At least the team have managed to escape the clutches of the disciplinary panel this week



Though I must admit that the following in regards to Prior using his head to butt Connor is laughable

Details of allegation: Head butting in 17th minute
Decision: NFA
Details of Charge /
Reason for NFA: Player is trying to extricate himself from the tackle. Opponent is keeping himself tight.

So any player now has 'carte blanche' to head butt an opposing player if they don't let go in the tackle

Discipline is going to haunt us unfortunately, with Connor and Reynolds we’ve got two of the most annoying players around.

But the line you’ve taken out and highlighted, was not referring to discipline, but probably Leeds ability to pin us back in the pack, due to Taylor and Bowden not being available, leaving us short on go forward all the second half.

Fashy does well when he’s on, but we struggle when Big Chris or Liggy go off. As I said I’ll take this win ugly or not.

I thought the whole arrangement was odd from what I could see on TV. Looked like whole sections of seating empty while people were stood very close in the standing areas. Very haphazard and certainly a lot less strict than what was in place at the KCOM last Monday.

Its not the ill discipline of Connor or Reynolds though but the ill discipline in the ruck partcularly and dumb stuff we are making a habit of which undermines a lot of the hard work they'd done.

Classic example of this was when we'd been coughing up the ball, continually giving set restarts within our 40 and 20 then when we get the ball back we make a good solid effort with a good kick from Sneyd to pin them back in their own 20 only to give a stupid penalty away and invite them back in to our 40 again. Then the more pressure we put on ourselves and the heavier workload to defend just multiplies the errors/penalties we give due to fatigue.
However at least we now have a cohesive team that work for one another where as before it would have resulted in capitulation.

It wasn't about Leeds having any ability to pin us in our own half as we are doing a better job of that than any of their forwards, had Leeds been a better side then we would have paid for the amount of ball and territory we gave them.

There is no doubt that missing Taylor and Bowden we lack real go forward when Satae and Sao go off which is why the non use of Brown is being questioned as he is a bright talent and has played well when given the opportunity.

Chris you know around the ruck, it’s a lottery who gets pinged, you’ve said yourself, head scratching to see what we do any differently to other teams. There’s no arguments from me regarding us being as squeaky clean as we can possibly be.

But in the rain and the wind, against a full strength Leeds, we did them, lacking Brown, Taylor, and Bowden. Result

But regarding Jack Brown, there must be something that’s causing his omission from the side. It’s funny since his agent was publicly saying how good he was, he’s not been seen. Well actually he was warming up with the players against the Cats

Indeed I have and it is a lottery but we were certainly pushing things and never heeded that we were getting stung by it, some of the errors even allowing for the the weather were just daft ones and giving unnecessary penalties away.

Don't get me wrong I am very pleased with the win and that even playing as poorly as we did overall we still dug in and ground out the win.

I thought he may possibly not be quite fit but them seeing him as you say in the pre game warm up kind of answered that. Maybe his attitude has been a little off since his agent talking in the press or maybe that his agent has offered him round has annoyed the club who knows but its strange.

We will play better and lose, I’m just glad the teams first footing is togetherness, it’s a transformation, and hopefully we will improve as the season progresses.

No idea how many 6 agains we've conceded but Phil Clarke did say last night that we've been awarded the fewest in the league. What are we doing different to the other teams? Certainly seems a lottery & a bit of a cop out for referees.

I like Brown but he seems to be prone to the odd brain explosion which I think is maybe coming from him trying so hard to make a impact.

If he isn't going to be playing he should be out on loan with a call-back clause because he needs to be playing against men as his development is really running the risk of stagnating.

How people would have him above Fash in the pecking order I have no idea though.

resting players is not really an option and i dont think its Hodgsons way either
Josh Bowden should be back which will help and get rid of this centre/wing occupying a bench position

How on earth does the above suggest that?

Fash has come on leaps and bounds this year. I do think Brown has a higher ceiling than Fash, but as they both are now Fash fully deserves his place. Like you say, the next time Brown gets a chance I think he just needs to calm down a bit. He is a handful and has done good things, but he just needs to concentrate on running hard, doing the basic things right, and getting through plenty of work. He is prone to a daft offload or rushing the play the ball and knocking it on.

has anyone our stats from the second half last night?
completion rate has to be less than 30%
ccs around he normally helps out here?

Still haven't recovered from your match commentary last night.

Definitely a guy Zucchini and thanks for the supportive comment comment

well hurry up then im interested in the stats and thats your field

Don’t let it go to your head, your still a miserable git

I think one of the tactics that we struggle with and cause us to give away so many six agains is teams that consistently struggle forward and try to gain ground after the tackle has been completed. The worst culprits are Wigan but Leeds were doing it last night particularly in the first half. It should be something for the refs to sort out but I think it is one of those things some teams have spotted they can get away with. Having said that, terrific defensive performance though not good for the old blood pressure. Agar’s coaching of attacking play no better than when he was at Hull. Leeds fans on their forum questioning just what Sean Long contributes.

I've never seen completion rates in any stats, only comments, usually from coaches.

The NRL stats are incredibly detailed, pity ours aren't the same.

Agreed and I don’t think it’s just Leeds fans wondering what Long has brought to Leeds as they look a very poor side. I was impressed with the minutes Prior did though.

unfortunately Chris there seems to be a lot of older generation supporters on here who just cannot stand any form of criticism
of players or the club even though at times its clearly warranted.
We all care about the club otherwise we wouldnt spend time reading and posting comments on here and we all have favourite players.
We are now in an exciting new era with a Rookie coach who has quickly gained the respect of the players and fans alike and the togetherness,fitness and the will to work their socks off for each other is plain to see.
That said you still have to question Brett Hodgsons bench selection for the last two matches and the continuing indiscipline which seems to have become worse since the opening two games.
The extra defending we have to do as a result drains the energy not only to defend but also to put together any meaningful attack so its imperative that the coach instills into the players the importance of disciplined play.
With Bowden back for Saints i doubt we will see Brown but before the semi draw i said i would rather play Saints as i feel confident of beating them and i think we will beat them also on Friday.

I watch these very closely as its been a bug bear of mine for a while now, and it just seems that we have hands on the ball at times , or we lay on too much in the officials eyes, what I will say is the refs have zero patience with us as a team as when the opposition does it they sometimes get double the time to get out the tackle or hands off the ball than we do. We arnt Angels but we are getting a lot of harsh sets of six again, against us.

I can't remember who posted it, but somebody posted about the officials maybe concentrate on a couple of teams with poor discipline and are a lot more strict with them,this is the only explanation for me that makes any sense with what I'm seeing, this then it creates abit of a vicious circle ............

It would certainly be interesting to see a team to team comparison of the league.

I think we are probably higher up in the giving of 6 agains currently as we have relied heavily on defensive work at times so by law of averages of being with and without the ball in will certainly skew stats one way or the other.

For me I just don't like the rule or the ball steal rule but thats just me.