Squad is in!

Johnson
Russell
Evans
Atkins
Lineham
Patton
Gidley
Crosby
Clark
Sims
Westerman
Hughes
Cooper

Bench:
Dwyer, Savelio, T King, Blythe, Mitchell, Wilde, Livett, Moran

Notable absences are G King and a certain Mr Brown, what's the story there?

Not much to be said about that really. Hopefully friendly performances won't be representative to our season.

Not long off the plane from Tenerife though so I guess there could be some lethargy in there?

I thought generally the forwards looked good, Cooper, Westerman & Sims especially. Patton was probably the better half, lots of loose ball from Gids.

Lineham looks fitter than he did last year Russel went off injured after a head shot, but nothing too serious and didn't seem to be any other injuries other than that.

W

Agree about the forwards - thought that Crosby was also very good and I think he played the full 80. Some good running out of defence from Russell and Johnson. I thought both halves were pretty poor - we had zero creativity all game. Defence was strong though but we never looked like scoring.

it certainly wasn't that friendly I think games v Huddersfield have a bit of niggle about them these days.

Performance wise Crosby and Savelio were positives for me, as for the rest not so good, Lineham and Johnson passable effort

I Think Savelio played himself into a second row spot for me. Cooper started at loose forward, but looked much better at prop.

If I had to pick a side for Cats I'd probably now be thinking

Johnson
Lineham
King
Atkins
Russell
Brown
Gidley (although Patton is pushing him very close atm)
Sims (if no Hill)
Clark
Cooper
Hughes
Savelio
Westerman

Dwyer
Crosby
King (if no Hill)
Westwood (presuming he's fit)

The result doesn't bother me at all, Brown injured already is a worry he's not going to get a run out now. Cooper and Crosby went well..
We did play a lot up the middle last night.. For some reason we barely spun the ball out wide .

We looked a fair way off being ready. Defence was mostly okay but the timing and movement in attack was poor.

There is a lot of weight on Brown to add some flair.

Well that was poor. With no attacking flair and no kicking game it's hardly surprising we were nilled. Other than a bit more fitness and physicality, I don't really know what we would have taken away from that game. I suppose there were excuses; missing Brown cut our attacking options and Patton had to double up after the Rochdale match, but those sorts of problems occur during the regular season anyway and you learn to cope. The timing of the game close to the Rochdale match was not great either as it meant we were not playing our starting 17 for a full game.
On the plus side I was impressed with Crosby, particularly as it was his first game. He ran in hard, tackled hard and looked a fine addition for us. Mike Cooper was good early doors but not surprisingly faded as the game went on. I agree about Savelio, he must surely have nailed the BR starting spot now after a good showing at Widnes as well.

I think our first three matches of the season will be very hard. Catalan will be determined to get off to a good start, we hardly need to mention the Broncos, and Castleford have a strong attacking side that are extremely well coached. On this showing I can see us losing all three games.

I have read Offload's comments with great interest. He always talks sense and is not one to over react. I listened to the radio last night. The team on the radio are usually so positive but they couldn't hide their true feelings. Bugger.

Surely the words on the night were "opposed training session lads". These games are poor at best and its no surprise we flopped. Brown is injured and therefore Dec Patton gets a chance early on in the season.

Does the warm weather training actually do us any good, I can't remember a pre-season where we have been positive after friendlies?

I couldn't get there last night but i'm sure come play off time,& the only games that seem to really matter these days, the team will be firing on all cylinders. Seems a bit worrying about Brown who along with Gidley seems injury prone & i wouldn't be surprised to see Patton play plenty of games this year in one of the half back positions.

I hear what you are saying and I'm not getting alarmist at all, but for 80 minutes 'effort' we didn't look like scoring. In an opposed training session I wouldn't have minded getting a nilling if we had bombed a load of chances by overdoing the creative stuff, or if we could see a set play or two, or even ran some decent lines.

Last night however, we didn't overdo anything much, apart from running it in 5 times followed by a generally poor kick, once the first twenty minutes of Plan A, up the middle with offloads at every opportunity didn't come off, plenty of wayward passing too.

As mark m said our defence was mostly ok and TBH 0 - 12 flattered us

Sorry for being a misery 'I will get my coat'!!

No need for the coat bud, however if our sentiments are the same at 20:00 next Saturday then feel free to set the alarm bells ringing!

Off the back of this game, does anyone want to have a go at predicting how the Bronco's game will pan out ?

Well, for the benefit of people who didn't attend, I wouldn't describe the game as an opposed training session. The ref had to stop the game three times because of fighting. Hudds were well up for this match and there were some big hits and tackling going on between the forwards.

The disappointing thing for me though was the lack of attacking edge and planned moves. These would surely have been practiced in sunny Tenerife and should have been put into practice in the game. Ditto the kicking game. It made the squad look as though they were still in the fitness stage of pre-season rather than the handling / positioning / defensive structures and planned moves stage.

No point in analysing the game to death and as rightly pointed out, these friendlies are indeed only practice. But it looked as though we certainly wasted this game as an opportunity to prepare for the season.

If we are still playing Rhys Evans as centre, and Gidley in the halves, why would you be expecting an attacking edge. We seem to have picked up exactly where we left off in the Grand Final. Unable to score.

Apologies if I've missed it somewhere but what is Brown's injury.

Tightness in his hamstring apparently according to the Guardian.Mr Smith remarked that it seems a bit more than tightness !

They will lose and more critically they will lose in a dull and disappointing fashion.

It was like watching paint dry.

Same question as for Rochdale (which if anyone could answer would be great too!): was there any programme or teamsheet issued for the game? Presumably BH has a brochure out-did they stick a teamsheet in that like they have in the past?

[url=http://s1085.photobucket.com/user/103house/media/team%20sheat.png.html[/url

Cheers BWW. We're these handed out at the turnstiles, or were they VIP/press only? Do you/anyone else have a spare that you'd let go?

Mine was handed to me via twitter

Lol. If anyone can clarify if these were handed out at turnstyles, that'd be great (I'm guessing not?)