I,m backing McManus all the way, for some reason Royce has been going backwards each game this season with his coaching methods and looking at the body language of KP and RS at times you got the feeling we haven,t got an integrated team working for one another.
Royce has gone too far with this tactic of playing 16 men, rotating players and a complete lack of ability in getting his pivotal players organised.
It wouldn't,t surprise me if Mc Manus gets DA for a short spell in some consultant coaching role.

Saw this on the text totally taken by surprise, so ok you guys that are all local whats the rumors or whispers, of who might be the new man in charge?

Would any one be interested in us trying for the "Wizzard" again? not that it would happen I dont think!!!

I keep hearing this but it's just not the case, yes Royce played a part in which players where brought in for [uthis [/useason, but ateotd he isn't solely responsible for the club's recruitment! It just doesn't work that way, the decision on who to buy is made by people higher up than the coach in RL, he simply states which positions we may need to add bodies in and suggests players that he thinks may be suitable, scouting, agreement on players, negotiations and purchases are handle by several people within the club including the MD & Chairman. It is very convenient to lay the blame solely at the door of the Coach.

He wouldn't have been involved in signing LMS, Perry, Shenton and I doubt whether he would have been greatly involved in Hohaia's recruitment either given the timing of his signing (factoring in scouting and negotiation periods), short of offering his opinion of the player from an NRL perspective.

So I'd argue that the only signings he'd have had any real influence over would be Flanaghan & Laffranchi neither of which have yet to be proven as bad signings.

It's the three signings he's made this year that's going to be the long term problem. Im not saying lance, laffranchci and flanaghan ain't good players but they have been put in positions that they can't play.

It's obvious we are in dire need of a scrum half and prop but where they going to come from? He should have signed a scrum half instead of a fullback and a prop instead of a backrow.

It isn't. But Saints fans are always blathering on about wanting more silverware and judging coaches by the amount of silverware their team has won and yet Brown has managed zero number of pots with Hudds in four years. I'd really like to know by what logic, therefore, Brown is better than either Potter or Royce. Yet it would seem some people believe he is the messiah.

But KP has also been removed from post. The usual case in these circumstances would be for the assistant to take over once the coach goes, but the assistant going before a new man is put in place would seam to suggest that this runs deeper than just the coach.

As for Saints fan, I think that's partially an issue of pinning ones colours to the mast of one coach (Potter did just as well if not better than Royce but he did not get the same latitude). I thought and still do think Milward was our best coach. I think sacking him mid-season was a mistake. But once he was gone, then it's just tough and you have to back the new guys to put things right.

I've not seen or heard that. I've seen and heard people just asking for a coach that can coach unlike our previous coach.

Did anyone have Royce as their dream team coach??????

Very surprised about this. Bringing Cunningham & co in might give the players a lift for the next 3 games, but unfortunately the season is longer than the next 3 games. In Mid June the coaches won't be able to pull the us against the world speech everytime. You need coaching knowledge.

The players have to take responsibility. If the rest stood up like Wellens did you would have beaten us on Saturday. Was it Simmons fault Gaskell failed to find touch from the penalty. Was it SImmons fault Puletua knocked on with onlly the try line in front of him. He could so easily have won your last 3 games.

Catalans - if they hadn't have scored a wonder try
Huddersfield - If Lomax had have converted of the touch line
Bulls - If Gaskell found tuch from the penalty & Puletua didn't knock on.

Think Simmons has been very unlucky

For me I would keep Gaskell at scrum half and Wheeler at stand off for the rest of the season. Lance best position is hooker so I would use Roby at loose forward.
Biggest improvements need to come from LMS and Perry a couple of fireworks up their backsides might help. Lomax to be our utility back on the bench, TP an all out prop nothing else. Would drop Foster for the time and no place for Flannery.

its not the defeats, its the manner of the defeats, we look clueless in attack. There's no form or inventiveness and the team look leaderless and running around like headless chickens. Things that should be sorted in training by the coach

Unlucky?

We've been terrible! Utter shocking!

No game plan, no set plays, no organisation, no attack, letting far to many points in, not winning games and the worst kicking game I've ever seen by a pro team.

Just out of interest, go onto the superleague website and compare Laffranchi's stats againts Adrian Morely's this season (both have 7 games recorded), and against some of the Props you would have had us sign this year instead. I know statistics don't tell the whole story, and I'm not saying his stats will necessarily be better, or in some cases match, but I think you'll find they don't suggest he is struggling.

