Thoughts on Giants vs Cats then

I know we gave away stupid penalties, but I reckon that Cats deserved at least 2 sin-binnings and a sending off.
Greg Bird played so dirty tonight, it was beyond belief.
Their coaches propaganda obviously paid off didn't it?
Apart from that, our handling could have been better and passes to the forwards were yet again, far too shallow!

Ref was poor, should have made a stand and sin binned Bird. Either way Catalan deserved the win second half, we offered very little. Stevo was spot on, we needed a stand off tonight. Robbo hasn't looked the same since we lost Brown and from a creative point of view we lack ideas and spark.

Shame to see the lads go down and out on a wimper, but next year will be the crucial test for us as a team.

I was in a very fortunate position tonight and if you knew what I did tonight you would say we were badly robbed!! But I can't elaborate here!!

But it was a very close encounter which could've realistically gone either way!! Despite hating the Catalans tactics I do hope they shuffle the grand final mix and ruffle a few feathers!

yep - we were robbed Washy
It was sad!

Once again the gamewas ruined by a weak official who struts about acting strong

I counted 6 plays where EVERY catalan defender in the line was infront of him and many more where there was only the full back and a couple more behind him

Any team will appear quick into the tackle when only 6 or 7 metres away at the play the ball
and Salford were alloweed similar early on in the season and that game was dour two

I dont blame em --if Cummins and Co are gonna apply the rules similar to last night --and every week - this great games being ruined

Offside --naaah!
balls that go back --knock on
balls knocked on- went back
High tackle --chest

Its garbage Its on record (TV) and is anything done
Full time refs on salaries - All I think thats done is give them greater power and the powers that be thnk paying em full time has improved em !!- and nothing is done about it!

Its not sour grapes cos we lost -- hand on heart
The standard is pure garbage

Now thats out the way --so were we!!
Why so low an attendance ?
We`ve lost a lot of the converts They want to see a team WIN -(sadly) and I have said before that a lot more damage was done at Wembley than just geting the runners up spot

Therewas a chance up to last night to recoup the situation -- and the attempt to do so was quite honestly solack lustre - it was embarassing

Youve got to want to win -- Dont think there was a glimmer of that in there! Sadly
Most appeared t have their cases packed for a flight on Tuesday
Sad

Sad to say - but yet another "almost" season with a sad ending
Anwar says theres always next year to look forward to
I do and have and have and have .........................

You would think that after getting to Wembley and having the opportunity to lift it again / a 3rd in table/ and into the playoffs and a chance for Old Trafford -- I should be very pleased
Had we gone down fighting instead of treating the few that turned up to,a display like that - it wouldnt have been TOO bad - but for those that bothered (the faithful) sadly in my eyes it was a cop out and fizzling out like that ( well we didnt even manage a pop) has left me flat! Theyve really done well I suppose and Im not stupid enough to think theyll win all their games but after seeing what they can do (the Semi / Wigan matches etc - last night was truly abysmal
Sad but true -- and just when the season ticket drive is on again
KD must feel like crying!!
Nathan must feel like crying

and I ............................pass me the Kleenex!!

Oh by the way, Andy Raleigh stood out for me, tackled like a demon.

Well there are two positives that i can take out of that, I , I didn't pay to watch it ,2 Thank god It's over, If we had somehow managed to come through that with a win , 1, It would have been a miracle, and 2 , the consequences of playing Leeds on TV just do not bear thinking about. To me that was a completely inept and embarrassing Borefest of a performance, There was not one position on the field where we were not second best, If we were playing to the coaches game plan, then i can only assume N Brown had some kind of brainstorm.
We spent 95% of our time with the ball (of which we had plenty ) attempting to go up the middle and through a pack of forwards that were clearly every bit as tough as ours, and were here with a game plan to play Ganson to the very limits, That's not how we have got to where we have this season, A glance at the stats shows where our scoring has been done, and we completely abandoned that style of play last night, I have to assume It was N Browns game plan because they didn't change or attempt anything different for 75 minutes, and it was a total and dismal failure.

Ganson was poor as he always is ( they all are ) but the Dragons came with the intention of playing on the limits, and It payed off for them, He could have been a lot stricter with them, but for anyone to suggest he was the reason we lost, I would suggest they watch the game again, and take in the complete lack of any idea that was on show.

