23 Mar: SL: Hull FC v Catalans Dragons KO 7.45pm

[winnyason]

2 hours ago, Hvy wg said:

McNamara won't go. Still had 3 years on his contract, would cost us too much. 

Pretty simple sack coach or play championship footy next season

Lets hope toulouse can go up, catalans are a train wreck

[barnyia]

Toulouse play Toronto on Easter Monday at the same time as Catalans play Huddersfield, let's see if this affects the crowd lots of fans travel from Carcassonne and around this region who may choose to go to Toulouse rather than Perpignan! 

[MZH]

Another point to the people who think it is all down to McNamara. Catalans tried to play much more expansively last night than I have seen them play this year. They offloaded, they tried to put width on the ball, but they just didn't have the quality to make very much happen. So it isnt entirely the game plan and the structure that is to blame.

I think they obviously need to get rid, its clearly not working. They were poor when McNamara took the job and he has only managed to take them even further backwards. But its not going to be a quick fix. They are a rabble and whoever is in charge I think its going to be a long hard season.

[Old Frightful]

I wonder how much of their wage bill is being taken up by Greg Bird. I decided to keep an eye on him last night as he has been a great player and has all the physical attributes of a tireless forward who can rip into the opposition for most of the game.

However, he hardly made any effort and after one charge a set if the French were lucky, he spent most of the time he was on the park wide out with his hands on his hips watching his team mates.

He should have been charged admission.

[MZH]

6 minutes ago, Old Frightful said:

I wonder how much of their wage bill is being taken up by Greg Bird. I decided to keep an eye on him last night as he has been a great player and has all the physical attributes of a tireless forward who can rip into the opposition for most of the game.

However, he hardly made any effort and after one charge a set if the French were lucky, he spent most of the time he was on the park wide out with his hands on his hips watching his team mates.

He should have been charged admission.

He is utterly unrecognisable from the outstanding player that Catalans had during his first stint there. I assumed he had just gotten old and didnt quite have it anymore, but as you say, his effort has been nil the last couple of times I have seen him.

[barnyia]

To be fair he was playing second row ! 

[Hvy wg]

Greg Bird total : 27 tackles, 9 carries. Not enough intensity. 

Meanwhile, Albert is slowly raising his game. 

I dislike the Gigot and Mead switch. Gigot spilled bombs and Mead is wasted at centre. 

The worst of all is Williame, his positioning is so off he's targeted every week and last night cost us a handful of tries. 

I disagree with posters saying we lack quality. We're not the best SL team but most of the tries we conceded were soft. Mostly a mindset issue. 

[Old Frightful]

9 minutes ago, barnyia said:

To be fair he was playing second row ! 

In the seats?

[barnyia]

Listened to the game on the radio, the commentators said langi doesn’t like tackling so they reckon they went at him in the second half,  

[Hvy wg]

12 minutes ago, barnyia said:

Listened to the game on the radio, the commentators said langi doesn’t like tackling so they reckon they went at him in the second half,  

10 tackles, 6 missed. This is a 100kg halfback who can't tackle but it's his first game in months, maybe hell get better? 

[Guest]

Langi has never played at a high level though? 14 starts in 5 years and only 9 in a poor Leigh side?

McNamara has to go.

On paper that side is a little old in the forwards, but should be half decent.

Gigot in the halves with Albert, Williame at Centre and Mead at fullback. That would be far better and more balanced than the bizarre selections last night.

A pack of Moa, Bousquet, Simon, Margalet, Bird, Casty, Aiton, Garcia and McIlorum should be competitive.

The only conclusion is that it is down to the coach and some bizarre positional selections, although he has been unlucky with injuries in the halves (even though he chose to keep Walsh on).

Move him on and take the season to put in place better selections and a better style. They should still have enough even if they are in the middle 8s.

 

[winnyason]

There ability in cats moa, bird, garica, gigot can all play young albert is evolving.

Good coaches improve average and make good great bad is the other way.

Mcnarmara is bad 

[Faithful1865]

3 hours ago, winnyason said:

There ability in cats moa, bird, garica, gigot can all play young albert is evolving.

Good coaches improve average and make good great bad is the other way.

Mcnarmara is bad 

He's not as good as that!!

[Ullman]

On 21/03/2018 at 10:34 PM, Evil Homer said:

No it's not a conservative gameplan, it's a complete lack of any sort of attacking shape, structure or really any of the things that you would expect from a professional team or even a decent amateur team. You'll see for yourself on Friday.

They had enough territory and possession in the twenty minutes before half-time to go in leading comfortably at the break but never looked like adding to Moa's barnstorming effort. Once Hull extended the lead straight after the restart the Dragons fell apart and went through their full shooting themselves in the foot routine.

There's an old saying that players make mistakes not coaches but well coached teams rarely make as many as the Dragons do or give away so many soft penalties.

[Ullman]

20 hours ago, Old Frightful said:

Talanoa from superb Kelly kick.

12-0.

Tremendous pin-point kick by Kelly and an outstanding piece of skill from Talanoa to leap and catch a ball above his head that had some pace on it.

[Ullman]

18 hours ago, MZH said:

Which Shaul bit are you referring to? He had a mixed night.

I think it must be the bit where he ran over snapski's cat.

[Old Frightful]

1 hour ago, Ullman said:

I think it must be the bit where he ran through several of snapski's Tigers.

Edited for accuracy.

I'm sure you won't mind.

[Ullman]

4 minutes ago, Old Frightful said:

Edited for accuracy.

I'm sure you won't mind.

I'm only too pleased to be reminded of one of the tries of last season.

[gogledd]

#sackthemac!

[MZH]

Gigot looked really uncomfortable under the high kicks. Everyone makes a mess of a high ball every now and then as he did for Connor's try, but there was another in the first half where he was right underneath it and changed his mind and literally stepped out the way of it. It bounced onto the post pad and he was able to pick it up, but he wanted no piece of it at all. It isnt the be all and end all of a full back to be great under a high kick, but you need to at least be able to hold your own. He looked frightened by them.

[winnyason]

17 hours ago, Faithful1865 said:

He's not as good as that!!

Yeah, question now if catalans dont have cash to sack. Are toulouse superleague ready yet

[Chronicler of Chiswick]

31 minutes ago, winnyason said:

Yeah, question now if catalans dont have cash to sack. Are toulouse superleague ready yet

And would Sylvain Houles be prepared to give up his sheep farm and all the lovely subsidies that come with it? Not joking about this - I live in the Welsh border country and the only reason you see a lot of sheep round here is the subsidy, without it there'd be no sheep as it's all most of them are kept for.

[Hvy wg]

11 hours ago, MZH said:

It isnt the be all and end all of a full back to be great under a high kick, but you need to at least be able to hold your own. He looked frightened by them.

It is, though. Can't play fullback without being safe as banks. 

 

[Desert Skipper]

Just now, Hvy wg said:

It is, though. Can't play fullback without being safe as banks. 

 

Winning breeds confidence, confidence breeds winning.   When a team’s down for a prolonged run you tend to see players who are indecisive and poor competing for the ball.

[MZH]

8 minutes ago, Hvy wg said:

It is, though. Can't play fullback without being safe as banks. 

 

Not sure I agree. I can cope with the odd dropped bomb if a player excels in another part of full back play, but you do need to at least be competent under a high ball, and I am not sure Gigot even meets that standard.