Sheffield at home Sunday.

[Peter G.]

5 hours ago, andyacko said:

A number of observations re the above.

It has been said in interview that the team are player-led this season, whatever you take that to be.

Brendan O'Hagan played with a self-admitted 'tight' hamstring yesterday.

It was said after the game that several players were 'off their game' yesterday and I can think of one or two who certainly weren't up their usual quality.

If you make mistakes at this level it costs and we made too many in that first half and handed a decent Eagles side the platform for Thackers to run the game. I watched Fev/Swinton and Haven/Thunder and in, both games, the team making the more errors lost.

Our 2019 performances were off the back of a largely settled team and squad. The injury situation has torpedoed any consistency of selection.

Unless you are Toulouse or Fev there will be a lot of 50-50 games this season ( Sparky's observation, not mine ).

Agree about Benny and, tbh, I'm still looking for someone to have the attacking influence of Graeme Horne.

 

 

Thanks for the info Acko. I thought Brendan was a little off the pace at times, l prefer your explanation to my worry above. Perhaps Fordy should have given him another week or so to recover and played Keyes and Dean yesterday, both risky decisions I know. Isn't hindsight wonderful!

[AB Knight]

Really think we need to be more expansive and start using our flying wingers more. Thinking back over the games so far and it seems our strategy is to grind a team down, unfortunately it’s not working.

Did anyone notice towards the end of last nights game we started stacking players to one side creating an overlap and looked much more dangerous than we had all match? In my eyes we’ll have more chances to score points that way than O’Hagan simply stepping to his left or right and passing the ball to a forward, by that time the defence is in the forwards face.

Swinton this week is going to be very tough. We have to try and be more adventurous in attack. And let’s play smarter, it’s infuriating watching Dixon being really assured taking a huge high kick on his own line then instead of going low and finding ground he’s standing upright and is simply picked up and shoved back over the line. 

[DEANO]

Still disappointed with last nights result and probably the early season results but on reflection I think it’s a new team with lots of player rotation due to injuries. That said I still expect the ex sl players to stand out and I’m not seeing it apart from cuthbo 

[georgeb1]

5 minutes ago, DEANO said:

Still disappointed with last nights result and probably the early season results but on reflection I think it’s a new team with lots of player rotation due to injuries. That said I still expect the ex sl players to stand out and I’m not seeing it apart from cuthbo 

Can't fault the effort from Atkins , Dixon and Jones bishop , but they need good ball and space , pack and halfbacks need to work together to create that platform , simples

[wasginger]

It's early in the season. There's teams that appear to be at a peak, but it's a long season. Once your team settles down they'll be fine.

[J Phil Loxton]

You are all no different from other fans when disappointed. Visit our Fev forum on some occasions. When York thrashed Sheffield the other week I was actually impressed by the Eagles even though you won easily. It's going to be a tight division this season even though the bookies are favouring Fev and Toulouse. Fev are playing in patches during games but were massively improved this week. It takes time to adjust. It's almost like it's a different game it's so quick now. York just to need to gel as a team like my own club are learning to do. Some weeks you'll be grumbling and others you will be ecstatic. You've come a long way recently so don't expect too much too soon.

[andyacko]

2 hours ago, Peter G. said:

Thanks for the info Acko. I thought Brendan was a little off the pace at times, l prefer your explanation to my worry above. Perhaps Fordy should have given him another week or so to recover and played Keyes and Dean yesterday, both risky decisions I know. Isn't hindsight wonderful!

Meant to ask about Dean after the game but you could clearly see Brendan carrying that leg a bit late on.

Aye, we're all amazing coaches and players with the benefit of hindsight.

[andyacko]

1 hour ago, AB Knight said:

 

Did anyone notice towards the end of last nights game we started stacking players to one side creating an overlap and looked much more dangerous than we had all match? In my eyes ....

Did you notice Sheffield had been doing it too more or less throughout..?

 

[Clarence Street]

31 minutes ago, andyacko said:

Did you notice Sheffield had been doing it too more or less throughout..?

 

I thought it seemed it was when Keyes started to direct things that we started doing it.

[Gav Wilson]

For all the grumblings about our attack - which are understandable - both Sheffield and York scored three tries each in that game. Jubb's should also have been given, Dixon came agonisingly close to a full lengther and BJB had the ball ripped out over the line. Our attack isn't a million miles away.

Due to injuries we haven't yet played two consecutive games with the same half back combination. Losing Morgan Smith to a season ending ACL a week before the first game was a huge blow, after he and O'Hagan worked together for three months shaping our attack. Riley Dean, while talented, is only a 19 year old who's been with us for a month and been unavailable for three of those games. Joe Keys will come into his own once he's had more than one training session with the team. We were well on top against Toulouse until O'Hagan's hamstring issue, which obviously can't be back to 100% yet. Losing a strike player around the ruck to get us on the front foot in Kris Brining hasn't helped the situation either.