I'm with PG as regards K Davy, He must indeed feel like he is wasting his time, For the most part of this season," on the back of having the best side for many years " they have done well, they have suggested that they have been capable of something above what we have become used to, But the last few weeks,( With the exception of a scintillating display against Wigan) when it has come to the crunch and time for the money punch, they have been a big let down, and i can only think the effect on season tickets will be dire, It wont have much effect on the 4or 5 thousand hard core fans, we are well used to it, but the new fans that the club has been working hard to pull in, will not shell out money easily to watch games like that .
I shall be sure not to be reading the Examiner for the next few days, cause if It's full of drivell trying to explain away that shambols, and telling us how much better we are going to be next year, it would probably just be enough to stop me renewing my ST .

Some good posts there guys. I for one can't disagree.

Didnt play well, but like many have been saying for some time we need a world class half back. But why so downbeat. What a great season! Challenge cup final and 3rd place. Best defence in the league. Great young coach and some improving players. Missed shaun Lunt tonight though, and Kirmond and brown and jammer.

I just thought it was a bridge two far. When Jamahl went off, we lost the impetus we might have had and had to regroup, rethink and start all over again. I'm not making excuses, we lost the ball too often, gave away some silly penalties and our defence wasn't as it has been. But on the flip side, its been a long season, the cup final defeat demoralised a lot of people and with the injuries we've had on top of all that, we just ran out of steam.

joek wrote:

Didnt play well, but like many have been saying for some time we need a world class half back. But why so downbeat. What a great season! Challenge cup final and 3rd place. Best defence in the league. Great young coach and some improving players. Missed shaun Lunt tonight though, and Kirmond and brown and jammer.

We have had a great season as you say, and people who post on this and other boards will appreciate that, after what they have been through over the years, Unfortunately It has petered out like a damp squib and the new fans that have been won with cheap tickets and any other means will be hard to pull in next year, To a lot of fans, Young one's especially It's about winning things, they are not interested how bad we have been in the past, We have been all season long a better side than Warrington, yet they came away with the cup, same with Catalan, just scraped into the top eight, yet lifted their game just when ours has been shriveling up, I only hope we get another chance in the not to distant future, like we have had this year to really make a big leap forward in the fan-base. The attendance last night shows the effects that the last few weeks has had on fans, I know all the playoffs have been poorly attended, but last night was particularly poor, Having said that, i was unable to go myself so who am i to comment.

Catalans came to spoil as a gameplan and Ganson let em get away with it, they did same when we played em at home last time, but we had idea and go forward in that game.

We played down the middle far too much, inside passes nearly every set, getting no-where.

It's hard to get on top against a team that are only 5 meters away from you when you receive the ball, thats where something differen't is required.

We tried the chip over from Brett far too late in 1st half, they nearly scored from it but it's something like that in 1st 10 mins that puts doubt in a fast rushing up defence.

We have no spark in the halfbacks and if it's not going our way no-one brave enough there to try owt differen't

Anyone who has played will tell you how frustrating a performance likie Ganson's was last night and you could see it in our players reactions.

The RFL probably will be delighted that Catalans have got there and not us, spreading the game and all that (They came with a game plan and got away with it, we were poor on the night and the best team deserved to go thru I suppose).

ATEOTD At the start of the season if someone had offered us Challenge Cup Finalists and 3rd in league finish I would have snapped their hand off, after the performance against Saints in the semi's and Wigan in the league I feel a little robbed to be honest.

Still time to reflect now and regroup for next seasson, a big well done and Thankyou to Jacko who has done well for us, Thanks to Scotty Moore for a good season and welcome back to Drewy and welcome to Gilmour, Falogo and Grix.

Well done to Browny and all his coaching staff(We have improved since Sharpy!!)Take us to that next level boys cos thats the way forward now.

Jonno1974 wrote:

I just thought it was a bridge two far. When Jamahl went off, we lost the impetus we might have had and had to regroup, rethink and start all over again. I'm not making excuses, we lost the ball too often, gave away some silly penalties and our defence wasn't as it has been. But on the flip side, its been a long season, the cup final defeat demoralised a lot of people and with the injuries we've had on top of all that, we just ran out of steam.

