Reality check please : Mon Mar 12, 2018 8:09 am  

Some Wakefield fans need to get a grip and learn how to lose. I know that sounds odd considering the last 30+ years of our history but what you saw yesterday was a different kind of losing.

We are a good team now, so gone are the days when we could turn up at Wigan and catch them by surprise. They were ready for us this time and they wanted that win for the points and to help set the record straight, ESPECIALLY at home!

Yet despite that we could have won that game with a bit of luck and a less starstruck ref, though I do think over the 80 Wigan were better - but not by much - and that's what matters, not the two points.

If we are to hit top 8 again we must beat the teams below us because that's what good teams do. Beating teams like Wigan, Leeds and Saints at their own place was never easy but now that they rate us, and they do, it's even harder. I don't see us winning many of those games, but then hopefully I don't see them doing it to us on our own turf all that often either.

Fancy wins don't matter as much as the bread and butter games until the play-offs, thats when you want to pull them out of the hat. I accept that progress in the play-off is made a little bit easier the higher you finish but it's not definative. Win most of our home games, pinch a few away games then we are in the mix and that's what matters in play-off RL. To do that you need to play consistantly well all season and in that regard we played well yesterday, just not quite well enough and as ever there can only be one winner.

So as far as I'm concerned you need to live with it, move on, and keep at it - that's what Leeds did last year and Cas didn't and look who's names on the trophy.

Re: Reality check please : Mon Mar 12, 2018 7:15 pm  

[quote="vastman"]
Yet despite that we could have won that game with a bit of luck and a less starstruck ref, though I do think over the 80 Wigan were better - but not by much - and that's what matters, not the two points.

Not if we miss the top four by one point Vasty!!!!

Re: Reality check please : Mon Mar 12, 2018 8:55 pm  

like we did last year!

we will never be favs against the top teams away from home - we msut though win our home games against the teams we need to beat to make tiop 8! we should be worried about top 4 only after top 8 Is secured and at the moment we are only 2 loses away from 9th.this Saturday now massively important.

Re: Reality check please : Mon Mar 12, 2018 8:58 pm  

[quote="Redscat"]

That's the point. Yes it might matter but it might also matter that we got two points against Salford which we possibly didn't deserve. We were lucky against them and not so lucky against Wigan, swings and roundabouts surely.

Good teams ride their luck and when the luck runs out they move on asap.

We played well against Wigan but they played a little better. We are a good team so are they it was just their day. As Leeds proved last year you don't need to win every game just the last few.

Re: Reality check please : Mon Mar 12, 2018 8:59 pm  

BOJ042 wrote:

like we did last year!

we will never be favs against the top teams away from home - we msut though win our home games against the teams we need to beat to make tiop 8! we should be worried about top 4 only after top 8 Is secured and at the moment we are only 2 loses away from 9th.this Saturday now massively important.

Jog on.

Re: Reality check please : Mon Mar 12, 2018 9:56 pm  

vastman wrote:

As Leeds proved last year you don't need to win every game just the last few.

Tbf and it is a point you allude to in your opening post, Leeds' home record was very strong in 2017. Might not have always blown away neutrals with the performances but we went W13 L2 at home (joint best with Cas). If you, Leeds or anybody else get in that region you've got 26 points and one foot in the playoffs baring a Catalans-Esque away record.

Re: Reality check please : Tue Mar 13, 2018 3:19 am  

BOJ042 wrote:

like we did last year!

we will never be favs against the top teams away from home - we msut though win our home games against the teams we need to beat to make tiop 8! we should be worried about top 4 only after top 8 Is secured and at the moment we are only 2 loses away from 9th.this Saturday now massively important.

And Saints 3 come back with equations when there is enough data to analyse!

Re: Reality check please : Tue Mar 13, 2018 8:01 am  

PrinterThe wrote:

Tbf and it is a point you allude to in your opening post, Leeds' home record was very strong in 2017. Might not have always blown away neutrals with the performances but we went W13 L2 at home (joint best with Cas). If you, Leeds or anybody else get in that region you've got 26 points and one foot in the playoffs baring a Catalans-Esque away record.

That's great but what's it got to do with anything? Leeds did not win all there games and won less than Cas, your home record is utterly irrelevant to my point. Where you get the points doesn't matter, so long as there enough to get you 8 or better job done, you're over thinking it.

Re: Reality check please : Tue Mar 13, 2018 9:16 am  

Pretty much agree with that Vasty to be fair.

Last year, for example, we played 9 games against teams that were involved in the middle 8's, and out of those 9, we won 8 of them, only losing at Warrington.

If we can beat these teams, and then pick up other wins here and there, we will be fine.

I also agree with some other posters here too, we were only one win away from the top 4, and it just goes to show how tight this league is nowadays.

Losing on Sunday was certainly not the end of the world, and to go to Wigan and lose only by 2 scores is certainly nothing to worry about. We just need to dust ourselves down now, and focus on the next game.

I also think that there is a reality check for some fans out there that the league placings are decided in the opening 4-5 rounds or so. No medals and trophies are handed out at this time of the season. It is a marathon and not a sprint. It is nice to see this good start though, and especially that even though we made the top 8 in 2016 and 2017, in both seasons we had slow starts.

I am taking one week at a time at the moment, but enjoying the progress made

Re: Reality check please : Tue Mar 13, 2018 10:52 am  

vastman wrote:

That's great but what's it got to do with anything? Leeds did not win all there games and won less than Cas, your home record is utterly irrelevant to my point. Where you get the points doesn't matter, so long as there enough to get you 8 or better job done, you're over thinking it.

I was just backing up your point in which you said

"Beating teams like Wigan, Leeds and Saints at their own place was never easy but now that they rate us, and they do, it's even harder. I don't see us winning many of those games, but then hopefully I don't see them doing it to us on our own turf all that often either.

Fancy wins don't matter as much as the bread and butter games until the play-offs, thats when you want to pull them out of the hat. I accept that progress in the play-off is made a little bit easier the higher you finish but it's not definative. Win most of our home games, pinch a few away games then we are in the mix and that's what matters in play-off RL."

You talked about winning most of your home games and now you say it doesn't matter where you win. Realistically you're going to have your fair share of away losses so a very strong home record is important.

I'd also point out that this talk of only being 1 point off 4th spot last year. Last year 4th spot was 33pts which is much lower than the 38 and 40 totals the 4th placed team did in the previous two seasons so anybody thinking an extra win on what you did last year will be enough might not be true.