Toronto Prediction

[doggystyle]

No BSJ. To be blunt.

[phildog]

Anybody got the team, the generous Wolfpack couldn't be bothered outtjngbit in Twitter and TOTALRL have changed their site, don't show teams(not that they were ever right!!).

[Batley Bob]

[phildog]

Anybody put that into positional play, that's a rubbish way of doing it Toronto!! And who played half back in which position? Don't tell me he brought in a scrum half and didn't play him, looks like Brown in the halves from that list, not at 7 surely, after all the talk of mucking around with the team? Still, most would have taken that result!

[Batley Bob]

 

[Batley Bob]

Highlights

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/rugby-league/11668934/toronto-wolfpack-34-12-batley-bulldogs

[RogerT]

Of the 19 named who where the two to miss out please.

[Kayakman]

3 hours ago, Batley Bob said:

 

Told you your guys would rise to the occasion today...good job Batley...very good effort all around, especially being dedicated to the tackles.

[nineoil]

It was not all doom and gloom today despite a lousy first half and the continued strange selection policy which I will leave for others to discuss .

Batley could have buckled in the second half but didn't . OK the rain changed the  style of the game in the second half but after all , it did rain on both sides not just Toronto  !!! I know McDermott was moaning about the rain in the second half but hey , it rains in this country , and I think he was just hiding from the fact that his team couldn't steamroller little Batley in the second half !

We were not going to win BUT when you look at the game there were 3 pivotal incidents which impacted hugely on the scoreline:-

1. Take away the Toronto  Try from the HUGE forward pass that only 3 blokes on the ground didn't see ( i.e. The  Officials ).

2.Take away the Try from the interception ( our fault of course ) .

You are now in a 24-12 game

3. With a bit of luck we could have sneaked a Try when the Ref pulled back  when we were over the line and suddenly the gap has closed to 24-18 .

I know it is fanciful but it is those small margins in the decision making abilities of the Ref or the players that make a such huge difference to the score.

Maybe in the return fixture Kevin should get the groundsman to leave the hosepipe on the pitch overnight and secondly get our players contact lenses so the can see the opposition when passing the ball to cut out these damaging interception Tries ! !!

By the way , Dane Manning was immense today which baffles me all the more as to why you would contemplate voluntarily playing a game without him !! 

 

[ernieone]

Yes it rained in the second half but little has been pointed out regarding the at times gale force winds in the first half that Batley were playing in to which gave Toronto a big advantage.

 

The wind in Hull has always been a great advantage, ask Barry Eaton who when he dropped out from under the posts, kicked the ball over the dead ball line at the other end of the pitch.

[distantdog]

After a dismal first half, i thought we came back and really showed some fight, much to our credit. The forwards gave as good as they got and with Jouffret back in we looked to be a little more dangerous near their line. I was particularly pleased that we built pressure and had a few repeat sets. 

Still not sure why Smeaton was in at second row, particularly as we had Tomlinson on the bench who could have done that. Not sure why he wouldn't have Brown at LF as a ball playing forward. As for the backs, too early to make a judgement on Walker but the more I see of Galbraith the more I think he would go well on the wing, with Wood at centre every week! 

I was very anxious about this match after the Bradford game, but thought we came out of it with some credit. I hope the positives we saw in the second half this week can be built on next week.

 

[Phil Loxton]

Wonder if OBrien will be cited for what he did. Fev players have received three match bans for incidence like that. Just wondering?

[9' oller]

Not sure think they may be too preoccupied with ram seagull fall out. Prob just winded but if our lad reigned a concussion test then maybe they'd have to look at obrien.

Our players aren't clever enough to go down with cramp etc tho....

[bromleybulldog]

13 hours ago, RogerT said:

Of the 19 named who where the two to miss out please.

Bienek and Taira

[phildog]

Press has Galbraith in 2nd row!! Clearly Smeaton really fits in Diskin's pocket, as he seems to be first name on the team sheet, but in the 2nd row? The selections really are getting stranger, we trumpeted the arrival of Bienek yet doesn't get a game, we bring in a scrum half to watch Dom and learn for next year yet he now finds himself 3rd choice, and of the games he's played, hasn't yet played in his position! We have a grear ball handler who most would start at 13 but is always a sub, whilst a prop has been played there! Another good handler, hard to knock down, seems to be in the blame book, but is becoming an expert water carrier! I expect we will get another shuffle round this weekend with somebody playing where they can't, and with it comes the fact that there can't be a building up of confidence and knowledge in a regular line up. With every tinkering comes a new tactic, new thinking. Clearly the board aren't going to change the coach, the coach doesn't seem to want to not criticise and cast blame on certain players or admit the job is too much for him, so the best he could do is decide on his best team, explain to others why they're not in it and set out a plan for their futures and get the club back on track.