Once the injury situation settles, the points - and wins - will come.

[georgeb1]

7 minutes ago, Gav Wilson said:

For all the grumblings about our attack - which are understandable - both Sheffield and York scored three tries each in that game. Jubb's should also have been given, Dixon came agonisingly close to a full lengther and BJB had the ball ripped out over the line. Our attack isn't a million miles away.

Due to injuries we haven't yet played two consecutive games with the same half back combination. Losing Morgan Smith to a season ending ACL a week before the first game was a huge blow, after he and O'Hagan worked together for three months shaping our attack. Riley Dean, while talented, is only a 19 year old who's been with us for a month and been unavailable for three of those games. Joe Keys will come into his own once he's had more than one training session with the team. We were well on top against Toulouse until O'Hagan's hamstring issue, which obviously can't be back to 100% yet. Losing a strike player around the ruck to get us on the front foot in Kris Brining hasn't helped the situation either.

Once the injury situation settles, the points - and wins - will come.

We probably expect too much after the amazing season of 2019 , we must enjoy this season as hopefully we will be back in person soon , watching the knights live again will be a priority over results , an 1895 cup appearance and top 8 are my hopes for this season

[Simon Hall]

12 minutes ago, Gav Wilson said:

Once the injury situation settles, the points - and wins - will come.

Better had do n all

[yck2017]

I could not bring myself to post anything yesterday after that display, we were out played all over the park, Fordy has to take some flack he picked the team and set the game plan, and i agree some of our SL. recruits are not doing the biz,Atkins and Kirmond have yet to impress me Washbrook is hot and cold Dixion on the wing is geting better game on game as is Bish.and i have to say when we signed Cuthbertson i expected to see him taking the ball on the burst near the line and crashing over not done it once ?need a new game plan and soon 

 

 

[BridKnight]

Same here yck2017.  Expectations have been high given the recent trajectory of the Knights and the addition of some quality and experienced players.  However, let’s have faith in Fordy to turn things around very soon.  When it does all click then I am confident we can start to enjoy some entertaining rugby!

[georgeb1]

12 hours ago, yck2017 said:

I could not bring myself to post anything yesterday after that display, we were out played all over the park, Fordy has to take some flack he picked the team and set the game plan, and i agree some of our SL. recruits are not doing the biz,Atkins and Kirmond have yet to impress me Washbrook is hot and cold Dixion on the wing is geting better game on game as is Bish.and i have to say when we signed Cuthbertson i expected to see him taking the ball on the burst near the line and crashing over not done it once ?need a new game plan and soon 

 

 

Never been cuthbertsons  style , plays with more brain than brawn , just the player we need to open the defense

[Peter G.]

1 hour ago, BridKnight said:

Same here yck2017.  Expectations have been high given the recent trajectory of the Knights and the addition of some quality and experienced players.  However, let’s have faith in Fordy to turn things around very soon.  When it does all click then I am confident we can start to enjoy some entertaining rugby!

Spot on Brid,us fans can be forgiven for our high expectations given the big name signings that were announced in the off season, the only thing missing at the time was a fanfare of trumpets! But as Gav has highlighted above, we also know that fate has conspired against us up to now, lets hope things settle down soon.

[Clarence Street]

On 20/04/2021 at 17:35, Gav Wilson said:

For all the grumblings about our attack - which are understandable - both Sheffield and York scored three tries each in that game. Jubb's should also have been given, Dixon came agonisingly close to a full lengther and BJB had the ball ripped out over the line. Our attack isn't a million miles away.

Due to injuries we haven't yet played two consecutive games with the same half back combination. Losing Morgan Smith to a season ending ACL a week before the first game was a huge blow, after he and O'Hagan worked together for three months shaping our attack. Riley Dean, while talented, is only a 19 year old who's been with us for a month and been unavailable for three of those games. Joe Keys will come into his own once he's had more than one training session with the team. We were well on top against Toulouse until O'Hagan's hamstring issue, which obviously can't be back to 100% yet. Losing a strike player around the ruck to get us on the front foot in Kris Brining hasn't helped the situation either.

Once the injury situation settles, the points - and wins - will come.

Thank you Gav. for saving me the trouble of composing something along those lines. I agree with everything you've said there apart from the last paragraph. I would temper that with a "hope the wins will come". This is a tough league and nothing can be guaranteed. Thanks again

[AB Knight]

On 19/04/2021 at 20:54, andyacko said:

Did you notice Sheffield had been doing it too more or less throughout..?

 

Yep, hope we do the same in an hour