Re: 19 man Squad Announced v Bradford : Fri Jul 11, 2014 10:07 pm  

Another example of a side with no leader and weak coaching staff. That should never have happened. At 40-0 we were making metres horrendously easily and then all of a sudden turned soft. The players totally clocked off. Sure, the subs and positional changes didn't help, but it is definitely a team mentality issue.

At 40-0 it was easy to pick players to big up. LMS ran well, Mose was excellent, Percival threatening to score or break every single time he got the ball. But then when their comeback happened it spoils the mood completely and you leave feeling miffed. A well motivated side tonight would have put the hammer down and ran up a score. At just before the hour mark we were 40-0 up, Leeds were 0-0 against KR. Perfect, put the cleaners through Bradford and makeup 60 on the points difference. Instead, they collectively step back and we end the game with exactly the same winning margin as Leeds!!!

Tonight was a perfect representation of our season. At times we look very good. With a bench like tonight, plus Walsh, you could even start to dream about Old Trafford. But then they turn to jelly babies and you leave the game wanting to give them all a good shake.

It goes back to the whole culture of the club. Where Wigan are rabid and determined and ruthless, we're yellow bellied, spineless and vulnerable.

As for Bradford, a very spirited performance in not throwing the towel in, but some truly embarassing defending. Roby's from the messed up penalty start was farcical and Wello's was probably the most embarassing moment I've seen at a Saints game in 10 years. Not only the fact that he ran 60m to score, but the fact that he was passed into a gap you could have fit a Boeing into from a kick return and only one of their players got within 20m of him, yet the linesman outpaced both. Bar the mistake from the kick off he had a solid game again, but he's getting his angry, stroppy head on again, he knows there is a lot wrong at Saints at the moment.

Re: 19 man Squad Announced v Bradford : Fri Jul 11, 2014 10:08 pm  

That was one of the most frustrating performances of the season for me. I don't think I've ever walked away from a 46-22 win feeling so annoyed.

If the hooter had gone at 40-0 then there would have been a completely different atmosphere in the ground amongst the fans. We weren't brilliant but we did enough, scored some nice tries and kept them to 0.

The last 20 minutes completely ruined it. Falling off tackles, making mistakes, allowing numerous offloads in 3 or 4 man tackles. It was horrible to watch.

Sorry to say it but tonight has done nothing whatsoever to mend the mood after the Hull KR performance.

Re: 19 man Squad Announced v Bradford : Fri Jul 11, 2014 10:51 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

It goes back to the whole culture of the club. Where Wigan are rabid and determined and ruthless, we're yellow bellied, spineless and vulnerable.

How can Wigan be so rabid and ruthless and you be spineless when your top? This rabid Wigan side you mentionhave lost to Wakefield, Huddersfield twice.

You've smashed Warrington and Huddersfield, beaten Wigan, beat Leeds with virtually half your team out. Not bad going for a spineless team (try seeing some of our performances if you wanna see spineless)

Saints aren't the complete package yet so you are going to have some inconsistencies.

I actually think you'll win at Old Trafford and it will be a great success as Saints are slowly building a team that can bring you success long term.

Re: 19 man Squad Announced v Bradford : Fri Jul 11, 2014 10:54 pm  

On the plus side, we can't finish below Salford now ...

Re: 19 man Squad Announced v Bradford : Fri Jul 11, 2014 11:10 pm  

Bull Mania wrote:

How can Wigan be so rabid and ruthless and you be spineless when your top?

That's how. League table means nowt.

Re: 19 man Squad Announced v Bradford : Sat Jul 12, 2014 6:19 am  

Bull Mania wrote:

How can Wigan be so rabid and ruthless and you be spineless when your top? This rabid Wigan side you mentionhave lost to Wakefield, Huddersfield twice.

You've smashed Warrington and Huddersfield, beaten Wigan, beat Leeds with virtually half your team out. Not bad going for a spineless team (try seeing some of our performances if you wanna see spineless)

Saints aren't the complete package yet so you are going to have some inconsistencies.

I actually think you'll win at Old Trafford and it will be a great success as Saints are slowly building a team that can bring you success long term.

Superleague is very poor these days, the standard of players is not good enough. For Saints we are just hanging on to the good start we had this season as the shock results unfold.
Our Saints side wouldn,t make the top 8 if you go back 5 or 6 years ago, of the 20 games so far we had 4 good wins, 5 bad losses and the rest have been very average.
If we happen to win the league leaders it won,t be achieved with convincing domination.

Re: 19 man Squad Announced v Bradford : Sat Jul 12, 2014 6:32 am  

Magic Superbeetle wrote:

On the plus side, we can't finish below Salford now ...

A win next week and we will finish the season in the top 8.

Re: 19 man Squad Announced v Bradford : Sat Jul 12, 2014 6:53 am  

Judder Man wrote:

A win next week and we will finish the season in the top 8.

that says it all about this league

Re: 19 man Squad Announced v Bradford : Sat Jul 12, 2014 7:19 am  

The Chair Maker wrote:

Saints defence for 60 minutes looked solid.

Roby then got injured and went off the field. Hohoia was moved to hooker,Turner stand off, Soliola to left centre and Percival right centre. The end result was a complete collapse in our defensive structure.

Positives for me was the performance of Masoe going forward, especially the 40 yard break he made.
Wellos 60 metre try. Percivals goal kicking. The return of Amor and Lafranchi.

Did you see their line up mate?

They also had players playing everywhere. Chev walker played all over the place. They have no props and have been basically relagated with nothing to play for but pride.

Our attitude is awful. 40-0 up and all the back slapping and high fives start and we thing we are it. We should have put massive score on them to try and rebuild our points difference but yet again our poor attitude stopped that.

Re: 19 man Squad Announced v Bradford : Sat Jul 12, 2014 10:26 am  

Judder Man wrote:

Superleague is very poor these days, the standard of players is not good enough. For Saints we are just hanging on to the good start we had this season as the shock results unfold.
Our Saints side wouldn,t make the top 8 if you go back 5 or 6 years ago, of the 20 games so far we had 4 good wins, 5 bad losses and the rest have been very average.
If we happen to win the league leaders it won,t be achieved with convincing domination.

I actually think the standard of players is better, the problem is due to the league stucture, everyone knows that the games don't really matter so there's no intensity.

10-15 years ago everyone knew you had to get into the top 2 on stand a chance of winning and fought tooth and nail for it. Now they know it doesn't matter as long as you get in top 8.

10 years a go, we had Stuart Reardon, Keith Senior, Martin Gleeson and Richard Horne as England/GB's backline.

Now we have Watkins, Hall, Briscoe, Makinson, Charney etc

So IMO we have much much better English players in SL, more evenly spread across each team.

But I do think SL was better 10 years ago, simply because league games meant something. So there was an intensity to it. Franchising set the sport back years.