[Dog forever]

34 minutes ago, phildog said:

Press has Galbraith in 2nd row!! Clearly Smeaton really fits in Diskin's pocket, as he seems to be first name on the team sheet, but in the 2nd row? The selections really are getting stranger, we trumpeted the arrival of Bienek yet doesn't get a game, we bring in a scrum half to watch Dom and learn for next year yet he now finds himself 3rd choice, and of the games he's played, hasn't yet played in his position! We have a grear ball handler who most would start at 13 but is always a sub, whilst a prop has been played there! Another good handler, hard to knock down, seems to be in the blame book, but is becoming an expert water carrier! I expect we will get another shuffle round this weekend with somebody playing where they can't, and with it comes the fact that there can't be a building up of confidence and knowledge in a regular line up. With every tinkering comes a new tactic, new thinking. Clearly the board aren't going to change the coach, the coach doesn't seem to want to not criticise and cast blame on certain players or admit the job is too much for him, so the best he could do is decide on his best team, explain to others why they're not in it and set out a plan for their futures and get the club back on track.

Couldn't agree more with you phildog. But I'll get you a penny to my pound dom  rettie and maybe a couple more are back in for Toulouse.  

[Batley Bob]

22 hours ago, phildog said:

Anybody got the team, the generous Wolfpack couldn't be bothered outtjngbit in Twitter and TOTALRL have changed their site, don't show teams(not that they were ever right!!).

 

[Kevin Nicholas]

There has been some shall we say harsh criticism of Matt Diskin by a few people on here. Obviously calling for him to be sacked. In the first half v Toronto the criticism continued and looking at the score whilst I don’t agree with the criticism I can understand how it came about. However after a halftime team talk from Matt we drew the second half against a very good full time team yet the same people then go silent and cannot  give a little bit of credit or muster  a glimmer of positivity going forward. I am not for one minute saying all our problems are suddenly solved but  whilst I wouldn’t expect a sudden change of heart surely a supporter who wants the best for the Club could try to show a little bit of a balanced view and acknowledge that Matt has overseen at least a small improvement if nothing else. I appreciate they still believe we should sack him but a bit of fairness wouldn’t go amiss. It is all about looking at it with a bit of balance which the BOD try to do knowing that we can’t please everybody but trying to run the Club in a stable way . After all in the time we have run the Club this is not the first time there have been calls to sack a coach. There were calls to sack John Kear , we didn’t and he got us to a Grand Final in 2013 and Qualifiers In 2016 which shows that there are other ways to address problems other than sacking people. Sorry if that is cut and paste but you either have principles that you try to stick to or you don’t and much to the obvious annoyance of some we do.

Lets just all try to get behind the team against Toulouse and you never know we might continue to improve a bit more. They are another good team with full time players and far more resources than us but we can give it a go! We are fully aware of their budget as we tried to sign Ford a few years ago and failed miserably as indeed did Featherstone but that doesn’t stop us trying and possibly our best performance of last season was our win at home to Toulouse so it could be a great contest. If people are not persuaded to come to the game so be it but we can only hope they will.

[Dog forever]

3 hours ago, Kevin Nicholas said:

There has been some shall we say harsh criticism of Matt Diskin by a few people on here. Obviously calling for him to be sacked. In the first half v Toronto the criticism continued and looking at the score whilst I don’t agree with the criticism I can understand how it came about. However after a halftime team talk from Matt we drew the second half against a very good full time team yet the same people then go silent and cannot  give a little bit of credit or muster  a glimmer of positivity going forward. I am not for one minute saying all our problems are suddenly solved but  whilst I wouldn’t expect a sudden change of heart surely a supporter who wants the best for the Club could try to show a little bit of a balanced view and acknowledge that Matt has overseen at least a small improvement if nothing else. I appreciate they still believe we should sack him but a bit of fairness wouldn’t go amiss. It is all about looking at it with a bit of balance which the BOD try to do knowing that we can’t please everybody but trying to run the Club in a stable way . After all in the time we have run the Club this is not the first time there have been calls to sack a coach. There were calls to sack John Kear , we didn’t and he got us to a Grand Final in 2013 and Qualifiers In 2016 which shows that there are other ways to address problems other than sacking people. Sorry if that is cut and paste but you either have principles that you try to stick to or you don’t and much to the obvious annoyance of some we do.

Lets just all try to get behind the team against Toulouse and you never know we might continue to improve a bit more. They are another good team with full time players and far more resources than us but we can give it a go! We are fully aware of their budget as we tried to sign Ford a few years ago and failed miserably as indeed did Featherstone but that doesn’t stop us trying and possibly our best performance of last season was our win at home to Toulouse so it could be a great contest. If people are not persuaded to come to the game so be it but we can only hope they will.

Up until your post Kevin,  Matt was heading to the supporters gallows.  You might just have earned him a stay of execution. 

[9' oller]

[Dogstew]

1 hour ago, Dog forever said:

Up until your post Kevin,  Matt was heading to the supporters gallows.  You might just have earned him a stay of execution. 

Can’t figure out if this is irony, sarcasm or sucking up.

