Letting the dust settle after the weekend. Is sacking Smith the right answer? I honestly don't think it is. The club has been rotten for some time behind the scenes. Hetherington needs to go. The fish rots from the head as the saying goes

What are our S&C coaches doing? We always seem to have a higher number of injuries than the other teams in SL. Cas maybe an exception last season. I fear Newman is going to end up like Walker / Ward with injury after injury. Poor Ward was down to his head injuries, but I think at times they've been rushed back. Newman especially. When we signed Lolohea, he looked overweight, Hurrell the same (I know he's a big lad anyway, but lets be honest, he was overweight). So what's going on?

Smith has a squad that is totally lacking in depth and it only takes a few injuries to highlight this. So would getting rid of Smith now change anything? We will still have the same thread bare squad due to lack of quality signings, lack of investment into the academy etc. It's great having a shiny stadium with total dross on the pitch.

Someone on here said Cam Smith should be dropped. He's been our most improved player this season and certainly grafted like chuff and been the difference in some games. There's certainly players well in front of Smith who should be dropped!

Smith has his flaws, no doubt, but I am not sure getting shut is the right choice at the moment.

We've just been unlucky these past few weeks, 3 or 4 week ago we hardly had any injuries, they've all just come at once.

Agree with a lot of this I think some underestimate how bad the squad has been managed over the last few years.

But Hurrell and Lolohea are still over weight, lolohea was just totally the wrong signing for us at that time, both he and hurrell are luxury players who we couldn’t afford to accommodate their flaws.

Anyone calling for C Smith to be dropped needs their head read. He should be permanently Captain if anything.

Whether people like R Smith or not sacking him now would be daft IMO for a start do you think other coaches will look at how we’ve treated coaches in the last few years and think, yeah that’s the place for me. Sacking a coach after just one year when hes taken them to a GF.

We need some consistency right now and unless there is unrest behind the scenes RS should be given another year or so to bring in his own players and see what he can do.

I haven’t agreed with every selection he’s made but then I never have with any coach - part and parcel.

More important than RS is the next 3-5 signings we make. Those players might outlast him and we have tied ourselves up in knots over and over dishing out long term commitments to players past their best.

Wait till the end of session and assess the situation regarding Smith then. He certainly didn’t look happy in his post match interview ,so he might decide at the season’s end enough is enough. Regarding some of his bargain basement signings maybe he was restricted with the amount of money available to him. Looking at most of the games this weekend most teams seem to have have a well structured attacking system. We just seem to throw it about and hope something occurs.

I think he was restricted our cap was and still is in bad shape that should change next year .

On attacking structure all those teams you mention with it have at least one decent controlling halfback we haven’t had that for years, that has got to change next year.

I think he is getting frustrated (as am I) with how the ruck is in SL, it’s absolutely awful, the problem for Rohan is I can’t see it changing any time soon.

Spot on.

So we need to do just what other teams do and flop/lie on longer or hope other teams play like we do.
I know which one I would choose as the sad reality is the ruck as it is now won`t change.

I thought it was disgraceful on Saturday, Cas were just allowed to take as much time as they wanted on every single tackle. Late 3rd or 4th man in? No problem. Do what you want, nobody's policing it. When you let one side entirely determine the speed of the game at the ruck then you're not doing your job as a ref.

It doesn't excuse our edge defence, but it's absolute bull to give one side a material advantage like that.

It was even worse at the Jungle when the worst ref in the comp was in charge

You have to work with the system.
If the ref allows a slow play the ball you can slow their ball rubbish game but makes it even.
Or push the players off the tackle and wave your arms about making a big fuss and make the ref do something about it .

You have to work with the system.
If the ref allows a slow play the ball you can slow their ball rubbish game but makes it even.
Or push the players off the tackle and wave your arms about making a big fuss and make the ref do something about it .