Re: 19 man Squad v Sydney Roosters : Sat Feb 20, 2016 7:50 am  

Lets be fair the Saints squad has been on the decline ever since the chuckle brothers took over. The speed of decline has surprised me a little but realistically what can you expect from this squad of players and a coach who seems to be struggling.

Roby is top class, you could make a claim fir him being one if the few genuine World Class British players, Walmsley bags of potential far from the finished article and whilst his stock as a possible International forward took a bit of a knock last night he clearly is a quality SL player. I do worry with him though that in the eyes of the current regime at Saints they are happy with that as I don't see his game developing beyond what he already does very well, this I feel could hold him back.

Beyond those 2 however I don't see much quality at all. Wilkin is not a player I have ever thought much of although I thought at times last year he really stood up for you, that seems to have been his swansong. Neither specialist half looks interested, Walsh looks scared to be stood on the field. Mackinson and Sevellio put in the effort but again neither seem to have developed since they came on the scene.

Owens is a terrible signing when he left Widnes I assumed it was for NL rugby.

I appreciate you have injuries but again bemoaning the loss of Percival like he is a top player I think is a bit much. He runs a great line and has good pace beyond that I don't get too excited about him. I think it is a reflection on how poor British centres have become that he is held in high regard by some. Lomax, quality, really rate him but can't get on the field which is a shame for rugby league not just Saints.

Even without injuries I think it would be tough to make the top 4 possibly top 6 in relation to quality of the squad.

Wigan, Wire, Salford, Cas and Leeds all have better squads on paper, and whilst I know games are not win on paper a top coach often adds that extra to make a team over achieve, and I don't think at the moment you have one in place either.

Re: 19 man Squad v Sydney Roosters : Sat Feb 20, 2016 8:33 am  

My take on last nights match, our pack showed up reasonably well but seriously lacking in our half backs and full back. Most of Roosters play down the edge via Wilkin, Turner and Owens, they did get a few jammy bounces but there young stand off was the architect of most of there attack.
We lacked a lot of composure on that final pass mostly by Walsh with panic passes to Swift and Makinson and the panic pass by Vea for the interception try. Walsh non existent in attack but did a lot of completed tackles not his usual running away from contact.

It was always a foregone conclusion before kick off we were going to lose (my estimate was 20 points) but we are a super league team struggling for quality players on a £1.8 million salary cap against a better quality team from a bigger pool and a salary cap of £3.3 million, if we had an extra £1.5 million to spend for parity would we have better players to compete most probably.

Biggest worry for the remaining season is still as per last season no half backs and full back, if we don't get that sorted I think we will be getting more of the same whoever coaches this team.

Re: 19 man Squad v Sydney Roosters : Sat Feb 20, 2016 8:47 am  

Judder Man wrote:

My take on last nights match, our pack showed up reasonably well but seriously lacking in our half backs and full back. Most of Roosters play down the edge via Wilkin, Turner and Owens, they did get a few jammy bounces but there young stand off was the architect of most of there attack.
We lacked a lot of composure on that final pass mostly by Walsh with panic passes to Swift and Makinson and the panic pass by Vea for the interception try. Walsh non existent in attack but did a lot of completed tackles not his usual running away from contact.

It was always a foregone conclusion before kick off we were going to lose (my estimate was 20 points) but we are a super league team struggling for quality players on a £1.8 million salary cap against a better quality team from a bigger pool and a salary cap of £3.3 million, if we had an extra £1.5 million to spend for equality would we have better players to compete most probably.

Biggest worry for the remaining season is still as per last season no half backs and full back, if we don't get that sorted I think we will be getting more of the same whoever coaches this team.

This seems far more balanced.

Re: 19 man Squad v Sydney Roosters : Sat Feb 20, 2016 8:54 am  

Judder Man wrote:

My take on last nights match, our pack showed up reasonably well but seriously lacking in our half backs and full back. Most of Roosters play down the edge via Wilkin, Turner and Owens, they did get a few jammy bounces but there young stand off was the architect of most of there attack.
We lacked a lot of composure on that final pass mostly by Walsh with panic passes to Swift and Makinson and the panic pass by Vea for the interception try. Walsh non existent in attack but did a lot of completed tackles not his usual running away from contact.

It was always a foregone conclusion before kick off we were going to lose (my estimate was 20 points) but we are a super league team struggling for quality players on a £1.8 million salary cap against a better quality team from a bigger pool and a salary cap of £3.3 million, if we had an extra £1.5 million to spend for equality would we have better players to compete most probably.

Biggest worry for the remaining season is still as per last season no half backs and full back, if we don't get that sorted I think we will be getting more of the same whoever coaches this team.

The pack had effort but that's it. We was stuck in our own 20m zone for virtually the whole game again and that was a problem last year. Yes tbe halves was poor but they have the excuse of not getting in decent field position to create anything.

I hope I'm wrong but if things don't change and we don't ditch this boring one up rugby then we are in real danger of dropping out the the top 4. I pernoally think we will finish 6th.

