I'm not sure why some people find this so difficult to grasp , the biggest beef I have with Potter is the STYLE in which we play not the weekly results. I dont expect to murder teams week in week out.

you can win a game by 2 points and it be a cracker , equally you can win by 20 or 30 and it can still be Dull ala Bradford for years and years

Some people prefer to ignore what is actually being said.

While getting rid of Potter now would be counterproductive, it would be nice not to have him here.

However, unlike you, some fans actually want to enjoy their rugby league. Winning trophies isn't the be-all and end-all for all of us, you know. Only some, like yourself. And the gripe that some of us have had with Potter is that the rugby league isn't very enjoyable. However, he seems to think it is, judging by his post-match interview on Sky. Clueless. He clearly interpreted the deathly silence and repeated groans on Sunday as ecstasy.

Last season, I'd have agreed. I left KR bored on almost every occasion.

This year, the rugby has been better - injuries permitting.

But when you are regularly playing without your key pivots, free flowing rugby and the type of intuitive plays that we all love to watch are extremely difficult to pull off. Potter has done well to get us the results despite the crippling injuries and the 'different line up every week' predicament.

To show him the door now, and let an untried and untested Purtill take the reigns for the crunch games, is a knee jerking, dummy spitting tantrum of the highest order.

Have we become the Wigan 'fans' of old?

Again, it should be pointed out that - sans Meli screwup* - we could well be sitting in third (despite one of the worst injury crises in twenty years, severe squad and budgetary constraints), [udefending the SL title[/u whilst two wins away from holding the Challenge Cup.

And yet fans want to get rid for [uAESTHETIC[/u reasons, the contingent criteria for which [uNO ONE[/u has yet managed to articulate despite an open invitation to do so posted two days ago. Given the cavalcade of anti-Potter sentiment we've seen since the start of the season I'd have thought this would be simplicity itself. Seems I was wrong.

We haven't regularly played without our key pivots. We have been missing Kyle for a couple of months but we played our best game of the season without him, so we were hardly missing him. We have not had Cunningham for a few weeks but he's only ever on the pitch for half the match anyway so if we can't cope without him for the other half then we are in the big muddy puddle. Only for one game and the final quarter of another did we not have three of our pivots playing and against Leeds we could have won had Wello been on form and not messed up two try-scoring opportunities. So really, only one game can be included because it hasn't made any difference who else has been playing: we've played some awful rugby and occasionally some great rugby, regardless of who the wingers are or whether we have all our forwards playing.

I don't want to enjoy my rugby? Where did I say that?

Where did I say winning trophies was the be all and end all? I grew up watching Saints in the 80s, I don't need a lecture on how to enjoy rugby without winning trophies



Some people are so anti-Potter they refuse to see the influence that this season's injuries have had on the standards of performance.

I'd rather saints won trophies and play boring, winning cups is what these players are paid to do. The whole season is geared to august bank holiday weekend and 2nd October.

If you can win trophies and play good rugby then that's great but I don't recall many fans moaning when we won grand final under hanley playing boring one up rugby.

In English please

If that's what you want then fine. But the reason some of us aren't happy is because we want to enjoy our rugby league week in, week out (barring the occasional mishap).

He's just trying to show off but in fact sounds like an idiot.

We all want to watch fast flowing rugby but all that matters is the two cup finals, nothing else should matter!

I love winning and I appreciate sometimes you have to do it tough but not all the time. I have an ingrained dislike for the style of Rugby Bradford played for so long and that was pretty successful

I bet there fans wasn't moaning about boring rugby when they was getting to finals.

I'd rather play ugly and win than play great rugby and lose.

Maybe I just don't like losing?

I'm just greedy and want both. Bradford fans are used to being served up dross, boring dross at that we arnt. Even going back to the 80's and early 90's we'd be entertaining for the most part even if at times it was a comedy of errors



Like I said some games you do need to stick it up your jumper and grind but we spent all last season doing that a fair portion of this season too... and to top it off we've won nothing ... (second doesnt count for me)

We have, though.

There haven't been many occasions when we've lined up with Pryce, Kyle and KC in their respective positions so the fluidity that comes from having your key playmakers alongside each other has been missing, hence some of the disjointed performances we've had.

