Well hello again Ladies and Gentleman. Ive been away for a while watching from afar but I feel I can stand in the shadows no longer. After yesterdays abomination we really could be starring down the barrel with relegation a very real possibility.
Featherstone are muted by many as certainties for the drop this season. With a crushing defeat to this apparent relegation fodder on the first day of season where does this leave us?
Firstly id like to start on a positive note and thank the new BOD for coming in and saving the club. After years of financial mismanagement by the previous BOD hopefully the new regime has secured our future, albeit for the short term.
This gargantuan collapse has been on the cards for a couple of seasons. With uninterested travelling players who were/here for money alone and a vastly overrated
Coach our current slump both on and off the field has been written on the cards for a while. May I point to Trindall, yes a nice fellow and a great prop but to spend 30k plus on an aging prop in this division was plain stupid in my opinion. What the team badly needed was flair and creativity which would have come from a overseas halfback.But what did the BOD and Coach serve us with but a front rower, a loose forward masquerading as a half back, several players who didn?t want to play for the club, and a scrum half directing the team around the park who wouldn?t have cared if the sea swallowed the town of Whitehaven up (as long as he got paid of course).
Changes need to be made and NOW!
Firstly send Makisi back to NZ. We almost definitely in the midst of a relegation dogfight. We need players who can contribute something not sit on the bench and pick up fortune. Cancel his contract and use any money saved (which would be next to none as we would have to pay his contract up) and the quota spot to strengthen in other areas.
Secondly get rid of Adebisi. He has come up to Whitehaven giving it 'the big un' but is far from the standard which we require. He adds pace to the team but as with Calvert his tackling is akin to a cat flap. Not good enough, get shot now.
Richard Fletcher. A great player when on form but if he doesn?t want to play for the club let him go. It?s of my opinion that Fletcher hasn?t got the stomach for a hard shift down the nether regions of NL1. Send the whinging Yorkshire man back to Hull.
Leroy Joe. A great servant for the club but too far gone. Still has a part to play but not at Half Back.
Our other Half Back Finch had the potential for good things but is not good enough for this division at this moment in time.
Paul Crarey. The jury is still defiantly out on as far as ?Cresta? is concerned.
He came to club shouting from the rooftops about exciting flowing RL that would attract the fans back to the terraces. On current form we'll be lucky if there?s 1k plus on Monday. The board could have made a big mistake with his appointment. Would a double team of Lester and Seeds not have served the club better?
This leads be on to my last point. The new BOD should be BEGGING Seedsy and Lester to pull back on their well worn boots for one more season, The team is all over the place at the moment and is great danger of imploding. These 2 all time greats would bring leadership and passion back to the club. Seedsys return to the centres would go a long way to stem the deluge of tries which on current form we will concede this season. Lester would get the players pulling in 1 direction and not 13 as is the case at the moment.
People will criticise me for being so negative about the new coach / new signings too early without giving them a fair crack of the whip.. Last nights performance shows that we havent got the time to allow for this. Unless there is a change in tactics, attitude and to if needs be personnel at the club then we could be playing Workington 4 times next season.
