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DAMIEN BLANCH: Just one win can revive our fortunes
IT has been a tough couple of weeks for the Wildcats.
There was a lot of disappointed people – fans and players – after the Challenge Cup semi-final and that was a tough thing to bounce back from.
The build-up to the semi probably had an effect on our form. It was a big thing for the club and everybody did have it at the back of their mind, but all teams have slumps and unfortunately this is our time.
There's a lot of reasons, some teams peak too soon, some peak too late, but in such a tough competition it's impossible to be at your best for the whole year. Look at Leeds, they are going through something similar at the moment.
The thing about it is, it can be fixed. It only takes one good performance and one good win to turn things around and hopefully we can do that against Cas this week.
Cas might be at the bottom of the table, but nobody can afford to take them lightly. They have been in form recently and had a great win in London a few weeks ago.
They slipped up against Huddersfield last weekend, but they are a hard team to play against because you don't know what to expect when they turn up – they can be on fire or they can be a bit down.
Cas are an attacking side rather than a defensive one. They like to throw the ball about, so we have to be on our game to stop their try-scoring ability.
Defence is something our coach, John Kear, has been stressing to us, so this will be a good challenge to see if we are making progress.
Cas-Wakefield games are always big ones and this is a really important match for us. Even though we haven't been winning, we are still seventh in the table and we've got every chance of finishing in the six.
We've got to win most of our remaining games to do that and we've got some tough teams to play, but if we're going to get into the six and do well in the play-offs, we'll have to beat those teams anyway.
We aren't really looking at who we are playing, we have just got to concentrate on getting our own performance right. I thought we showed some promising signs in the second half against St Helens last week and if we can keep that going, we'll be all right.
The Man of Steel award is probably the biggest individual honour in this country and it's great that from this season it'll be chosen by a panel of players. The winner will get a lot more respect if he's selected by people who play the game rather than by men in suits, who watch from the stands.
As for candidates, I think Danny Brough has had a great season coming up from National One and he has got to be in with a shout.
Someone who won't be in contention this year, but deserves a mention is Scott Grix.
He's played his first games in Super League this season and has done really well. It's not easy to step up, but he's done a great job.
Leon Pryce has been outstanding, he's been untouchable this season, but a lot of Saints players will be in the running such as James Graham and James Roby.
I'll also give a mention to Peter Fox, who's had a big year at Hull KR and has done well to fight his way into the England squad.
It'll be a tough choice and that shows how tight the competition has been this season.
I’ll also give a mention to Peter Fox, who’s had a big year at Hull KR and has done well to fight his way into the England squad.
It’ll be a tough choice and that shows how tight the competition has been this season.
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Weather for Leeds
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
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Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
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