I'm surprised you dismiss the contributions of Kyle and KC so easily, they are both quality, quality players.

We've played some pretty good rugby at times this year.

Last year we didn't, but it the game changed last year and our senior players didn't change with it as quickly as other teams did. We were also hamstrung by a previous transfer policy that had big men out wide who were slow and a half back that had been kept 12 months too long. The addition of pace across the park with the youngsters that have developed over the last two years have sparked up this team, despite the injuries.

The suggestion of Potter being sacked and Purtill being promoted is laughable.

I would say we have lined up with Pryce, Kyle and KC in their respective positions for most of the season. Kyle was getting to the point where he would have been top goalkicker and top try scorer this season had he not been injured. KC has been missing for three weeks, that's all. Pryce has missed three matches in total this season, one of them being against Leeds at KR (when both Kyle and KC were present). I think Kyle has now missed six weeks? That isn't even half the season!


I'm not dismissing anyone. But it's quite clear we have coped without Kyle and like I said, we had our best match of the season without him in the team. So we can cope without Kyle. We could cope without Pryce if Kyle was in the team, as we had our second best match of the season - Leeds at home - when Pryce was out injured. We can also cope without KC, since we have won a match without him there. Whether we can cope without Pryce, Eastmond and KC together I don't know because we have played dismal rugby before the Catalans match this season and we have lost with all three on the pitch so how much the Catalans result was down to three pivots missing, I can't tell. But we can cope without two of them missing. So long as Pryce remains fit. He is much more important to Saints than many fans are giving him credit for.

Came across something in a book I'm reading at the moment that sounds all to familiar in respect to this thread. The book is called 44 years with the same bird, it was written by Daily Mirror football columnist Brian Reade and is about his experiences as a fan of Liverpool FC through the decades. The excerpt below is related to the end of the 70's/Start of the 80's...



A lot of parallels in our own success and the attitudes of many fans, myself included at times in the past I'll admit.

I'd say otherwise. Don't forget Wello has missed a few as well which has meant Kyle has spent a fair bit of game time at fullback. I'm not just talking about these guys being in the team, but playing where they are meant to be played.

I'm speculating, as I don't have the energy to wade through our line ups for the season, but I'd imagine it's around half the games we've played where we can say we've had Pryce at 6, Kyle at 7 and KC at 9.



Of course we can cope, we have been coping well enough to see us through to a semi final and 3rd in the table, with wins against the teams above and around us. Coping isn't enough for some, though - "It's just like watching Brazil" rugby is the only acceptable type, it seems.

The point I've been trying to make is that to play consistently quality, free flowing attacking rugby needs your pivots to be absolutely in tune. When their game time together in those positions are limited, so is your ability to consistently turn on the style.



Now THAT we can agree on.

Lost your silver spoon again?

That's a lot of accepting coping for a woman who is decrying the fact that we haven't played enough champagne rugby this season.

Everyone knows we have coped with a massive injury list and without key players, it's just that some don't seem to think that coping whilst missing key, experienced players is good enough. You included.

We played our best match of last season with Wilkin at scrum half. Does that mean he's the best scrum half in the squad? No, of course not, as everybody knows you can't judge a situation from one match. We may have played well in a game or two without Kyle, but that doesn't mean we don't miss him. We quite obviously do. Regarding KC, are you serious? Is that how little you value his contribution to the side? Presumably you think he will be easy to replace next season. There has not been a single part of this season where we haven't been short of numbers in at least one important area of the team. If you think this has only affected one result all season then you're frankly wrong.

As I've already said, we have a lot of talented youngsters in our squad, but having to use so many of them at the same time and for such a sustained period is guaranteed to result in inconsistency and, overall, a lower standard of play (which, in turn, is bound to be less attractive).

I understand why the question was asked however that doesn't mean that we should be giving it any serious thought. Potter is our coach and he must stay for this year. If they players don't like, and I can understand if some of them don't, they should still rally around him and give their all in the same way that any one of us would do in the same situation. They are all professionals and no matter what limitations some may have they have all got it in them to make this season a success.

Exactermundo, how many of us have worked for a boss we didn't like at some point? But you get paid so you crack on!