Mugwump wrote:
Failing? We've only played two league games!
But we had a season of Cunningham's coaching last year to judge as well. Last season was one where the results themselves were acceptable. We lost in both semi finals to Leeds, who had a legendary side. Fine in terms of outcomes really. But the glaring problem, as discussed above, is the style of play. It was mind numbing at times last season, with everyone feeling the entertainment value had simply disappeared. We'd eroded a lot of the Saints way over Cunningham's tenure, he was involved with the previous coaches since his retirement as well. That style of play is so poor now that it's affected season ticket sales and will continue to affect attendances. RL is not an industry with spare demand like football, where being a results based business is sustainable. You cannot employ a Sam Allardyce or Tony Pulis in RL and dig out results, as the crowds will drop. I fear we've handed the keys over to Barcelona over to Allardyce.
Mugwump wrote:
I'd argue that Cunningham is as much a victim of personnel as any perceived limitations in coaching.
I'd agree with that, but an awful lot of those at the club are there because they were signed whilst Cunningham was on the coaching staff and being groomed for the top role. The same people are presumably also still at the club in Mike Rush and the rest of McManus' cronies.
Mugwump wrote:
As for Travis Burns - I'd love to know who scouted him and what reasoning made that decision possible.
It's widely acknowledged that it was Cunningham who wanted his signature. Brown was leaving by that point and Cunningham was calling the shots on recruitment for the following season when he'd be in charge. It's what made KC's statements about Burns's failings recently seem so laughable.
I think a lot of Saints fans, me included, thought that last season was a bedding in period and that this season would see the shackles come off. I thought we'd see Longy working with the backs and developing some real attacking intent. I thought we'd see progress. The signs from the first few games are awful, it seems there are no plans to change the style we're playing, there is no sign of progress. If this continues, there has got to be change. I personally think the pressure is telling on KC, you can see that from the stupid things he's saying in interviews recently, he's flat out lying about how things, or is delusional. There is also the rumblings from the squad about the style, Wilkin had a dig recently saying that clubs needs to be respecting the entertainment value of the sport more and playing more attacking rugby. That was clearly a dig at KC as we're the exact opposite. Four one out drives and a poor kick is our current play book and that's as far as it goes.
We've seen Hull KR lose to Wakefield, easily the worst team in SL history, this weekend. If Saints don't go there and absolutely muller them, something is drastically wrong. We should be winning that game by 20, we'll see if that's the case. We need to win the next three games, if we don't we could be in a spectacular mess come the end of April given the fixtures we have that month. The worrying thing is that the most likely way to win those games is to go even more safe and take even fewer risks. That brings a risk in that he'll be destroyed by the fans if that results in us losing one of those games.