Sounds very cliquey Listy





Bit of a bad day for you - you're favourite team (Rhinos) and Broncos being beaten

it was pretty dire to be honest.



The only players who I thought were okay were Melling and Sarginson. Dixon and Rinaldi were alright off the bench but Rinaldi blotted his copybook with the handbags at 24-24, which fired Widnes up and they got back in the game. We were in the ascendancy up until that point and I think psychologically it had a fair impact.



No acknowledgement of the fans by Gower who was once again the first to storm off down the tunnel. He's also always the one laying in to players behind the sticks when a try has been scored, yet he's missing tackles left right and centre. Far be it from me to suggest he's got an attitude problem.



Special mention to the Widnes fans who booed Silverwood off despite having won the match, incredible chutzpah

Positives - watching league in the sun with beer in hand, Kaufusi and Gower, and Dixon off the bench

Negatives - one of the teams was mine and we lost a game we should probably have won, Clubby probably having an extended leave of absence, Howell limping off

Much as I'm not happy about Powell as coach - primarily because we can't defend, which he has to sort out, and doesn't seem able to - he can't be blamed for Dorn dropping the ball from kicks and in the tackle, or for Clubby's brain explosion at the end, errors which saw us concede 20 points (I think). We did score 30 points again, and that should be enough to win, but isn't.

Scoring the points isn’t a problem for us; it's just the other stuff in-between which is an issue. Yesterday’s defeat was a crippling blow; or a disaster if you prefer.

I (again) notice that the majority (all?) of the oppo's tries came through our right-hand side defence. I haven't added up the season totals but I'd guess that 70% of the tries against are scored through that side of the field.



I (again) notice that when Witt makes a tackle, the oppo push through where he would have been in the defensive line - I wouldn't be surprised if this has happened about 5 times this season; see first and last tries conceded this season for examples. This isn't entirely Witt's fault but a communication problem behind him - nobody pulls defenders across and Witt himself is lazy at marker (or, as Rooster Booster has previously noted, he's a lead candidate for "dead marine"icon_wink.gif.



The good news is that this is obviously fixable (though it needs the coaching staff to be aware of the defect). A vocal communicator needs to be put in charge of the right-hand side defence (as per Gower on the left) and I would move Witt out to defending at centre. The bad news is that I don't think there's a clear candidate to step into 3rd man in on the right who will bully his co-defenders and keep them alert. Howell exacerbates the problem with his poor defence so I'd scratch him altogether, leaving Bailey to move wider or Colbon to come infield ... Anyway, we can't go on with Howell-Witt-Bailey on the right-hand side - the oppo will continue to feast.

Great day out yesterday with good company, good weather and cheap beer, only marred by watching Broncos throw away a match they could have won.



Positives for me were Witts goal kicking (must be close to an 80% success ratio), Colbon getting his first try, Gower roasting his team and getting to meet the Widnes and London legend, Reg Bowden.



Loved Widnes' ground. Cracking stadium and clubhouse that had stuff going on and a good bar and friendly fans. Best matchday experience of all the SL clubs (bar ours, although I'm biased).



That's about it. Long day which has left me deflated and dreading Saturday.

One day we will have our own Ground which will become a community stadium with a great clubhouse!

I noted that very few did actually which was a shame.

...........but as they won't tell anyone where it is, I don't see the point

I don't suppose it was anyone off here who was sat behind us, one with a Queensland Origin shirt and the other with a Broncos top?

If Mac was still in charge this would not have been the case. Sign of a team getting more and more distant from the fans and heading downwards towards oblivion.

As I posted yesterday, the team were quite correctly ashamed of themselves and coming over to the supporters for any reason wouldn't have achieved anything for anyone. I don't blame Gower at all for storming down the tunnel, he must be doing his nut playing for this club.