Agreed. For me aggression and line speed are good indicators of effort and we have totally lacked any intensity in these areas lately. Tomorrow we need to go looking for R****s and meet them with some serious . Target Dobson and smash him (legally) at any opportunity. ATEOTD if we do that and they weather it and win the battle then fair play to them but anything less and we will once again have played below the required standard.

We haven't employed dummy runners since McRae was in charge, and one of our coaches since should have rectified this by now. The 'players of limited ability' argument falls down on this one too, as it only requires them to be capable of running towards the opposition to bring in an element of doubt. Our single runner almost always has the opposition queuing up to make the tackle as they know precisely where the ball is heading.

The main cause for concern I have with our coaching staff (and this also applied to the previous 2) is the obvious nature of our weaknesses. Things should have been done about them by now, yet we continue to put nothing right.

A concern I share, and have done for some time.

Which is why I favoured a complete change of coaching staff when PS got the boot, rather than sticking with a structure which had largely failed to deliver.

TBH players shouldn't need coaching as a professional to make those runs, it should be second nature by now. Perhaps they are told to do it but get into the game situation and just swith off? Maybe they really are just lazy and only want to run when they actually have the ball? Either way I totally agree that its been a problem of ours for a number of years and still hasn't been sorted out.

Good points.

I actually think it's the opposite, I suspect they are under instructions not to do it too much. IMO it's natural instinct to offer yourself for the ball, and if they want the ball to run with they first need to make themselves an option. Kear's regime did it a little bit, but particularly Sharp's tactics seemed to try and preserve energy in attack to be used in defence.

Maybe that sounds like I'm blindly trying to pin it on the coaching staff and defend the players, but 2 points stick out to me to suggest my viewpoint: Firstly, we have players who are still here from the McRae days who are culprits, if they did it once you don't forget or suddenly decide not to do it. Secondly, we have signed players who did it at their previous clubs only to stop when signing for us.

You are bang on the money there, the number of times our forwards get the ball at "pace" can be counted on the fingers of Abu Hamza's right hand!

Possibly so. I personally think that as we dont have have anyone who seems capable of throwing a "miss-out" pass the players cant be bothered to make the option run as they never get the ball. If the players are coached to save energy in that way its literally the most flawed way of thinking, ever. It takes far more energy out of the team when they are having to work so hard for literally every inch of ground rather than winning collisions by putting doubt in the defenders mind etc.

Our players don't push in numbers and don't push through holes, they either stand still or run at players. Yeamn now and again makes and angled run inbetween defenders and nearly always scores from it. When we back up it tends to be individuallly rather than collectively.

I think the coach takes some responsibility but the players should take the lions share, they seem to look around waiting for someone esle to do it rather than making something happen themselves.

Watch Leeds and see how many players are constantly pushing, not just backs but backrowers and props. They don't always get the ball but it continually ask questions of the oppositions defence.

Loving the analogy

There are two ways of looking at it Paul, either they are not being oached to make themselves available an to run into space etc. or they are simply beng lazy and not doing what they should be doing. I honestly don't know which is the case, but either way it needs sorting out, and fast.

attack wise, you have to look at the players, and why they are not delivering. The basic fundamentals of the game are missing. This should not require in depth coaching IMO, you should not have to coach a player to support a team mate. Is obvious to all of us, it should be paramount in players that are looking to deliver

Didn't we spend pre-season "doing the basics"?

Porbably a bit of both but as a pro sportsman you clearly have your own motivation etc and we seem to do what is required rather than really go for it and play with huge enthusiasm.

Under Kear when we won the cup we played with great motivation and enthusiasm and I think part of that was having a player like Kearney not letting people sit back and rest. For me Radford does not ahve those qualities and its for that reason that I really want to see Crocker come over. He won't stand for any nonsense and his desire and will to win will hopefully rub off as it did with Kearney.

Tut tut, you used the "C" word.

Berrigan should also be doing it, he has in previous seasons.

Berro is more of a follower I would say, Cusack is a good leader but Crocker inspires people and will constantly push people to get the best from them, I hope he comes as he would make a big difference to some of the players attitdes imo.

I've given up on boh imports, waste of money now we have thrown our CC possibilities away and we are going nowehere near O/T.

But again it comes back to the fact that these players have done it before either previously at Hull or at their former clubs. The only time since McRae left we've shown real attacking enthusiasm to flood forward was in Agar's caretaker stint. Interesting that most of the talk coming out of the club was that it was because of how happy the players were at the shackles being taken off and being allowed to express themselves.

As Standee says it's something we outside the club can't know for sure, I just wonder how much of our disinterest going forward is down to coaching instructions, and potentially even the players being disillusioned with said tactics and it showing in their game. I know I wouldn't like to play in such a team and would find it hard to show enthusiasm every week.

[url=http://www.samaritans.org/Could be a useful link...[/url

Whilst this was true in the cup, the rest of the season bore a startling resemblance to what we're seeing now. Kearney was part of that team.

Not anymore, I used to care enough to feel almost suicidal, can't say I am as enthusiastic about my Rugby as I have been in previous years.

That's very true. However Kear has got Wakey playing good rugby and getting the most out of so called lesser players?

HE RANG THEM, THEY PUT THE PHONE DOWN ON HIM

I know, it's rather baffling.

Yes and had a massive clear out in the close season after being humiliated by our cross city rivals.

And the major changes after last week.

All talk from Agar