: Mon Apr 13, 2009 9:04 pm
lionarmour87 wrote:
they look jaded ,lethargic saints have had two or three hard seasons too but they look as good as ever.
apart from last years GF we havent looked like champions since the first half of last season
I agree with that.
From JUne onwards last year we were aweful,either losing or winning ugly and until the win away at Catalans and their late demise there was a real possibility of us finishing outside the top two.
There were deficiencies (SP) last year but were largely papered over due to our unexpected GF win which made a lot of fans believe that our squad/depth was ok and that because we'd won the GF playing Ablett at centre etc that we had no need to buy someone after the injury loss of Toopi.
Last year we were fortunate that Ellis also filled in at centre and although sometimes Ablett was named in the starting 13 at centre often in games he and Ellis would swap,so it worked to a degree in filling the loss of a specialist centre in Toopi,who whilst not our best overseas signing ever,gave the team balance,some attacking threat down his side and a lot more defensive presence.
Ellis was largely wasted in the centre but at least compared to Ablett he had more pace,a step,more strength,an offload in the tackle and an overall greater threat with ball in hand.He was also a much better defensive player.
At the moment with Donald and Smith out of the side we have no real pace in our outside backs.
WE have no threat down our right and rely on Senior having one of his good days as our only real attacking threat out wide.
At the moment when teams are muscling up with us in the forwards our only attacking threat is relying on a break through footwork of a burrow,McGuire etc as we cannot create anything out wide on the right and even if McGuire/Webb/Burrow do make a break,unlike other years there is a complete lack of support.