Unbelievable, those are exactly the words I was saying to the neighbour this morning. Play offs were a bridge too far, we looked tired last week and same again yesterday. Lets just reflect on what we have achieved this year which have easily outweighed my expectations. Thanks boys, now take a much earned rest and come back stronger for the experiences next year.

Sorry fellas

"bridge too far "" Ok
Its the teams who say "One last big push " that win things --and its been the same length of season for all --but for our cup run

Yes --weve done well --as far as recent seasons and state of the club are concerned but as Bo says --it wont matter a jot when the ticket sale starts

3rd OR $TH IS BETTER THAN 5TH OR 6TH

but sadly you dont gert nowt for it --and thats what the converts wanted to see!!

without the silly losses against Hull and Salford at home and a bit mor "guts " and determination --we`d have finished top
Witha bit more guts - we`d have beaten the ref and Warrington at Wembley

and with a bit more cokum wed have beaten a team that wed beaten twice --who were away -- travelled a fair bit -- scraped into the eight -and quite honestly Im convinced would have been out of steam with their big forwards if wed stretched em wide and pinned em back with kicks and made em keep working it the length of the field

so three possible bites at "success" and what have we got
runners up in the cup and 3rd in the league

Like teacher says to some kids --"Tries hard"!!

Gotta try harder methinks!! sorry!

Have to agree with that PG, and although i take on board what FLYINGPROP and others are saying, and i respect their opinions, but i have to say i think you have stated it the way i see it, Like you i believe we could have finished higher than we have but i can live with that, every club has bad games and we had our share, What is so disappointing is that we have fallen short in the games that count, After finally overcoming Saints in the semi we limped out in the final to a lot poorer side than we are, Same in the champs ,We play one way all season and have a lot of success, and then in a crunch match , again against a side we have walloped twice , we get out coached and outplayed, I guess the likes of us have been spoiled, by watching teams who played twice as many games and did full time jobs as well.

Anyway well done to them for what they have achieved, players and coaches, whether it will be enough to persuade this seasons new fans to come again, we will have to wait and see.

Just a word about the ref, he was very poor, he is always very poor, they are all always very poor, but go on any club board and you will find all their fans saying just the same things as are said on here, I truly dont believe we get treated any differently than any other team, If Catalan were getting away with offside last night ( and they were ) what was there stopping us from playing the same game. Afraid the truth is we were clueless how to beat them, and we persisted with the same down the middle tactics all the game, N Brown is the coach let him explain what we were hoping to achieve.

"1.Sometimes under pressure we don't play as smart as we should but once again the effort was great.

2.It's not the way we wanted to go out but, on the whole, we've definitely become a consistent team.

3.Nobody would have predicted us reaching the Challenge Cup final and finishing third so I think everybody should be proud.

4.There are a couple of key areas we need to improve in but we've got some good players coming into squad next year and hopefully we'll move forward."

Understandably we're all disappointed by the lackluster way we crashed out last night but these are wise words from Nathan Brown who obviously has to chose his words carefully.

translation -

1.We lack experience we need to toughen up mentally.
2.We are much more consistent than we were under the previous regime.
3.Should be proud - (yeah we should in comparison with previous seasons)
4.Some current players aren't quite good enough,better ones coming in.

On the crowd, i'm a season ticket holder but live near London so can never make friday night games. There will be a few more like me too.

We were garbage, and it was a really big disappointment last night. We looked clueless in attack. Yes Catalan and ourselves were allowed to get away with murder around the ruck and offsides. The refs REALLY need to get a GRIP of that area of the game. Ganson was totally taken advantage of in those areas of the game. Catalan seemed to play to those rules better than us and that is what won them the game, so fair play to them. However it is not the sort of rules I want to watch teams play to. I will probably get a season ticket next season, but if this style of interpretation of the rules continues it could well be the last season I get a season ticket as it is simply a boring game.

hey Matt --they`ll be grouping you wi Me and Bo!!

watch it!!

How Greg Bird didn't get sent off for that DISGUSTING tackle we will never know! He came charging from the other side of the field with intent to cause some damage! Ganson was a joke as always but what can you say, he never changes! Didn't have the guts to produce the red and yellow cards last night!

Oh well, at the start of the season if someone had come up to me and said the giants will win St helens in the semi final of the Challenge cup and finished third in the league, i would have taken them back to the mental institute!