[ernieone]

Or just making a general comment

[phildog]

Well, we're well and truly slapped!

[Pride & Heritage]

Double post

[Pride & Heritage]

On 3/18/2019 at 1:32 PM, phildog said:

Press has Galbraith in 2nd row!! Clearly Smeaton really fits in Diskin's pocket, as he seems to be first name on the team sheet, but in the 2nd row? The selections really are getting stranger, we trumpeted the arrival of Bienek yet doesn't get a game, we bring in a scrum half to watch Dom and learn for next year yet he now finds himself 3rd choice, and of the games he's played, hasn't yet played in his position! We have a grear ball handler who most would start at 13 but is always a sub, whilst a prop has been played there! Another good handler, hard to knock down, seems to be in the blame book, but is becoming an expert water carrier! I expect we will get another shuffle round this weekend with somebody playing where they can't, and with it comes the fact that there can't be a building up of confidence and knowledge in a regular line up. With every tinkering comes a new tactic, new thinking. Clearly the board aren't going to change the coach, the coach doesn't seem to want to not criticise and cast blame on certain players or admit the job is too much for him, so the best he could do is decide on his best team, explain to others why they're not in it and set out a plan for their futures and get the club back on track.

What none of us know, is what goes off at training, or in the changing rooms. There may be very logical and perfectly sound reasoning for picking Smeaton. I can't say I'm his biggest fan, but in fairness to him, what has he done that is so wrong this season to warrant the negativity towards him? He hasn't been any worse than most of the rest of the squad, or have I missed something? We've certainly had far worse players than him over the years. I wouldn't have picked him in the second row yesterday, but then again, I'm not a coach and by reading many of the comments on here, quite a few of the poster's aren't either. How many mistakes, or missed tackles did Smeaton make yesterday?

Some fans who felt the need to pass judgement regarding what the BOD should do in relation to the coach, didn't even know which players were playing in which position, yet somehow deem themselves qualified to make such calls.   

I've watched this club for many years now, but I cannot remember a time when sections of the supporters didn't have an axe to grind against something or somebody.

Karl Harrison saved us from relegation, won the NR Cup and we finished 3rd in the league during his 3 year tenure. Halcyon days for a club of our size. Yet it was not good enough for some sections of our support, all you heard on the terraces and read on this forum was "We don't play football, it's all 5 drives and a kick", "He can only coach forwards", "It's boring to watch" etc. 

John Kear got us to a GF, he had most of the better players from that side, move on to clubs paying more money, and there were numerous calls for his head, after we only just managed to avoid relegation during the next 2 seasons. Even the season we finished 3rd, there were calls on here for him to go, because, guess what "We don't play any football, it's all 5 drives and a kick" "It's boring to watch", "He should go to Wakefield now, he's lost the dressing room". Thank heavens the BOD know far more than some of the poster's on this forum, eh?  

Matt Diskin came in with a plan to change the 5 drives and a kick mentality, preferred by the previous two coaches. He wanted us playing an attractive brand of football. In fairness to him, we do, we are now quite an attractive footballing side, if we manage to keep hold of the ball for more than 3 tackles. That isn't good enough either, because despite spending a fraction of what the top sides do, we are not winning enough, and we should be finishing in the top 3 every year, because Kear managed it once. Kear incidentally, has gone from a coach who needed sacking, to the second messiah now that he has gone.

For what it's worth, I think we have perhaps gone a little too far, trying to entertain and play too expansively. We are sometimes guilty of trying to play too much football and therefore making handling errors. Maybe the players, or just part-time players in general, do not have the ability or skill set to play that type of football, maybe it is just lack of time training to enable them to play an open brand effectively? As Steve Senior pointed out in a previous thread, Diskin isn't the one throwing interception passes out, missing tackles or making unforced errors, the players are. But hey, what do I know?

Many moons before that, Steven Ball came in to run the club and worked wonders. He took us from a club who would regularly be fighting to avoid the wooden spoon, to a club that should have been in SL, had the RFL not changed the rules after the season had ended. Again, this wasn't good enough either, lots of fans at the time wanted him gone, because he was allegedly taking money out of the club, AKA a wage, for running the club on a full time basis - God forbid he should have earned a living!

I really despair sometimes, some supporters wonder why our gates are so low and why we find it hard to attract new fans, blaming everything from the local ethnicity of the population in relation to the ground (despite most of the adult population having the ability to drive), to a lack of marketing by the BOD. Then you read the tripe on here and overhear it on the terraces on match days, and it should be very clear to anyone with half an ounce of intelligence, what part of the reason is.

Some of you perpetual complainers, please ask yourself this - If you were a new, or prospective fan, and read all of the moaning, whining and complaining on this message board, would you be tempted to come along and support the club? I know I wouldn't!

Before some of you dust off the old tried and tested chestnut of, "I'm entitled to my opinion". Yes, you are entitled to your opinion, but do me, and the club you support a favour, and keep it to yourself if you have nothing positive or constructive to say.