Quote The Avenger="The Avenger"
Johnstone for Senior
K Wood for Crowther
Arona for Aydin
Navarette for Gwaze
Gigot for Bailey MAYBE'"
Would it be fair to say if those had played we would probably have won the match?
Whether we like it or not we have less resources than most and will be hurt more than most teams when we are missing a significant amount of our better players.
For us to be holding our own we need to be relatively injury free a bit like we were in Chesters early days...a bit like the run Salford has last year.
I don’t see how fans can’t grasp that?
We overachieved the two seasons we came 5th...one reason is the good luck we had with injuries, the other because some so called bigger teams under performed..
Leeds has a couple of bottom four finishes after years and years of success...they haven’t fully turned the corner but look at the money made available to them to strengthen and bring in the likes of Hurrell, Lui, Gale, etc...
Warrington finished bottom four in one of those seasons...they can open the cheque book and sign the likes of Murdoch-Massilla, Austin, Widdop...
Wigan under performed one of those years...they’ve recently been able to bring in players like Hastings, Burgess, Hardaker, French...Bateman next season.
So those clubs after a below par seasons have the financial clout to be able to make a real difference...
After Chesters first real disappointing season, which started well but was disrupted hugely by injuries...he couldn’t go out and sign that calibre of player....he has to rely on gambles and picking up players that very few other teams want...
Overall though I think his recruitment has been good...Tanginoa and Fifita have both proved to be excellent signings...last year we picked up Westerman and Pitts who have both been standout players this season...of course there will be ones that don’t work out but overall I think his signings have been decent on the budget he’s afforded.
He’s proved in the past when he’s had fully fit teams that he can get results and play attractive rugby.
This season was always going to be a write off after the interruption....pre lockdown we started ok...afterwards we’ve been unfortunate to have so much go against us whilst coming up against three of the best teams in the league where we had no chance...the first time we were up against a team we were pretty evenly matched against we did ok and in my eyes were a little unlucky not to win.
He deserves a chance to see this farce of a season out and see what he can do in the off season in terms of recruitment as I think we all know the areas we need to strengthen....then have a look again say 10 games into next season..