Who will be the spark to ignite a season, who will care the most about not losing that winning starts to become the only option? Who is leader enough to take the team with them each week?

Whilst some will call for the heads of coaching staff and they may well be within their right to do so - the time has come for the players group to step up and own the red and blue jersey, fight for its worth and earn the right to wear it weekly. Newcastle deserves players who live and breathe our tremendous city - players who will put themselves out there, heart on sleeve, to ride the highs and the lows with its loyal fans.

The time has come for players to turn up! Time has come to train hard lead by rock solid gritty example and be a part of the city that will chant relentlessly 'New-ca-stle' from the stands in all weather.

Your city needs you to be better, you need to be better. Never stop fighting

THIS is not acceptable, that is not acceptable.

Yes Adam, it is not acceptable. You need to fix it. You have a good support staff, the best facilities and a good roster. The Bellamy-like ranting and raving is not going to help. You need to calmly motivate the team with a good game plan that will give them confidence to win.

A loss to the Warriors next week will put the team in wooden spoon territory that is not acceptable. Us members and supporters are tired of watching our team losing, especially at home, that is not acceptable. You need to get your message across to the players in a calm way.

I FIRMLY believe that every drug dealer has dealt death to someone, albeit unintentionally. To deal in the death of another is the ultimate crime. Yet still we see the judiciary handing out sentences not conducive to the crime committed.

Some years ago the government of the day, in an act of grandstanding, decreed that serious drug dealers would face a penalty of up to life imprisonment, with life meaning life. There, that fixed the problem didn't it? Well, I cannot remember when life imprisonment, in its full implementation, has been handed down to a drug dealer.

The death and carnage on the streets of Sydney and elsewhere today show just how serious the drug dealers take their business, so why isn't our judicial system taking the matter just as seriously. It has been reported that some of the dealers are continuing their business even whilst in jail, such is their belief they are invincible and will have something to return to on release.

The recent haul of cocaine from Newcastle Harbour is of such a large amount that, surely, someone's death would have been occasioned. And this is just one shipment of the massive amounts being imported into the country and sold on the streets.

Let's get serious and start handing down mandatory pre-determined sentences with no parole provisions and get these dealers off our streets for good and maybe some might think twice about going into business in the first place if they faced life in jail.

GRAEME Kime raises legitimate concerns about Australia's response to global warming ("Renewables can't cope right now", Letters, 14/5).

When Greta Thunberg harangued the self-important European Commissioners, they didn't change their opinions on global warming, although Thunberg is supported by the vast majority of climate scientists. Wrong approach.

Some unscrupulous entrepreneurs make profits by exploiting cheap foreign workers. Perhaps the Chinese manufacturers of cheap solar panels use slave labour. If so, Australians should ban theirs and make our own.

I agree that if Australia switched to renewables now, there would be a negligible decrease in emissions and locked-in global warming. But if Europe can wean itself off Russian fossil fuels, and install renewables, big emitters like the US, India and China can also. So can Australia.

Mr Kime notes that solar panels create greenhouse gas in their manufacture and disposal. Maybe. But in net terms, the use of solar panels saves a lot more greenhouse gas emissions.

What about nuclear power? I accept that modern nuclear reactors are safer, and we can protect them against natural disasters. Australia has plenty of uranium, and has stable geology so we can safely bury nuclear waste.

The French are installing nuclear power. Why doesn't Australia?

For a few reasons. For Australia, nuclear power stations would be expensive. The workforce to build them, together with their parts, would need to be imported. There is a lead time of 10 years, before a plant becomes operational. What about burying the waste? On Aboriginal-owned land in desert places? After Juukan Gorge and Maralinga? I doubt it.

Solar panels, wind turbines and batteries are available now. As AGL is demonstrating at Bayswater, these may be installed and hooked up to the grid as required, and as coal burning power stations are retired.

Also, renewables can now cope with peak power demand. Solar panels, wind turbines and batteries may be ugly additions to the landscape. But are they any uglier than pit voids, mountains of the moon, and coal-burning power stations spewing CO2 and smoke particles into the atmosphere?

For nine years, successive Coalition governments have neglected Australia's transition to renewables. They have neglected to retrain coal workers into renewable energy jobs. Under Abbott, Australia eschewed a carbon credits trading scheme that would have smoothed Australia's transition to renewables and made the big CO2 emitters pay.

Perhaps an ALP national government can do better.

DEAR Avrid, (Short Takes, 18/5), I believe that I was showing concern about global warming, not being negative.

But if you believe that the proposed renewables are the solution to combat global warming, you are quite correct in stating "mankind has believed in astounding things until they learned by their misconceptions."

While our planet's population rate continues to climb, we will never be able to control warming and its effects, and there is no double negative or meaning in this statement, just try and read between the lines.

Greta probably doesn't believe me either, maybe you have some ideas on how we can stem or control warming, you appear to be well educated.

WELL done Phil Gardner for signing two great players; Tamika Upton and Millie Boyle, for the NRLW. Now Phil, you need to do the same for the men. Go for Munster, he's worth $1.5 million, you can afford him if you get rid of all the deadwood. Back your juniors, Phil.

BEING able to hear the roar of engines doing high speed laps from as far away as Cardiff is nothing short of noise pollution and exploitation of a sacred place. Lake Macquarie City Council is backward and negligent when it comes to the care and preservation of a glorious asset. It's cheap thrills at our lake's expense, Kay Fraser.

SPOT on Julie Robinson, ("Our lake's not a racetrack", Letters, 18/5). I don't agree with you on some things, but I'm with you on this one, i.e. speed boat races on Lake Macquarie. To get the attention of Lake Macquarie City Council you will need to create a photo opportunity for our, as you said, "fast and loud" mayor.

JULIE Robinson says she grew up on Lake Macquarie and doesn't like the idea of power boat races on the lake, but does she not know the history of the Royal Motor Yacht Club at Toronto? When I was growing up my grandfather raced speed boats on the lake at Toronto every second weekend, hence the name RMYC. There was even a big fundraising weekend at Morisset Hospital that involved the speed boats.

I'VE noticed on my Woolies dockets that the Woolworths Lite Milk is no longer called Drought Relief Milk, but the price has not dropped by the 20c donation to Drought Relief. I wonder who is pocketing the extra 20c now?

THE Southern Hemisphere will experience severe weather events more frequently because most of the ocean areas occur there and as the water temperature rises there is more evaporation.

WHEN Medicare cards were first introduced, the public insisted on a strong law requiring that one's Medicare number could never be used for non-medical purposes. Is that law still in force? If so, government agencies such as Centrelink are repeatedly breaking the law, but are never prosecuted.

PARENTS, please stop whinging about not being able to have childcare for non standard times. In-home child care is available and has been for 29 years. Just look it up and make the call. Some services go 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.