The pressure Catalans managed to put on our half backs and hooker forced us to do uncharisctic errors, also the way the ref let both teams lie on (although catalan realised this and stayed there for an age..) causes fatigue. Only when Richie Moore came on and started blasting holes in the defence did we get a quick play the ball, then he himself tried some impossible offloads. The ref wasnt good imo but you have to learn to live with what he gives you and work with it, our 'smart' players last night werent quick enough to latch onto the type of game it was and by the time they did it was too late... On another subject Catalans use the fullback in the scrum at loose forward and we had the fastest player on the park on the wing with 60 or 70 metres to work with, did we try a kick downfield from the scrum?? no...

To me it looked like the occasion got to the players who were making silly exited plays usually resulting in coughing up the ball. Always trying silly offloads in early tackle count etc.

Kear looked well. Nervous throughout.

Drew seemed to go quiet after his knock.

If we had played like we have most of season we would have stuffed them IMO. Real shame but it seems the Wakey way.

Ah well don't have to worry about playoff fixtures clashing with the personal life anymore.

Too young to have seen Alan McCurrie?

Yup.

Just done a Google, played in the late 70's?

yes

Drew was poor and again for me asks the question should player moves be announced before the season has ended as that will always be something that can be thrown in a players face.

Drew has bee outstanding at times this season, wasnt great last night but has won us far more games than he has lost.

You missed a good un Charlie. Mac would be a sensation if he was playing now.

You will be better informed than me to comment on this then, would you consider Brad Drew to be the best Wakefield hooker in the last 30 years?

Yes he has which makes last nights performance even harder to take.

Difficult to comapre really, they were in different eras. Mac played hooker in the days when hookers actually had to hook the ball in the scrum. His defence was good and he had a bagfull of tricks in attack, a real livewire, and a good niggler as well.

He was never the type of player to run the game, that was Toppo's job back in those days.

Certainly the best I've seen over the last 30 years or so

Yes.

Spot on sumatation for me.

Last night I found it hard to contain my disappointment, therefore I didn't post.

I am extremely proud with the effort the boys have put in this year and it is sad to fall at the 1st hurdle in the Play Offs- sadly sport has cruel twists.

I can't help but think the rugby we played yesterday was bland and very blind- for whatever reasons. There was no way that we was going to win the forward battle last night so it was frustrating to watch the meaningless drives in set after set. But in many cases the fella's had no other options open to them.

In Summary, Catalans came with a plan, stuck to it and it was effective. They also had bucket loads of enthusiam and desire, something that I didn't feel we had yesterday.

Optimism, realism and despair. 24 hours in the playoffs 2009 With thanks to Chapster who sent me this. wakefield.rlfans.com/news.php

Optimism, realism and despair. 24 hours in the playoffs 2009 With thanks to Chapster who sent me this. wakefield.rlfans.com/news.php

Quote ="adam9641"Optimism, realism and despair. 24 hours in the playoffs 2009 With thanks to Chapster who sent me this. wakefield.rlfans.com/news.php'" just how i feel! er todays analogy..........its like getting off with one of the pussycat dolls, getting her home, and her whispering..... ive always wanted you in a very big physical way mwildcats!

Quote ="adam9641"Optimism, realism and despair. 24 hours in the playoffs 2009 With thanks to Chapster who sent me this. wakefield.rlfans.com/news.php'" just how i feel! er todays analogy..........its like getting off with one of the pussycat dolls, getting her home, and her whispering..... ive always wanted you in a very big physical way mwildcats!

Allan McCurrie was without doubt the best hooker I have seen play for Wakefield he would have being a real star in the super league era
do you also remember all the stick some fans would give him
some things never change

The problem is that would be the case,



Yeh i agree with your comments on the site.

The problem with Mccurrie as I remember it was for all his flair going forward he would offer as many mistakes and daft plays (Ryan Atkins type kicks on the 3rd tackle) which made him very frustraiting to watch. Billy Conway for me. Made breaks from dummy half for fun. With modern day conditioning full time pro trainning and lots of work on the weights he would be fantastic.

to be honest that goes for every physical contact sport in the world, and we will never know!

or frankly at the moment care, we need to move forward and put aside the dewey eyed belief that everything was better in the 60's 70's and 80's.

some of those from that era of fanbase need to come back, bury their grudges, stop watching in the pubs of town and get to the games.

i love the old days as memories, but at this moment they are largely irrelevant.

Agree, but I was only answering Charlies question so my answer was relevant to him.

and i wasnt replying to you!
sorry if you took any offence, not in the best of moods today, stompy officially!!!

god knows why?????

None taken.

I went into last nights game uneasy with the thought that five of our starting line up crossed the white line knowing they would not be at Wakefield next year. I appreciate the mechanics of rugby league contract negotiations and their timing, but this is no good for this end of season series.

It doesn't matter what line of work you are in, if you have no future with an organisation you are distracted. Catalans did a great job last night and thoroughly deserved their win, but if we are to challenge for Old Trafford in future years hopefully this is the last year we will see departing players make up such a proportion of our starting line up in the play offs.

personally think that we got drawn in for 70 mins. catalans have the pack and we tried to compete with them. probably should have done what warrington did against shudds at wembley and got the ball wide early to tire them out. how much did we miss danny b last night?

never mind, been a good season and am looking forward to next year !