form of assessment they'll consider our performances throughout the season irrelevant?

Both of these options would seem unlikely.

I think they'll put what Jimmy minds over whether it matters or not.

Not sure where you're going with this straw man. The season is a 2 stage process:
1) make the playoff - check
2) win the playoff - pending

I think you seem to be saying that we could have achieved 1) better, or differently, or something. But I ddoubt if HOW we got to (2) was on Jimmy's to-do specification. Anyway I'll leave it at that as we seem to have covered all bases

How is thinking we could have done better a straw man? What would be the purpose of reducing all discussion down to 2 x 3 word memes?

We could save ourselves the ticket price and simply look at the results and table.

Being fair to all, we didn't set up the system, we just had to make the best of it.

To be frank, the early season was a matter of being in the top four and preferably top two - that we did easily, though as one of only three full time teams in the division that should, in many ways, have always been a given and we maybe coasted...sometimes a bit too much.

We've also got through to the deciding game, which is as much as could actually be reasonably expected from a second tier team. Winning that game is something we, quite logically, are not favourites for and you can't blame the coach if we fail at a hurdle we were set up to fail at. On the flip side of that, winning the game would be an outstanding achievement, and would outweigh all other criticisms any of us may have had imo.

Hang on, we were in a 3 horse race with Leigh and Wakefield. How can that be said to be a system which is set up to see us fail? Leigh didn't last and Wakefield are doing everything in their power to get relegated.

If we don't get promoted, and I agree it's odds against, it will have been an enormous missed opportunity.

And if we do get promoted then how we've performed throughout the season, not just in the play offs, need to form the basis of a review vis a vis, competing seriously in SL.

Of course it isn't. Also of course that's not what you said or what I replied to.

Well, I expect the forum might say that at least it would save it from many paragraphs of my drivel. I'm quite shocked, as I think I'd probably be the LAST person to be accused of that



Don't know what that means

I think it means we have to look at the season in broader terms than the two tick/pending options.

I'd have taken a play off game against an awful Wakefield side at the start of the season. And yet I think we've been rubbish for large parts of games for large parts of the season. Clearly 'rubbish' isn't definitive when set against achieving promotion and that's fair enough but sections of the squad do look disillusioned and very little about this season has lifted or excited the fan base.

I just think there's a bigger 'vision thing' to look at here which isn't being realised. Saying that if we get promoted then a major 'tick' has occurred. Let's hope so.

While agree that we could have played better in a lot of games this year I think you're a bit OTT with the "glass half empty" analysis.

We weren't rubbish for large parts of the season. We finished 2nd and therefore were as good as we needed to be to get where we needed to be. Whether we're good enough to go up is another matter. If we'd been rusbbish for large parts of the season we'd have ended up like London - or in my assessment that's what rubbish looks like.

Sections of the squad look disillusioned? Who?

Very little about this season has lifted or excited the fan base? Eh? After the past 2 seasons I think this season has been a massive lift. I for one have been more excited. Judging by the way crowds have held up depsite relegation I'd say you're dead wrong in that assessment.

Well a fair proportion of the team who played on Sunday for starters. In front of 5k, most of whom left by the hour mark.

Surely we're not comparing oursleves to a club with no fans and no ground. Are we going to celebrate finishing above Batley?