Well having played nearly half the games I have to say we are probably in a slighly false positon. As yet we havent really hit the height in any league game and we have in all honesty thrown away two games we should not have lost. As things stand having had by far the easiest start we should have been unbeaten so far.
In the second half of the season we have Cas (h) and (a) Widnes (h) and (a) and Halifax (a). If I am being honest I would be surprised if we win any of those games based on our form so far.
Assuming we don't lose to the likes of Rochdale and Sheffield (a) (which we are more than capbale of doing) we could end up with seven losses in the league.
My view on the problems:-
(1) Our play of the ball and speed around the ruck is noticably slower than the other top teams.
(2) Unusually for Whitehaven over recent years we are light in the forwards, specificallyy at Prop. Both halifax and leigh have outplayed us up front and we have yet to face Widnes and Cas.
(3) Its unfortunate to say this but I honestly dont think our half back paring is strong enough Either Duffy or Rudd with a higher quality player would be ok but togehther they just dont have enough zip and spark.
Compare our other half backs in the recent succesful years Obst and Joe / Penny and Joe. The sum of either of these two is slighlty better than the current pairing. In my view not by much but enough in tight games.
(4) In a small squad we have had injuries to two importent players Hill and Macavoy. Hill gives good go forward off the bench as a third prop and Mcavoy is strong in attack, we couldn't really afford to lose wither of those players for what really amounts to a whole season. i.e once their able to play it will take six weeks to get match fit at least.
Overall I think we will finish fourth. Still ok but probably fairly reflects the slight drop in quality of the team and performences this year.
