Yorkshire Carnegie
Season Washup
Messiah?
By WW
May 19 2016
Yorkshire Carnegie finished the season 3rd in the league, beaten play-off semi finalist and cup runners up. To some people this represents a successful season. However I felt, at the start of the season that the squad had massive potential and that a coach like Bryan Redpath would tap into that. Sadly it was not to be...
Redpath joined the club before the end of last season. He had a full pre-season to get his ideas across to his players which included a group of newcomers with premiership experience and, eventually, a rugby league legend. The club also had the second biggest budget in the Championship. Expectations were high when London Welsh got relegated that here was an opportunity for a "regular" championship club to get promotion. Carnegie had underperformed the previous season when Gary Mercer had started as coach but the perception was that the players signed were top notch and we were installed as main rivals to Bristol, who started the season as favourites for promotion.
Pre-season did not go well. 10 minutes into the game against Romania Tom Casson got the first of a number of injuries which dogged him all season and contributed to the style of play which we had to adopt. We did manage to win our first 3 games agaisnt Jersey, Rorherham and Ealing before slipping to defeat at home to London Scottish.
In October we had 3 good wins, Doncaster & Moseley at home, Moseley away with a narrow defeat at Bristol the only blip. By this point it was apparent that our forwards were doing the business and our backs were misfiring. Still Sinfield's debut was announced for the 27th November so we could expect fireworks from that date onwards. At the time I thought that this was too soon and that a streetwise side like London Welsh would provide a tough first hurdle for KS.
November started with a narrow defeat at Bedford. Sinfield then got some gametime in the cup before nearly 3700 people saw the home defeat to London Welsh. By the end of the month our league record was: Won 6, lost 4.
December started with another narrow defeat at Nottingham. Two successful cup games were followed by the trouncing of Rotherham on Boxing Day. W7 L5
Our interest in the cup continued through January but the league results remained patchy. We started with a win at Ealing and ended with a defeat at London Scottish. W8 L6
February was a bad month with a win against Pirates follwed by defeats to the top two sides, Doncaster and Bristol, the latter being a good illustration of the gap in quality between the sides that had staedily grown all season.. W9 L8.
In March and April we did not lose another league game although the cup run continued right up to the final defeat at home to the Exiles. At the end of the regular season we had won 14, lost 8 and collected 22 bonus points. Third place and a semi final against local rivals Doncaster.
The home tie against the Knights was a one sided affair with a late try giving the faithful a straw to grasp for the return leg. Our season ended with a narrow win at Castle Park, not enough to see us progress to a final against Bristol.
We ended the season with exactly what we started with - nothing. The problems within the squad which dogged us all season are well known to everyone: Poor defence, poor game management, poor discipline and unforced errors. Clearly the players must take responsibility for the last two issues. The coaching staff failed, without a shadow of doubt to sort out any of these problems. Additions to the coaching staff late on indicate that the club recognised this and tried to address it.
Have we progressed as a club over the last twelve months? To my mind we have just marked time. Some might even make the case that we are worse off than we were a year ago. After one full season in charge Redpath will argue that he needs more time. After all Robinson has had more time (and money) at Bristol and they are still, for the moment, in the same league as ourselves.
The squad next year is the one that Redpath has selected. He has retained and recruited the players he believes will do the job. We will know by the end of October if he was right. Another season like the one just ended is a grim prospect.
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19/05/2016 06:37
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016:07:27:05:55:32 by Wildwillie .
If I had all the money I've spent on drink ..... I'd spend it on drink.
This was the first year in many where we had a coach in place and a long off season due to not getting to any finals or play offs. Preparation should have been as good as it's ever been.
If we look back one could argue that DE was our most successful coach for quite a while based on inherited squad, style of play and results. Just a shame about the man management side of things that people seemed to suggest wasn't brilliant.
Anyway, look forwards not back. Onwards and (hopefully) upwards!
To my untrained eye it's the same issues year after year, regardless of head coach or playing personnel. Mystifying, hugely frustrating.
But I'll be back for more next season!
Only difference is, I'll set my expectations to zero in September and see what happens.
Quote:leemingtyke
I'll set my expectations to zero in September and see what happens.
My sentiments entirely! Our full-time professional players will put their health on the line and do their best, sometimes it works, sometimes not. The coaches will do whatever they can: but 11 other teams are doing the same, albeit 10 will have lower resources than us.
This is why we follow sport I think.
What do I want to see next season?
a lot less cards, penalties in general, as a team we have failed to learn that you can't continue to give penalties game after game after game.
Some passion on the pitch, i realise sport is about tiny improvements, but christ there needs to be some passion, some big arsed tackles and runs.
And by it would be nice to have somebody other than BUZ who can break the line once in a while.
Quote:Bran
typical carnegie season, but will we improve?
I hope so, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
I'm going to start next season with no expectations and no end of season target.
Just treat every game as a seperate event, try and enjoy the rugby and see where it takes us.
That's the way forward, for me anyway.
will our part time ceo be able to give us his full attention or
will his much bigger other job distract him?
Quote:JDH
What we need to do is know the best 15 come Xmas.
Def agree the tinkering has to stop but it needs to be way before Xmas imho.
Certainly wasn't me......