The fact is props in the current game simply aren't like they used to be, they aren't simple battering rams anymore and the rare exception that are generally useless after 10 minutes. There is very little if anything physically between the front and back rows these days with athleticism being preferable over sheer bulk, in fact there's little in terms of size and shape to differentiate between players of most positions anymore which the Aussies have exploited for years. I'd also argue that it's much easier for a 2nd Rower to adapt to playing prop that any other position having to adapt.

There where 9 people in the fantasy.rlfans.com system with him.

I guess they'll all change him now....

Your still missing my point. We lost possibly the best prop in the world and signed a decent backrow to replace him.

I'm not calling laffranchci and never have but we should have replaced jammer with the best prop available.

We've no aggression in the pack, it's to soft.

I completely and totally agree with you.

so you're happy with how we're playing? do you think the attack looks organised?

It's not just the attack either, we've shipped far to many points this season. It's ok Royce saying we defended well last week, we was playing a poor injury hit side who had sammut out.

We shipped 36 points against hull kr who had both halves out.

From the top to bottom we've been poor in every aspect thus year and not looked good in one single game.

I've not, I agree that in an ideal world we would have replaced Jammer with a player of a similar ability, but the simple fact is there was no-one like him available within our means. Who was the best prop available on the market doesn't necessarily equate to who we would able to attract and sign, its not like picking sides in the playground or in a fantasy league.

Looking at last season (& this year so far) the ideal replacement from the UK would have been Andy Lynch but he signed for Hull FC in September on a two year deal for a "significant six figure deal". Assuming that we could match the deal offered (which I seriously doubt we could), there are any number of other variables that might lead to him choosing to sign for Hull instead, we can't just assume he'd want to come to Saints because we're Saints.

What I'm saying about Laffranchi is we needed a forward who could play prop, he has played prop in the past (including Wests Tigers' 2005 NRL Grand Final victory) and clearly the club felt he had the attributes to play as an out and out prop for his time here in much the same way TP has. His stats this season are comparable to those of the props at Wigan and Warrington.

Purely as an example (and I'm not directly comparing their level) look at players such as Willie Mason, Petero Civoniceva and Craig Fitzgibbon - on their day they were often considered some of the best players in the world, all capable of and regularly switching between prop and second row.

No on both counts but for feck's sake, you don't throw the baby out with the bath water. We lost by a maximum of four points and at Bradford two of them should never have been awarded - see the RFL's decision on Jamie Foster's so called offence against Bateman. The try Catalans scored at the end of their match against us - the one I was mocked over for getting angry about - should never have been awarded due to the infringement in the previous set when Pryce put his ball carrying arm on the floor with Saints defenders on him. I could go on.

None of those things, plus Puletua dropping a beauty of a pass from Wello on Saturday night, was the fault of the coach.

And, whether any of you admit it or not, we had hauled in our defence over the last two weeks. Even when we were down to 12 men we held our line. People were berating Royce for his defensive structure yet we have seen it in action over the last two weeks, just as we saw it as the season wore on last year too. The attack would come, just as it did last season when we were adapting to being without Cunningham, Pryce and Eastmond. The young players had to learn how to deal with mistakes and he would have been helping them with that. With Lance Hohaia in there, and others too, it is quite possible that our attack would have become more varied once the confidence issue had been resolved as we would not be relying solely upon two novices to make all the plays.

Welcome to the modern world bro

I know it's impossible to replace jammer with someone with the same ability but we should have got the best prop available and not a backrow. For me, laffranchci done ok but he lacks the things prop do naturally like aggression.

I think everyone agrees that we need another prop but with no English props about and no quota spots free we are stuck with what we got.

Darrell Griffin was the best prop available and he wanted to go to the champions. What's your next move now that's one gone?

the defense has tightened up, but then bradford and Hull are hardly Leeds/Wire/wigan in attack. You pick out instances where we could have won at Bradford, but our first try was a mile forward

Our defence became fine last season too, Simon, so don't act dumb. Everyone knows we had a perfectly good defence, once the players actually decided to bend their backs and defend.

Our attack wasn't all dull last year either. We scored some beautiful tries, some from deep too. Last year everyone was also on here blathering about us being the worst Saints team in 90 years and how we couldn't attack/defend/blow our noses, yet we got better - in spite of our awful injuries (nothing to do with the coach, again) - and got to another GF.

No, I am fully convinced here that Royce has been shafted and that we have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. I just hope it doesn't come back to bite us on the backside.