Re: Workington (H) : Sun Aug 19, 2018 6:00 pm  

HamsterChops wrote:

I've not seen a game for quite a while, but out of interest, who is captain when Lee Smith isn't playing?

Crossley.

Re: Workington (H) : Sun Aug 19, 2018 8:46 pm  

Nothus wrote:

I think Kear's selections let us down today more than anything. I get the goodwill gesture with Peltier becoming a father earlier in the week but he was there running around as the 18th man so why not play him?
Workington have a big set of forwards, JK must have known this, so to go into this match with only two forwards on the bench left me scratching my head a bit. Why play Pownall on the bench? Was it part of the agreement that he has to play each week? It makes no sense to me. Why not play an actual second rower like Liam Johnson instead of moving Oakes there? Playing in the pack has now resulted in an injury to Oakes, nice work Kear.
Lilley at hooker is also a disaster. Worky just ran at him - and over him - every time they had the ball, he just isn't big enough to be tackling the forwards.
Wood, Kirk and Hallas just aren't good enough. Kirk does not run his weight at all, and makes no attempt to keep his feet after collision.
Even our attacking structure was poor today, just look at the tries we scored. Both Minchella's and Garside's are just driving at the line with absolutely no skills. Where are our set plays, how come we can never create an overlap or put a runner through a gap?

The game was disappointing and the bench did lack forwards, however I think you are wrong about Wood, I thought he was one of the better forwards today, particularly in defense, he must be involved in at least 4 tackles during a set, also he seems to be the one who sets the line speed and travels defensively. I thought during the second half we had a period of real intensity and everyone seemed fired up, this all went to pot when subs were made and it started getting messy again. Also, I think Kirk tries to find the floor for a quick play the ball. A lot of the errors today were not made by the forwards but by poor decision making from the halves and hookers. They also clearly targeted
Lilley defensively.

Re: Workington (H) : Sun Aug 19, 2018 9:45 pm  

If we see them again in the playoffs JK should use this to fire the team up: https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/ ... 06464?s=21

If we see them again in the playoffs JK should use this to fire the team up: https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/ ... 06464?s=21

Re: Workington (H) : Sun Aug 19, 2018 9:48 pm  

dddooommm wrote: If we see them again in the playoffs JK should use this to fire the team up: https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/ ... 06464?s=21 That is the gayest thing I have ever seen

dddooommm wrote: If we see them again in the playoffs JK should use this to fire the team up: https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/ ... 06464?s=21 That is the gayest thing I have ever seen

Re: Workington (H) : Sun Aug 19, 2018 9:55 pm  

Very disappointed today. It seemed like it was one of those games we were never going to win.I think they should have taken Chizzy off he looked shattered after his try. I know Kirk is learning the ropes but I wish when he has the ball he would keep pumping his legs like Ferguson did. Rant over.

Re: Workington (H) : Mon Aug 20, 2018 5:12 am  

Chisholm is so predictable at times. Not to mention all for himself.

He’s another very average Aussie happy to get a wage in uk.

Re: Workington (H) : Mon Aug 20, 2018 7:10 am  

For a large part of the season I have been saying we are poor. Having watched the Northern for about 48 years now I know a little bit about one man charge rugby and this is what we have been playing far too much of late. We do actually have a very, very decent back line but they seem to have forgotten what open, expansive flowing rugby is.
I still stand by Kear and believe he is the man to get us back to the SL but I think his reputation is starting to take a knock as his first season is coming to a frustrating end. Who is the best coach right now between Kear and Ford? Fair question!
I expect us to go up but as I said two weeks ago that two play off games will be very nervy as we all know the Bulls can blow big games.
Yesterday our halves were abysmal. Keys and Lilley are still young so no real blame aimed at them. I believe I was the first one about a month ago to say Chizzy is very poor and we should look at Lilley one week before we went for him. Others then started to question him after I had broached the touchy topic. Chizzy is not good enough for this league the way he is currently playing. One flash of brilliance and many fans are wetting themselves with excitement and ignore the other 78 minutes of nothing. The halves are there to organise and take the line on when a gap opens. I will say now that he will not get another contract as Kear must see that we need an experienced play maker who is in the game for most of those 80 minutes.
We will go up but a large number of new players and playing ideas will be needed come February next year. It is not all doom and gloom but rather a realisation that we are not as good as we hoped we would be in this division. I will say again, we are not a fluent rugby team and look very disjointed and rudderless at times.

