Interesting that Cas and Powell are brought into it, because correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t the very same Catalans team hand out a drubbing to Powell’s Cas side a few weeks ago? 14-0 down and going on to score 40 unanswered points...think Cas’s backline that day was a fair bit stronger than what we had out...


Can’t we just accept we gave it a good shot...plenty of effort which we all ask and we’re just beaten on the day by a better team...and do all that without blaming the coach for once?

I strongly believe that if the coach was anyone other than Chris Chester he would have been down the road by now. I know it's an old cliche but if i had a success rate of only 25% in my job of work I wouldn't have lasted very long. MC's closeness to CC must be a factor in him lasting so long at the Club. Two previous incumbents of the role, Agar and Webster weren't shown quite so much leeway from the chairman during their somewhat disastrous tenure. Much as I like CC I think he has overstayed his welcome.

Genuine question...

Take the last 10 super league games of last season and the first 7 of this...

5 wins from those 17...which of the 12 we lost should we have won, in your opinion?

I think what you saw from Pitts was born out of frustration that his fellow forwards had allowed Mcllorum amongst others cheap shot our players throughout the 2 games and nobody stood up to him. In my opinion the blame lies with the pack for not standing up for themselves last weekend. An example of this is Mcllorum twisting Fifita's ankle to try an aggrevate his injury on at least 2 occasions. Dave shouldnt be allowing that to happen and should be getting stuck into him for it. Or playing clever and highlighting it to the officals by staying down.

I think Pitts showed something which ive wanted to see since the back end of last year. Some desire and fight, i wish all the forwards showed the same. He'd be my captain from this point forward to be honest.

I’ll even post the 12 losses to help you out...

Last season...

Warrington (a)
Wigan (h)
Hull (h)
St Helens (a)
Wigan (a)
Cas (h)
Catalans (a)

This season...

Hull KR (a)
Cas (a)
Hull (h)
Wigan (n)
Catalans (n)

Which of those should we have won in your eyes? Maybe a couple?

On the flip side our 5 wins were...

Last season...

London (h)
Hull KR (a)
Huddersfield (h)

This season...

Salford (a)
Warrington (h)

Maybe a couple unexpected there to balance it a bit?

Notice I’ve only included the last 10 games of last season because the period before that we were absolutely crippled with injuries, I also aren’t counting the first 10 games when we had a fully fit squad and won 6 of those and lost by a single score to both Saints and Warrington to be sat 4th after 10 rounds before the injuries struck.

Another thing to note is we were playing some great stuff scoring 30 points or more on 5 occasions...in big wins at both Hull and Leeds and in wins over eventual grand finalists Salford and previous grand final winners Wigan...and guess what...the most astonishing thing about that is we haven’t done owt since Kear left!

Dear oh dear seems to me some of the Chester bashers must never have played the game or even trained for it. The Catalans pack is probably one of the top two packs in super league and not many teams will handle them plus they have very classy players all over the park and could probably coach themselves. If i had a choice between Chester and Macnamara I would take Chester every time. As for Powell I thought we were better against Catalans yesterday than Castleford were 2 weeks ago by a long way.The players we had available yesterday gave it their best shot but 2 or 3 silly mistakes and a couple of dubious calls from monsieur Kendall led to us coming up a bit short. Keep the faith.

I spoke to Jordan about the Pitts incident when he got home due to the fact he was in the middle of it and as big as he is he’s still my lad and I want to protect him but he said he heard Jay mentioned and went in to help him, I wish that he could have landed one on the grub. In all the time I’ve watched him play since 6 years old it’s the first time I’ve witnessed him do it, not the gentleman thing to do but chuffed that he did I know I would have done it.

Spot on Teltry, some sense at last

Don't quite see what you're getting at but certainly the "golden point" Hull game, the Leeds (home) and Hull KR (home) games last season plus all the London Bronco debacles.

With the squad that we have I would have thought that at least a 60% success rate.

Yes, the two London defeats were huge disappointments but to be fair after the first one we won 6 of our next 9...including games we weren’t ‘expected’ to win.’

Both Leeds at home and Hull KR at home were very similar games, low scoring in atrocious conditions and were won by fine margins...Hull KR nicking it late on after we had a perfectly good Johnstone try disallowed earlier on and if I remember right against Leeds in a very tight game Tanginoa broke and all he needed to do was find Hampshire with a simple pass to go in front but had it intercepted and that was the difference...to counteract those two though we won 35-18 at Headingley during our good start and 38-10 away to Hull KR when really needed at the back end.

