Time to be positive : Sat Aug 19, 2017 9:10 am  

When we lost to Swinton we were teetering on the edge of the cliff, just about bottom of the league and out of the cup.

Since then our form has been as good as most of the top four as probably Cas apart there has been no really consistent team.

Mathematically we could still make the four and Grand Final slim as our chances are with four games to go that's a pretty decent position to be in and dafter things have happened.

Taking into account that we have lost Symonds, Mamo, Cudjoe, Lawrence Ta'ai and others for long parts of the season we really ain't done bad.

Stones signings Wakeman, Mamo, Turner, Rankin and Ridyard despite ridicule from some quarters have all done well and god forbid mentioning HTAFC but we too seem to have recreated our Huddersfield mentality that has started to work for us as it has done in the past more about the whole than individual parts

Clough, Gaskell, Ferguson have done better than expected and in O'Brien and Mellor we have young players with good futures.

Leeming , Roberts, Dickinson, Mackintosh and others have taken strides forward and in Seb Ikahihifo we have for me one of the best props in the competition.

A good rest followed by a good pre season with a couple of player tweaks and if we can avoid the injuries next year who knows what we can do but our ambition should be upwards looking now not downwards.

So let's get behind the team to the end of the season as top four or not I'd have happily settled for this scenario at the seasons start except for paying a bit more attention to the cup but chance to make up for that next year !!

Re: Time to be positive : Sat Aug 19, 2017 9:24 am  

I have to agree.

Dickinson for me has now moved in front of Nathan Mason, his performance last night was impressive....maybe its the game time hes getting.

Mellor and O Brien have impressed me and only had a 2 week pre season with us. Expecting them both to improve next season. Mellor will get to train for 2nd row specifically. He did well in the centres last night but does look dodgy defending sometimes at centre.

Seb Ikahihifo is up in the best props in the league this year and hope we tie him down.

Been very impressed with Wakeman after a slow start he doesn't half graft now.

Gaskell had a great game last night but can be very poor against good teams usually.

Clough is solid and done better than expected but for the money he is on I feel we could get better. Wasn't Stones signing though.

Ollie Roberts will keep improving still only very young.

Leeming and McIntosh have really come of age this year and I think Darnell is better on the wing and improving every game.

Jordan Rankin has been excellent organising us from the back in Mamos absence and really hope we can keep him long term.

Bruno looks huge now and maybe a prop forward next year???

Hopefully Turner and Leroy will be back for the Cas game but sounds like they both could be out

We need to focus on 1 game at a time and now Cas is our grand final. Win that and we could be just 2 points off 4th spot with 3 games to go. Our Goal difference is better than Wakefields, Salfords and Wigans. Just Saints with a better points difference than us by 30 points.

Re: Time to be positive : Sat Aug 19, 2017 10:28 am  

Couple of good posts. I feel as though we are going through a bit of a transition here, Brough aside we have a completely new spine, and a young one that could potentially take us forward for the next decade.

We also have a good set of young forwards with good experience and some decent backs coming through. Other than a long term replacement for Brough, I don't see the need for any major recruitment in the next few years. A balanced settled squad should hopefully see us get back where we have been used to the last 5 years or so.

Glass half full

Re: Time to be positive : Sat Aug 19, 2017 3:18 pm  

positive on here!!!

Re: Time to be positive : Sat Aug 19, 2017 9:21 pm  

Some of us always have been but got called all sorts of names on here and on Facebook for daring to be...

Re: Time to be positive : Sat Aug 19, 2017 10:03 pm  

To be fair it's taken a few steps back and a long period of painful rugby to get to this stage

Re: Time to be positive : Sat Aug 19, 2017 10:38 pm  

Exactly, which is what we kept saying, it won't happen overnight but some folk demanded it !

Re: Time to be positive : Mon Aug 21, 2017 12:29 pm  

giants 66/1 to reach the grand final, same as salford now.