Championship club wants Super League signings as warning given to players

After a shock defeat in the Challenge Cup to League One Dewsbury Rams, Widnes Vikings coach John Kear has said none of his players are safe from being dropped.

He said on the club’s YouTube channel:

“It may well be that I need to have a good look at the half-backs because obviously Danny Craven has been missing. We haven’t had Tom Gilmore all season, so it’s been a struggle there.

“Perhaps we need to have a real look at that but we’ve just spoken in there that nobodies’ place is assured.

“We’ve got to re-energise because the last two performances have been flat, we’ve lacked energy, we’ve lacked enthusiasm and other teams have outworked us.

“I thought Newcastle outworked us and certainly today Dewsbury outworked us. Our effort areas have been shocking.

“There’s instances where we’d got Ant Walker making half a break and he was getting his hand free and there’s nobody pushing up to support. You contrast that with one of Dewsbury’s tries, they make half a break and there’s three or four players flooding around them.

“That’s mindset and it’s effort and it’s enthusiasm, all of which they were better than us.”

“When we scored and made it 12 a piece I think they all thought ‘everything is going to be alright’. Well my players might have thought that but obviously the opposition players didn’t and they just stepped up a gear and we couldn’t answer it.

“We’ve lost to what was a better team, and a better team by far today, and it’s just been a real poor performance.”

Asked what he can do to change things, Kear warned his players he would be making changes and wanted Super League signings: “Change some of the players!

“I’ll be ringing around opposition coaches, I’ll be ringing around Super League coaches, seeing if anybody’s available for loan deals and also I’ll be changing some of the players for Friday because that’s just not acceptable.”