To whom I know are concerned,

First of all I wanted to say thank you - sometimes as fans we can get a bit caught up in results and performances and forget what you put yourself through each time you step on to the pitch.

I’ve no idea how many pain-killing injections you are taking, how many operations you’re delaying and how much physical pain you’re in between you, but I do know that it will be a lot.

What is worrying me is that you have started to look like you’re playing as if you’re waiting to get beat.

The body language after conceding an early try looks like ‘here we go again’, rather than ‘doesn’t matter what happens, we’ll still win.’

You used to be the most enthusiastic team in the league, and whilst it still looks like you are ‘trying to try’, that overwhelming enthusiasm seems to have deserted you.

I’ve read a lot recently about you not ‘playing for the coach’ anymore.

I’m always a bit baffled by that statement. Most of you will have plenty of coaches in your career, the one constant will be you.

So don’t play for your coach, play for you and your pride, play for the future version of yourself sat in an arm chair looking back on his career and telling anyone who will listen about just how much pride and passion you always played with.

Play for the kid who has the team photo up on their wall and no matter how many times you get beat you’ll still be their super hero.

Play for the fan who is having financial difficulties but still manages to put aside just enough to watch you, or the one who is going through tough times right now and looks forward to the two hours of escapism you guys can provide every week.

Play for your teammates who you will leave out to dry and make look stupid if you don’t play for them.

While we’re on the subject, please play some more. When you pass the ball around it might often look scrappy but it is without doubt when you have looked at your most dangerous this season.

I also want to take a moment to state something obvious - you guys get paid to play sport! If the rest of us want to play sport we have to pay someone else for the privilege.

Whatever else is going on in your life, every time you come into training or arrive for a match day, you should be thinking ‘today is a great day, today I get to play Rugby League!’.

Let’s face it, your attack so far this season has been way off where we all want it to be.

No doubt there are many ways of analysing how to make it better, going into great detail about systems.

I prefer to look at more basic concepts.

Rugby League is about two attackers trying to find a way to beat one defender. Watching you it is completely the other way around, one of you running with the ball and trying to beat at least two defenders.

It’s like watching a computer game where the kid controlling the attacking team can only activate one player at a time.

It also looks like there are times when players are going ‘rogue’ and running with the ball when that wasn’t what the rest of you were expecting.

When this player sets off running you are caught out and leave him to run on his own.

Yet when one of you gets caught up in a fight the rest of you rush over to help your mate and rightly so. You don’t stand there thinking ‘that’s not in the plan for him to be trading punches’.

So when someone sets off on an unplanned run, pretend he’s running towards a fight and go with him. The fact that it’s not in the plan is irrelevant, it’s happening so deal with it.

More people in motion of course gives the ball carrier more options which in turn obviously greatly increases the chances of making a break.

Watching you from behind the sticks at the moment it is worryingly obvious where the ball is going.

Overall your passing skills have been letting you down badly this season.

That would lead me to suggest two things, practice more during the week and trust more during a match.

Sport performances are at their best when conscious thinking is limited, the process should be ‘look, trust, do.’ It should not be ‘look, think, wonder, contemplate, analyse and then either do it anyway or oh it’s too late.’

Most of you were two games away from the treble last season, you can obviously play a bit, trust that ability.

Decision making is an aspect of sport that gets talked about a lot, yours has come under scrutiny this season.

In the moment of the decision ‘correct’ is a myth and it’s ultimately an opinion. You cannot guarantee being right, so focus on being decisive. Confident players play with their eyes and play what they see.

In the spirit of keeping it simple, let’s remember a couple of pieces of widely accepted wisdom in the game - one being that defence is at least 90 percent about attitude.

You should be desperate to protect that try line as if you were protecting your life.

The second one is if one team run harder and hit harder then they will almost certainly win the game. Make sure no one runs or hits harder than you.

This club is often talked about as being burdened by a sense of history, maybe I’m as to blame as anyone for that.

History only affects your future if you let it.

To quote a film that is famous for featuring travelling back to 1955, ‘History is going to change.’

So play for the right reasons, go with your mate when he makes a run, don’t let conceding a try effect your belief, be decisive, play what you see, trust your abilities, defend with desperation, run harder and hit harder and let the scoreboard take care of itself - starting with knocking the Pies of the Challenge Cup!

Yours still in eternal hope,

Spirit of ’17