All these people bigging up the awful world series before this game makes me laugh. Now the excuses of they on bigger salary cap is out lol. The teams in it shouldn't even be in it, teams opt out of the world series, we don't even play the same rules, the salary caps are different and we are million miles away from competing with the NRL.

It's now 4-0 to the NRL since the world series stated. Saints have had two cricket scores on them and it's highly likely it will end up 6-0 to nrl come Sunday night.

How long until we scrap this terrible comp ?

Re: 19 man Squad v Sydney Roosters : Sat Feb 20, 2016 8:55 am  

For me last night was about a lack of composure with the ball and mistakes.
I know we shipped 38 points but when you keep giving up the ball they are bound to get something eventually.
I too thought the pack put in a shift both in attack and defence. But when we had the ball and even men in space we dropped the ball, ie Thompson and Greenwood.

But I also thought Thompson was excellent in defence and put some great hits in so I'm not going to string him up for bombing a chance.

Our mistakes were punished though but don't fool ourselves into believing that Sydney are Salford. It was a better effort than last week and we need to learn that building pressure and getting repeat sets is were we are lacking. Don't give up the ball so easily

Re: 19 man Squad v Sydney Roosters : Sat Feb 20, 2016 9:11 am  

bewareshadows wrote:

For me last night was about a lack of composure with the ball and mistakes.
I know we shipped 38 points but when you keep giving up the ball they are bound to get something eventually.
I too thought the pack put in a shift both in attack and defence. But when we had the ball and even men in space we dropped the ball, ie Thompson and Greenwood.

But I also thought Thompson was excellent in defence and put some great hits in so I'm not going to string him up for bombing a chance.

Our mistakes were punished though but don't fool ourselves into believing that Sydney are Salford. It was a better effort than last week and we need to learn that building pressure and getting repeat sets is were we are lacking. Don't give up the ball so easily

But you need to make meters to get field position and yet again we can't make meters. I don't think we got in there 20m in the whole first half with the ball

Re: 19 man Squad v Sydney Roosters : Sat Feb 20, 2016 9:12 am  

St pete wrote:

How long until we scrap this terrible comp ?

I think the most damning sign of all was that Burgess, who was 2nd top try scorer last year and played for England, wasn't picked in their team with them choosing to play two of their under 21s players in the centres and moving SKD to the wing, some teams like Roosters Rabittos Cowboys and Broncos seem to be producing their own top talent every year
I dont think we can use the salary cap as much of an excuse given that a huge portion of it (Pearce JWH Cordener) wasnt on the pitch, the majority of their players were academy produced talent

However I will stick up for the Super league on a couple of points:
I think the 'its their first run out' thing is no excuse, they go back to pre season at the same time as SL teams, its just that we have to somewhat rush our prep which is why the SL season never starts with teams at their best, so NRL are arguably better prepared
Also I think if you had played like that against us in the playoffs last year we would have battered you alswell, as would any top team, like I just said SL teams always seam undercooked at this stage of the year

Re: 19 man Squad v Sydney Roosters : Sat Feb 20, 2016 9:16 am  

Also, there is still no way I cant see you bouncing back and finishing top four
If you dont who is? Cos according to everyone else we aren't either
Wigan Hull Salford Widnes?

Re: 19 man Squad v Sydney Roosters : Sat Feb 20, 2016 9:19 am  

St pete wrote:

We was stuck in our own 20m zone for virtually the whole game again and that was a problem last year. Yes tbe halves was poor but they have the excuse of not getting in decent field position to create anything.

This is incorrect, our forwards put in plenty of effort and were making 40 metres on quite a few sets. We did get field position in Roosters 20 metre quite a few times but through out daft passes or dropped them. Roosters got load of possession from us kicking the ball out on the full (3 occasions) and not contesting for high balls (3 occasions).

We were playing the minor premiership winners from a far superior competition with better quality players, Saints played with the handicap of very little creativity from the half backs and full back but we did not surrender, I think most of the saints players deserve some credit for the effort they put into this match despite there limitations.

Re: 19 man Squad v Sydney Roosters : Sat Feb 20, 2016 9:24 am  

Judder Man wrote:

This is incorrect, our forwards put in plenty of effort and were making 40 metres on quite a few sets. We did get field position in Roosters 20 metre quite a few times but through out daft passes or dropped them. Roosters got load of possession from us kicking the ball out on the full (3 occasions) and not contesting for high balls (3 occasions).

We were playing the minor premiership winners from a far superior competition with better quality players, Saints played with the handicap of very little creativity from the half backs and full back but we did not surrender, I think most of the saints players deserve some credit for the effort they put into this match despite there limitations.

We hardly had the ball in their 20m in first half. The odd kick got us there but at no point did we trouble them at all with the ball.

So based on a team that was minor prem winners playing a team that didn't qualify for the series just shows what a complete joke the series is.

We wouldn't beat west Tigers