Seth wrote:
Saints sailed very close to 3 in a row against a side beaten by 60 last week who turned up with a similar intensity to cas. I really like Smith but I think he needs to find some balance to his philosophies on the game as he seems to want to contradict all fundamental principles, some of which will always be true due to the nature of the sport.
Im not sure on his philosophy of every game is its unique entity because momentum that comes from learning and progression is true of any skill or activity.
Yes, I think that's twice been shown in games against Castleford where a simple hard nosed game plan would have sufficed and delivered comfortable wins against weak or weakened sides. On balance though, he's still done great. There are some who seem to want to believe he was lucky or "rode a wave" to the GF last year. If he did, it was a wave of his own generation. I have a bias towards him because his arrival seems to have facilitated the departure of number of players who were either past their best or never quite good enough for Leeds - in my opinion. His big challenge will be to use the cap space we should have next year to bring in players who can transform the side, and then come up with a style that makes a consistent and high performing team. In the short term, I'm backing Smith and the team to come up with a win against Catalans next week.