Re: Workington (H) : Mon Aug 20, 2018 7:42 am  

woolly07 wrote:

We will go up but a large number of new players and playing ideas will be needed come February next year. It is not all doom and gloom but rather a realisation that we are not as good as we hoped we would be in this division. I will say again, we are not a fluent rugby team and look very disjointed and rudderless at times.

I'm not sure we will go up

We've shown time and time again in recent years that we cannot win those 'must win' games. For some reason, however much the playing roster changes, we always seem to lack the 'smarts', the 'nous', the 'know how' - whatever you want to call it - to get the job done

Would I be confident about beating Workington in a 'must win' play off match at the end of this season? I don't think I would..

But I certainly agree we need a massive clear out if we do go up, because this squad will get just as easily bullied in the Championship as the last time we were there.

Re: Workington (H) : Mon Aug 20, 2018 8:00 am  

Regarding Chisholm. I don't think he was great (too many times he kicked dead) his body language also doesn't do him any favours. HOWEVER he still was the only one to do anything. His intercept try and the only clean break were made by him (another scandalous decision by the way, the ref not sin-binning the Town player. I'd be damanding why he ignored the rules of the game on that occasion)

You can't let Keyes off any blame and lay it all on Chisholm (wrong decision to go for 2 from half way when he didn't make the ball dead either, not going for the 1 point when he was perfectly set up for it! Although if Grant wasn't stood 2m in front of Egodo maybe we would be calling him a hero)
Grant again was poor and its worrying that we're not learning from our mistakes. We must be the highest placed team for giving the ball away fron kick-offs and yet again Grant no where to be seen to defend a 40-20.

Also if You watch the game, the amount of times our left handside were all going in the same direction making it so easy to defend against. Garisde basically ran Pownall and Ryan into touch all game. Garside needs to straighten his line running or come inside more.

I don't think Chisholm played well. But like i said, Keyes came up with some poor plays. I honestly think Kear needs to take the majority of the responsibility for that team defeat. Awful team selection and the chopping and changing of half backs/centre/wing partnerships in the middle of the game has cost us.

I still think we'll go up via the play-offs with only Workington offering the only threat. But i'd expect us to win with the right team selection. Put Bustin, Peltier ,hopefully Hytchcox, in place of Kirk, Pownall and Grant, and we win that game.

Yesterday was a real sickener.

Re: Workington (H) : Mon Aug 20, 2018 8:13 am  

What astounds me about Chisolm is that he ran 90 metres and is absolutely cream crackered, he is a full time player and should be fitter than that. When he scored his try I turned to the fans I stand with and jokingly said "that`s him done for the rest of the game". I`m sure Kear doesn`t coach him to run around like a headless chicken most of the time and confuse his team mates. For a half back there is no structure to his game. Why do we start playing around with Lilley who is a playmaker by putting him to hooker so we can accommodate Keyes, Leave either Chisolm or Keyes out and let Lilley run the show.
Our front row replacements yesterday for Crossley and Green (who both got stuckin and had good games) Wood and Kirk are kids who can`t hack it against the like of Moi Moi and Wilkes. When I saw Kirk lining up to come on and Moi Moi was coming on at the same time, I thought Kear what are you doing.
Its still in our hands but if we have to meet Workington in the play offs there is going to have to be a change of plan from 5 drives and a kick to Ryan.