I just can't work his methods out and I don't think the players can either.

I never ever thought I'd say this but "bring back potter"

Simmons is worst coach I've seen take charge of saints.

And where would we have been today without a back on the bench?

a good, reasoned post, it definitely worth a shot

Well, at this rate the benefits of rotation seem dubious as there might not be any playoffs to compete in.

about 3rd in the league instead of 7th (could be 8th later)

Been saying from the very start of the season we have no leadership and no plan to our game. Think this will not happen this season we will be like rabbits in the headlights when we play the "bigger games". Can only imagine Roby filling the role but he's carrying the team already and might effect his game.

OK, what would everyone's team be going forward for the rest of the season? I am really stuck with this one. Too many cooks are spoiling the broth.

And that my friend comes from poor coaching.

I agree, but he's too stubborn to admitt he's wrong. I hate hearing "it'll come good at the end of the year" not everyone can do a Leeds. The one that gets me most is "he got us to a final" last years team picked itself!

Much more of this and we should cut our losses and send Mr. Charisma back to Australia.

Leeds finished in 5th but won the Grand Final.

We're in the fifth round. We were 7th at this time last season too. So what?

I hope Royce don't read that, he'll come up with idea of resting every player until the 2nd half of the season.

We could have gone with Flanagan at 9. Simple. If Roby had not got injured then Flanagan would have been used elsewhere.



I'd try:

Lomax
Foster
Shenton
Meli
Makinson
Wheeler
Hohaia
Clough
Roby
LMS
Soliola
Flanagan
Wilkin

TP
Perry
Laffranchi
Dixon

He might have no experience of putting the ball into an uncontested scrum. But he has years of invaluable experience at the fulcrum of play in the pressure cooker environment of the NRL and for NZ. Something neither Gaskell nor Lomax could even dream of.

The fact that you deliberately choose to ignore this and slag off a player whose barely strung 80 mins of play together in SL says a lot about your credibility - or lack thereof.

What he needs to do now, pick what he feels is his strongest side and stick with it, let's let the players play together and get the understanding back.

He only ever played for NZ because of his utility value, he was never good enough to start if he had stuck to a specific position. The fact that he's spent ten years at one club and was never a regular starter in his favourite position says it all.

I think its a bit more than that St Pete, its bad planning by the club, unless they are thinking we can have another season of transition until one comes to the surface.
The only hope we have is if Lomax and Gaskell grab the game by the scruff of the neck and dominate, feel sorry for Lomax he doesn,t really know what his true role is, we are just playing off individual plays.
I,m wondering if the coaching pair are actually singing from the same hymn sheet, as this rotation, substitution and swapping players is not give us any chance of consistency.

I think he was only saying he liked playing in the halves to try and get the gig here.

He's been fullback for most of his time.

These are all knee-jerk reactions, I can remember a thread after you got beat by Hull in the first game last season and had a huge uproar stating it wasn't a knee jerk but a reaction to an obvious decline. You will improve, every team has rough patches, if you go on to win the next 4 games threads like this will be laughed at. There is a long way to go, if you were playing like this with 3 weeks to go then fair enough, but at this stage it doesn't count for much.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion. But that's a load of e!

I could say the same about James Roby who for the majority of his career was never good enough to start.

But anyway:

2002–2011 NZ Warriors Pld. 185 Tr. 57
2002–2011 New Zealand Pld. 29 Tr. 11

QED.

I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt last year due to all the injuries and graham/eastmond/pryce stuff going on but I always thought he was rubbish coach. The injuries last season covered over the cracks of just how poor he is.

I'm honestly really worried that his time at saints and mainly his recruitment will set us back years! With our quota spots full for the for a good few years and the fact we can't go out and buy quality British players is a real worry.

Next years coach has a hell of a Job on his hands as we need two props and a scrum half urgently. Next we will also need to replace wello, Meli and flannery.

That's aprox six players needed with no overseas spots available.

Unless you agree to let current overseas players leave.

I'd release all apart from sia.

And replace them with who?

Ade was one of our best players today. And as you well know, Foster has more than one handling error to his name so far this season. He was directly responsible for two other Catalans tries in that game alone. Another of our best players was Hohaia, whom you have also randomly slagged off in this thread.

I feel sorry for Lomax. He had an absolute mare today, and Gaskell wasn't great either. Without Roby in the side our lack of direction was painfully evident, with wrong options being taken all over the place. I'm not convinced that moving Hohaia to half back will change anything, either. I'd be tempted to go with Gaskell at 7 and Wheeler at 6 next week, and play Lomax and Hohaia at 1 and 9. Wellens was good today when we were coming out of our half, but he kills too many attacking moves when we're in enemy territory.

On the brighter side, our pack was much better. We were aggressive in the middle, and with the exception of two lapses (Lomax shooting out of the line in the build up for George's first try, Shenton likewise for his second) our defensive line was much more composed.