i didnt throw my teddy out of the pram i got banned.

And what can be achieved without a left centre. Saints have one decent fill-in centre and one good one, much the same as Leeds do. The only difference is they are on opposite sides of the pitch.

Stop in now. A world class centre in both positions is essential before any team can think of silverware/ have you not been reading these boards lately?

A world class player in each position more like. otherwise we may as well not turn up

Two world class centres would be nice but I'd still settle for two international class if that isn't practical. At a pinch one international and one SL competent would be an improvement. Let's see how Lee Smith shapes up now if he can avoid those midgies.

If Smith plays in the right centre do we not have an interntaional in each centre?

Mate, if Sam Backo played in the right centre we would have an international in each centre.

[size=75Keep taking the drugs!!![/size

loner for life!

I see Bywater is being incredibly stupid as usual.

Last year Gareth and I merely outed double standards as regards Smith and McClennan. Humble pie was not required.

BTW, in 2005 Leeds reached both major finals.

I have a good idea, when you are surgically removed from Gareth's backside I have a corner of the garden with your name on it, I also have a miniture fishing rod so you look the part.

Hetherington has a point.

Why should spoiling tactics determine who wins?

Exactly.

The sooner Leeds stop wrestling the opposition in the tackle, and finally rolling away 1/10 of a nanosecond before the ref blows for a penalty, the better.

Never thought I would agree with both that man and you in one post!

So, Saints signed Puletua. Is that it? We signed Buderus. Why are you naming the players they didn't lose rather than the ones they did lose? Durgh!


Clearly you don't shag because, as usual, when you have no point you make things up.

If I had written McLennan off why did I Have a £50 bet with Snake Eater that Leeds would win the GF?

As Kifaru has pointed out, all we ever did was question why the likes of you were bestowing such adulation upon a coach who had, at that point, won nowt, yet you reserved your bile for our greatest ever coach?

Anyway, it#s probably a moot argument now. If McLennan keeps relegation your dream boy to the bench you'll turn on him as quickly as you did Smith.

Do Saints need a new right centre? Is that at the root of thier problems as well?

No. Saints need a new coach and a whole new team judging on their last two matches. At least thats the criteria applied to Leeds so surely the same standards should apply to St Helens would you not say?

I wonder what DISA and Bywater think?

He's been thinking "Where can I get a voodoo doll of Mclennan" after he dared to leave his dream boy on the bench.

Its' probably the beginning of the end of the Bywater Mclennan love-fest now Bluey had the temerity to do that.

heh

you made that bet when leeds were 6 points clear the top, when they were all conquering, in fact i even think it was soon after the hull game at easter, when we were at our zenith.

As soon as the sh*t hit the fan you doubted McClennan like everyone else.

Remember your ''if smith was in charge we'd be in the cc final'' thread after the semi?

Remember the pm's we exchanged soon after the saints playoff game, where even the great g1 ''doubted'' whether McClennan could turn it round.

I notice how Gareth had the decency to miss me off the quote, when quoting you. What the hell you on Danny? I think you are getting confused with your posters. My view has been the same as you and Gareth, that the tactics have not been right this year. Unless you can show anything different from your marvellous tw@* mag collection, sorry, I mean screen dumps?

Actually, not true. He still maintained the bet when you gave him the option to back out just before the GF. When I offered to back up his bet with a double, then there was confusion as to whether us two had actually made the bet, which we in truth we hadn't officially.

I saw many Stains fans predicting their team would struggle this year due to the age of many key players. I don't think they recruited particularly well, but there has always been the theory that they have a lot of money invested in a few players and that they are always maxed out on the cap.
Saints don't have problems at the moment. They are top of the league and still in the cup - surely if this were Leeds and people were complaining then the tery accusations would be flying.
We are not top of the league, we're out of the cup and Saints look like they can beat us with one hand tied behind their back. We got hammered by Quins last week and produced one of the most dire halves of "rugby" imaginable at the weekend against a truly awful team that was already out of the game. I lost count of the times we spent 5 tackles driving the ball to the exact same spot on the pitch and then put in a cr*p kick .
Too many shots of Bluey shaking his head in the stands as well. Last guy I saw like that was Jimmy Lowes.

No it wasn't. Check your facts. Want to bet?



Swing and a miss again. When we were flying and all was going well I tried to temper idiots proclaiming Mclennan as the greatest ever coach after about ten games.

yes I do. Do you? Shall I remind you what I was talking about? The teams indiscipline. I talked at great length about how the team was giving away far too many penalties and how they had taken on the emotional persona of Bluey rather than the controlled persona of Smith.

I was making a point many people are cottoning onto 12 months later.

No. Not at all. I remember PM'ing you and asking me for your £50 though.

Whilst I don't disagree Saints have not won the cup yet and, frankly, I don't care whether they're top of the league. They were the previous two years.

You're right that all Saints fan questioned the quality of their overall squad. Yet why am I constantly told on here that Saints have "strengthened" and have much better quality squad than us? It simply because that is a reaction to defeats and not an accurate assessment. Eccleshill says that Saints strengthened whilst we stood still. They signed 1 player. So did we (well 2 actually).

Here we are completely ad idem. And this is the root of the problem, not team strengthening or our right centre.

I think that's becoming obvious the more we get into the season. Any pressure on us causes problems. I wonder what would have happened if Cats had scored first (same thing in the Hudds game)?

I do believe we are significantly weaker though with Burgess defending compared to Scruton and Kirke compared to Ellis (and I know Kirke has a high tackle completion ratio - but he doesn't read the game like Ellis who was a World class defender in that respect). Burgess looks like he's running on tracks - he can go forwards and backwards but not sideways.
The squad has declined in personel quality, it's not by much but it's there. Made worse by players like JJB, Donald, Kylie etc. looking well down on last year form wise. When you add up a lot of small things you can get a big problem. Some of that is coaching and some is squad personel.

Your bang on there. I said the same thing about Burgess at the weekend. He's got no lateral movement. BUT it can be worked on the lad is still learning and has a heck of a lot of potential.