well thats the end of his two year stay and no trophies won.Hope the Bradford fans enjoy his brand of "rugby".Tonight just typified his period of tenure-5 drives and a kick with no attempt to move the ball around.McManus you dropped a major bollock in appointing the guy-just hope the next incumbent brings back some semblance of entertainment-and trophies

I'm not his biggest fan (I think the style he encourages is pretty dour) but give the guy a bit of credit, he has brought on quite a ew of our youngsters and I think his legacy (assuming we dont do a Wigan and let them all go) will be providing a good core of young players to take the club forward.

The work on the young players was done before Mick got here. What Mick did manage to do - and IMO the only positive about his tenure - was integrate the young guys into the first team. Since that was his remit when appointed, job done.

Now, I hope our next coach will get us back to playing good rugby, even when we don't have Kyle and Leon on the pitch, and doing stuff like defending, holding on to the ball, passing with some semblence of speed, that kind of thing.

I think the sheer amount of injuries we've had this year and to key players has not helped the cause.

Potters remit was to bring through the youngsters and he's done it.

He's also got you to the grand final without any half backs for a large part of this year.

You may not have won anything during his stay but he's done a good job.

Totally agree, he's done a pretty good job with the players he's had available the last 2 years and especially this season with injuries to the pivotal positions.
To be honest I didn't expect us toget to 2 grand finals during this transitional stage for the club, we will be a lot stronger next season but our half back situation could still be a worry.

Yep. Great.

Glad to see the back of him.

He's done the job he was appointed to do.

That's strange.
I could have swore Joel & Sam Tomkins played last night along with Goulding, McIlorum, Prescott, Hansen and Farrell.
And there's more to come.

Which of ALL those young players that Wigan let go do you think would get into the Wigan team?

On Potter,
I was talking to a current Saints players dad pre-match and he believes that Potter has concentrated too much on size and strength, saying that they do not do a lot of running or speed training.

On the one hand, his brand of rugby has got us to 2 x top 2 finishes in the regular season, 2 challenge cup semis, and 2 grand finals. That, and the intergration of the youngers into the team. For that, I am grateful. Getting to the GF this year with the injuries we've had is an achievement.

On the other hand, it's not exciting rugby to watch (last year especially), and Wigan showed last night that against a very good and organised defence, our tactics will not win games. Hopefully, Royce will bring back some of the exciting rugby that saints are accustomed to. When we threw it around last night, we looked dangerous.

POTTER RIP. and good riddance

This season I have seen some of the most boring rugby I can recall in all the years I have watched Saints.Take your style of play over the Pennines to Bradford Potter-I am sure they will appreciate you.I desparately hope Simmons does not follow the same mantra,He also needs to teach them how to tackle and goal line defence

you forgot Lockers

Yes. I said so. He has integrated the young players. That was his job and that's all he has done.

You don't need to talk to anyone to realise that. It's bloody obvious.

It hasn't been the greatest two years but I think some fans don't see the bigger picture.

We have been concentrating hard on getting a new ground for obvious reason's so maybe recruitment hasn't been what we wanted. We lost a good few 'Legends' and very good players over the past couple of years - the end of an era you might say.

Potter came in at a very difficult time; he inherited an aging squad with gaps in the ranks and not the best recruitment funds or policy. He has got us to two GF's the second of which by everything just we shouldn’t have got to with the injuries we've had this year.

So all-in-all, although I wouldn't have extended his contract he hasn't done a bad job in difficult times.

Potter has done well in bringing the younger ones through but frankly he's had no other options. With the amoung of injuries weve suffered he has had to play youngsters. It appears to me as well that he has picked older players when possible. When player who comes to mind was when Tom Armstrong was introduced. He showed great potential and made a good impression of himself when given his opportunity, however as soon as Meli returned from injury he was dropped and has been seldom seen since. Despite Meli's reccuring bad form (apart from his odd good game) he has not been given another opportunity.

Oh come on people lets be honest! Hehas totally changed the team into a snoring one out play and kick. We have lost our flair and our panache. Yes there have been times when we have reverted to type but most of our play has been in the image of our coach boring lifeless and flat. The youngsters are local talent and have come through the ranks playing traditional St Helens style, I know, ive watched most of them.

Potters exit is timely and much needed. Lets move on and hope the next coach has the pazazz of Millward, the savvy of Anderson, the playing experience of Coslett and the vocal dexterity of McRae.

I have to say in Potters favour he brought in some very good kids but his style of play was awful and I personally hated it.

A very difficult job that Potter inherited with the likes of Longy leaving and the stadium draining the finances, especially coupled with the injury list.
Mick brought some great kids through, some may argue not totally by choice given the injury situation but he's got to take some credit for the meteoric development of Foster, Lomax, Emmitt etc.

Potter's style of play wasn't the greatest and judging by the Simmons interview entertaining rugby was a major requirement for Eammon. Hopefully a fresh approach will bring a new hunger to the team that seemed sadly lacking on occassions last year.

Tactically Potter IMO was inept and some of his selections baffling, with the iceing on the cake Lomax at left centre for the first time in our biggest game of the year.

I didn't see a massive amount of this free flowing, off the cuff, length of the field rugby that there's a lot of talk about about when DA was coach - he was the master of percentage rugby league and we were very, very good at it. Relentless in keeping pressure on in attack, solid in defence and we ground teams down rather than blowing them away.

Potter's results (note, not performances), given the resources available, have been excellent both at Catalan and at Saints. I suspect that's why Bradford were keen to snap him up. If he can coach that load of old timers into anywhere near a play off spot, then he truly is a coach who can get the best from what's available.

Me, I kind of like the "you score 5 tries and we'll score 6" approach that Saints are famous for - but if Potter was appointed to keep us in the challenge for honours (and he was) then he did a fair old job at it given the squad at his disposal.

No, people appear to be melding the 2000 - 2007 seasons into one when the style of play was very different.

I don't know anything about Simmons, but was told that he was a very defensive coach, so I'm not expecting much of a change next year.

how about playing dean in the centres, lomax and foster instead of gardner, or starting magennis ahead of puletua and clough, not forgetting playing emmitt ahead of fozzard and faasavalu at the end of the year, and also leaving wheeler in the reserves at the end of the year..

meli - top try scorer..

yes, he's HAD to play the youngsters, but he has stuck with them when more established players have returned

Dean has gone, Wakey i think

[url=http://www.weststigersforum.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5221&time=1286376970Some comment from a Tigers Forum.[/url
Not sure who "Pomsaint" is, but he beat me to asking for what they thought of him.