I`m really not sure what to make of the game last night.
One or two poor calls by the ref and TJ`s and whilst we looked poor in parts we looked ok in others.
Either that or Warrington are not as good as their league position says.
I tipped Wigan to win the treble and haven`t seen anything from any other team to make me eat my words.
Miller needs to take a leaf out of Dufty`s book and follow the break.
Croft trying his best along with McDonnell.
Fusi and Mom nowhere near good enough.
Eseh trying too hard and making the odd mistake.
Sinfield needs games but agree Frawley`s defence is much better.
O`Connor playing with fight and determination that the rest of the pack should follow.
Personally I would play Smith at prop instead of Goudemand and let O`Connor play loose or possibly Frawley.
At least we have Prince Harry back next week to take McCormacks place!

So with the same theory, the backs are their to move the team back?

In previous seasons, the Saints backline literally just ran onto the ball at speed, got over the gain line, hit their front, quick ptb and repeat.

sign Neme and Ryan , they will bring the ball out

Yes with the likes of Percival and Makinson who are great at that. You can't copy the method with players who don't hit the line like they do.

For what it's worth, Hall will be more effectively than Fus with these carries next season I think, and Handley is OK sometimes. Our centres are rubbish at it and Miller is more of a stepper. Added to the fact we have relatively light back rowers and we get exactly what we see - a consistent failure to establish any momentum up field and a poor platform for the halves to play off.

The 2 wingers at Wigan and Catalan don`t do bad either at bringing the ball out of their own half.
With Fusi`s size you would think he would do the same.
Too powder puff for me.

Handley is very good at bringing the ball out from our line. He regularly makes decent post contact metres and if given the space can use his speed to make ground. Fusi is poor, especially for his size. He never breaks a tackle and doesn't have the pace to go around anyone. Its a shame Lumb got injured, he may have been an improvement.

Alfie edgel is actually pretty good at this especially for his size, runs fearlessly

Still think we looked pretty good in patches going forward, all is not lost but… I hope between Blease and BA they can find some solutions to the squad.

I think Hall will help out with that. Strong runner and should play more often too.

The last bit I agree with the rest is poppycock.

We are not St's of years gone by are we, probably the worst comparison of two rugby league teams.

We’re honestly not ‘that’ far off IMO.

I think BA can get a tune out of them, theres not been an overseas coach with his pedigree in SL for a while.

For Goodness sake Chris , we are miles off , is your glass always full

Just a different opinion thats all. Is your glass permanently empty? Must be exhausting. Lets see what BA can do eh.

I don’t even have a glass…

The hitups by the backs are largely driven by where and when we start sets. When we're starting sets right back on our own line, the kicker has often had ages to make a long kick, and the defence has time to run as a line (their forwards also haven't had to struggle as much as they should, making easy yards up the middle). We then generally have to make two or three hard runs from outside backs before the forwards even get into position to get the ball. Contrast to when a team is pinned back and has to kick from deep. You then get the ball 30 yards out, every run is easier and forwards can get involved earlier.

So much keeps coming back to field position and the defence giving away far too many easy yards.

Pretty much on point. Unless we suddenly get a new pack or players become different beasts overnight we are a significant distance away from the top teams. The stats are the same every week rarely do any of our forwards except Oledski who's trying too hard to compensate for others deliver 100m plus in a game. Some struggling to hit 50m every week. The only one who consistently makes big metres in the middle of the field is Ash Handley and thats like waiting a ferrari in a stock car race!

Using the backs more in yardage is just a way of distributing the workload and energy drain. However if they are ineffective we are kicking from inside our own half under pressure and we’re the gimp.

BA needs to assess where he thinks our existing strengths and weaknesses are and work to them. I think we need a different tactic to make yardage.

You are joking or you need to lay off the cooking sherry. Check out Brian Carneys withering assessment of the club, Rohan Smith is probably unique as he dismantled a team and rebuilt a team inferior to the one he dismantled. As for youngsters coming through, looking at last night’s saints Wigan game both sides had some brilliant young lads on view. BA will confirm that several members of the team aren’t good enough, plus several are good enough but aren’t committed. Looking at last nights Wigan match the intensity was superb, for a side that is supposed to be in decline saints put up a display of courage and commitment. As far as I am aware there is no copyright on that procedure, be nice if we could replicate that attitude in our next game.

Saints didn’t look like that last week though did they, it’s ok getting up for s local derby but they’re not the team they once were at all.

I don’t give a monkeys what Brian Carnet says, or John Wilkin, I can have my own opinion and that is that the team is not as bad as it has been playing recently.

Whilst I agree the team is capable of performing much better than we’ve seen from this group of players, recently is probably stretching it a fair bit. They’ve stunk the place out pretty consistently for at least 18 months, I’d say that’s a bit longer than recently.

Let’s hope that BA can instil some good standards and behaviours. He doesn’t seem the kind to accept shortcuts and is big on holding people accountable for performance, so we should see some improvement.

61 out of past 71 weekly rounds we've been in bottom half of the table. Disgrace....

61 out of past 71 weekly rounds we've been in bottom half of the table. Disgrace....

You obviously have a right to your own opinion, as for saints whilst in a gentle decline ,they have had no problem in defeating us this season. As for Brian Carney he had a pretty good rugby career and a good education, so I think his opinion carries some weight. You just have to look at the league table to see what a mess we are in. Unless things change dramatically we are just a run of the mill mid table side, living on past glories with the best ground in the league. If you think this squad of players will somehow save the day you are sadly mistaken. My only hope is Arthur will spell out the hard facts. Although our predicament is plain to see for the majority of people. Thing that annoys and frustrates me is it’s not an instant quick fix we may have to wait quite some time to see any green shoots of recovery. However i am reasonably optimistic, as the majority of the fans and the club have finally woken up to the fact that we are in a bad situation and things need to change. The first smart move was appointing Blease and Arthur, smith should have been fired weeks ago.