What I’m trying to say is break it all down and take injuries into consideration and the returns are nowhere near as bad as everyone is making out...in my opinion of course...

The basic fact is he is going nowhere so we now have to hope that we can produce something like a performance against Warrington. I have not seen anything to say we will, so what I expect is, players being used out of position, for us to be outflanked, have no second phase, use the drop off on every play, lack a game plan and basically continue to be the least exciting team. We can then expect Chester to see some improvements and take the positives into the Leeds game.
If any of you could explain what Batchelor has done not to be selected, he was an England Knight player because currently Westerman is not fit.

If you look how fit Paul now looks at Salford ,slimed down .you can see how bad the Wakey conditioner is

Regards to Batchelor, I can’t remember him being picked after he got sin binned in second half against Cas.

No why pick Batchelor when you can play Kirmond who with respect his body now shows the ravages of a long SL career. It is a waste of a younger player when let’s face it our performances have not exactly been stellar.
I have said Chester should go because I worry his selections are now based on favouritism rather than performance, but I also know this is not going to happen. If we carry on the way we are good luck attracting supporters because with the performances being televised our true skills are on display for all to see.

Hampshire is rubbish - not interested

I would make Pitts captain now, free up Milky to play more like he did on Sat, his best game for sometime...as for Rocky, I'd have him as an impact hooker - with no scrums it means being in/around the middle from dummy half to use his pace to exploit tired big men in the middle, a bit like when Woody used to come on for Randell.

Then it would be a straight choice between Max & Gigot at 1 & 6, for me I'd try Gigot at 6 but I'd also have Bailey on the bench as cover & to be introduced slowly with a view to blooding him gradually towards taking over.

BTW, much as Pitts brain storm turned the tide, I think it was turned before that when we got back to 12-6 and knocked on from the set after the kick off, from which they scored. Although we had a dig after that we always had too much to do and never looked good enough to do it

Regarding Batchelor...the question I’d pose is...is his body physically up to the demands of super league?

At one stage I had him down as one of the most promising youngsters I’d seen for a long time...even likened him to Gaz Ellis to a workmate...he seemed the natural replacement for Kirmond but at 10-15 years younger he’s getting too like Kirmond in the sense that he puts that much effort into tackles he just seems to pick up knock after knock...shame the way the game is at the moment as I feel he’s a player who’d really benefit and gain confidence from a month on dual reg in the championship. I do want him to succeed but will his fragility hold him back I’d ask?

And as for Westerman not being fit. How is he going to get fit? These are unprecedented times...the lads had 5 months off and have come back with no pre season and with the changes to a much quicker game...they could have trained every day at home during lockdown but surely that doesn’t equal match days...give the lad some slack, he was looking good preclockdown...remember him making 46 tackles vs Hull...that’s not lazy nor unfit so I’d give him and a few others the benefit of the doubt at the moment and get behind them and the coach!

I think I would make Pitts Captain as well for the same reason and I also agree with you about Hampshire.
I know Walker didn't cover himself in glory against Catalans but he's never really had a chance to settle at FB so I would continue with him there, seeing as my preferred FB by a mile (MJ) will never claim the position - it seems.
But MJ is far too good to leave out so he would be at 6 and Milky at 7 for me.
Whatever else he is, MJ is not a winger and I really didn't understand that call.

100% agree

If the 58 - 0 game we were bullied for 80 minutes.
Mcillorum is the player doing a hefty share of the "naughty" stuff and not once did we respond.
You could argue that the ref should have dealt with him and penalised him but, surely, the Forwards should be "letting him know" that he isn't going to get away with it and if neccessary, do something about it.

Chester comes across very relaxed and not interested in giving interviews. The squad plays like no rush and it will be ok.
We have plenty of potential just needs coaching out.

There's one thing about this is we can't all be wrong. But we're banging our heads up against a brick wall

Could argue he shouldn't have been playing in the first place after he went in with the knees last week.

I think previous evidence suggests we (you) can indeed all be wrong.

Mmmm interesting

I was referring to the first game and yes, he was at it again on Saturday.
Pitts was right to get stuck into him, although, his timing wasn't great, as we were in the ascendency at the time.

He is just an (ex) Wigan grub, and was allowed to do what the hell he wanted for most of the 2 games.

I wish we had a couple of similar players.