: Sun Jul 19, 2009 2:59 pm  

FearTheVee wrote:

If you know it with your limited brainpower, I reckon he has a fair idea.

limited brain power! How dare you!

Shame sir mac didn't do anything about it then.

: Sun Jul 19, 2009 3:01 pm  

I keep banging on about how poor a decision it was to go all out with youth and so few senior players. This is the kind of time where you need two or three average, low paid journeymen pros.

If Eastmond doesn't play in the Semi Final or if Cunningham is banned, it's a write off. It would have been a very tough game anyway, but without all those players it's not possible.

With the Pies a week before the semi final likely to injure a few more, would anyone agree with me that resting the 3 or 4 remaining senior players might be a good idea?

: Sun Jul 19, 2009 3:04 pm  

gateaux wrote:

But we don't have an unlimited budget/Salary cap. Yes it would have been nice to have more players to choose from and I think everyone has ideas about where they think we need to recruit but we don't know the figures not only about what the cap will allow but what the club can comfortably afford.

To be fair we are still joint top of the table, still in the Cup Semi Final any team losing so many players including a good few first choice players would struggle regardless of whether players have been recruited from externally or internally.

that's a good point, we don't know how much we have or haven't got to spend.

And I also do understand that we are in a credit crunch so sir mac may be looking after the pounds and pence.

Maybe if the club told us, the paying fans the reasons behind lack of recruitment then we would understand.

Sir mac has never let us down yet and is best thing to happen to our club in recent years but a bit of information to why would help.

: Sun Jul 19, 2009 3:10 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

I keep banging on about how poor a decision it was to go all out with youth and so few senior players. This is the kind of time where you need two or three average, low paid journeymen pros.

If Eastmond doesn't play in the Semi Final or if Cunningham is banned, it's a write off. It would have been a very tough game anyway, but without all those players it's not possible.

With the Pies a week before the semi final likely to injure a few more, would anyone agree with me that resting the 3 or 4 remaining senior players might be a good idea?

we got longy, gilmour, cayless all going next year with a centre coming in.

I just hope we are looking for players.

: Sun Jul 19, 2009 3:11 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

I keep banging on about how poor a decision it was to go all out with youth and so few senior players.

This is from a thread a few weeks back

getdownmonkeyman wrote: from an external perspective; Potter won't be able to judged for a couple of years as he is coaching a team under transition.

He is reforming a team who will be minus their most experienced key players, which is a challenge on two fronts; he has to get the semi-senior pros to step up to replace the vacated players and integrate the young players, probably the easier of the two tasks.

I wrote: External or not I'm glad I'm not the only one who can see the bigger picture with regards to Potter and his Saints.

I strongly suspect one of the major reasons Mick was brought in was because of his ability to 'build' a team as he did successfully with Les Cats. We have to look beyond what happened last week, what is happening this season (even if we end up winning no silverwear) and realise that the club's management and as part of that Mick Potter, have looked at the new rules being brought in and the format and systems of the franchise era, and have formed a long term plan. This plan, like the stadium project, won't be completed overnight.

: Sun Jul 19, 2009 3:13 pm  

St pete wrote:

that's a good point, we don't know how much we have or haven't got to spend.

And I also do understand that we are in a credit crunch so sir mac may be looking after the pounds and pence.

Maybe if the club told us, the paying fans the reasons behind lack of recruitment then we would understand.

Sir mac has never let us down yet and is best thing to happen to our club in recent years but a bit of information to why would help.

They already have done.

They refuse to pay over the odds for players. With more teams spending up to the cap, more teams have more money to play with. Teams like Hull KR and Huddersfield will pay over the odds for players, or offer them longer contracts than we would do. This is because, whilst they may be a body in our squad or a bench player, 9 times out of 10 those players walk straight into their first teams.

Hence we wouldn't pay over the odds for Carvell, why Fozzard went to HKR, why Gilmour and Long are leaving next year. Unless we need to sign someone, I doubt that we will.

: Sun Jul 19, 2009 3:14 pm  

St pete wrote:

that's a good point, we don't know how much we have or haven't got to spend.

And I also do understand that we are in a credit crunch so sir mac may be looking after the pounds and pence.

Maybe if the club told us, the paying fans the reasons behind lack of recruitment then we would understand.

Sir mac has never let us down yet and is best thing to happen to our club in recent years but a bit of information to why would help.

The club have said why we havent recruited heavily, and its been stated on here numerous times.
1. Salary cap.
2. Putting faith in youth
3. Other players needing salary uplifts as they become senior pros' eg Graham and Roby.

On the subject of signing average joes. Other clubs do this and they are languishing further down the table than us.

: Sun Jul 19, 2009 3:16 pm  

Tony Stark wrote:

This is from a thread a few weeks back

I agree with most of that.

: Sun Jul 19, 2009 3:16 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

I keep banging on about how poor a decision it was to go all out with youth and so few senior players. This is the kind of time where you need two or three average, low paid journeymen pros.

I disagree. The last thing we need is 'journeymen pros'. We need to be focusing on the best over a longer period, not short term solutions that will leave us looking like Wigan. I think what has made things difficult this season is the number of injuries we seem to have found ourselves with. If we hadn't had those injuries to contend with but had been sailing through like Leeds then while we haven't exactly been playing the best rugby league in the history of Saints, we would be a few points ahead at the top and in the semis and functioning fine overall.

: Sun Jul 19, 2009 3:17 pm  

Just a pity a section of our fans cannot see the bigger picture and love making knee-jerk decisions.