We've had since the start of SL?
I'm struggling to think of a weaker one.
Ageing slow FB
3/4'S with very little pace or guille
HB pairing that has a SO who's had all the confidence he was building in 2001,knocked out if him by Rush in 2012,a SH who can only pass 1 way,and in reality is a FB.
A forward pack that is full of 2nd rowers,it says something when the only genuine TRUE prop we have is Josh Perry.
Recruitment has been awful for the last 3/4 years Perry,Hohihia,Turner and even Manu ffs he's in twilight of his career.
Admittedly if you look at the 2006 GF winning side replacing players of the calbre of that squad would be very very hard,but when you replace the likes of Gidley,Lyon and even Shenton with Turner jeez we have serious problems.I'd also love to know which plonker it was that signed Lance(jack of all trades certainly master of none)and the even bigger plonker that gave him a 4 year deal.
3 games in we've been totally blown of the park by Hudds,fortunate to beat a poor Widnes side(look at todays score against an average Bobbins side)we only scored when they were down to 11,and drawing to a Hull (missing a few of their star players)who in the last 15 minutes were far the better team.
Sorry to say this but top 4 i think will be out of our reach this season infact 6th might be the best we can hope for.

Hope i'm wrong btw COYS

Just before the start of the season there was a lot of talk about how you had the best pack in superleague. Amazing how 3 games in it suddenly isn't good enough.

You guys said this last year when you were poor at our ground and that was 7 games in. You picked up after that and finished 3rd. You'll be fine

The squad of present players remind me of some of the team we had in the 80,s think we struggled for decent backs then and we ended up with a certain "Tricky Trindall". Looking more and more like a mid table team, we overachieved last year which covered the cracks.

Tricky Trindall played for us in either '99 or 2000.
He was also a very good player, just an , a poor proffessional and a little injury prone.

I think we have some very good players in our squad. It could be better, but there's a salary cap these days.

Given he's only made 12 posts, I assume that wasn't from him.

We've got a pretty good squad. Once we got Brown on board, a few people (including myself) have fancied us to do well.
We've playe poorly so far, but have improved slightly each week. Only time will tell....

If packs played on paper we probably would have the best one in the league , sadly for us they need to man up on the field and justify the hype

I feel your frustration but I think you have a couple of things wrong . Pace for starters , Wello is like a sloth in reverse but the rest can all shift, I do however agree we seem to lack guile , that could be resolved somewhat by replacing the sloth ...

I wouldnt be too harsh on Manu so early - he is a class player and one of the better recruits we've made in the last few years.

I think the plonker your looking for is Royce on the Lance signing, I believe that situation could be resolved somewhat though by playing in his best position of fullback - kills 2 birds with one stone



For me the squad isnt great but what we are really lacking more than anything is an experienced halfback who can get a grip of a game.. as many have said we've never replaced Long (Eastmond was still a work in progress). Lomax and Gaskell have alot of promise and potential but getting some experience in there to help them is a must for me.

We had a worse squad last year.

I think it's just a matter of time. We have been slow starters since Anderson left and actually before he got here we where never off the mark at a million miles an hour.

I'm hoping to get to the Bradford game and see an improved performance again.

If we keep getting better week on week then, we will be in the mix at the right end of the season. I reckon we have 5-6 games to get some form and then people will be rightly asking whether we should try to re-sign Gaskell or let him go for someone else.

He needs time and I'm happy to wait, but with (rumours thread) Lance and TP possibly on the move, then that would leave some big cash available. Tim Smith prehaps???

Yes please!!!!!!!

Tim Smith has had his chance at a club at the top end of the table and failed to convince, mainly because of his atrocious defence.

I do conceed, however, that with any player, not least one who's had such documented troubles personally, that they can improve on any percived weakness.

The current squad is as good in pure comparative terms as almost any other we have had in the last 15 years. We have merely sunk in quality at the same rate as everyone else.

The kneejerking! It burns! It burns!

I remember going to visit Dux when he was wokring over in Belfast - it must've been royce's first season.
We were watching a game from the year before and the side that Potter had to field was very weak, partly because of our squad and partly because of injuries, but we still managed to beat an accomplished huddersfield side.

Things always seem worse when we've just come off a bad result.
I remeber wondering, after Hull had bullied us out of the CC in 2005 and then beat us at home in 2006 with a Paul Cooke drop goal, whether our side had the balls to win anything. We went on to win[u everything[/u.

Now, I'm not suggesting that's what going othappen this year, but there's no need throw the baby out with the bath water.

We can play all the right notes, just not necessarily in the correct order at the moment.

Wow, three games in and RedVee panic has spread over here.

What a load of ****

Keep the faith, This time next year we'll be planning to win the WCC

Well I'm 20, and it's certainly up there with there worst i've seen.

The strange thing is, if you put a quality half back in there, it would look a decent side.

I'd have Tim Smith any day.

Watched a few of his Wakefield games and he's quality.

Sorry let me qualify that - 'going forward' and he has a very good kicking game.

Defence - different story but...

Been talking in work with a saints fan who has been going to games for over 40 years. He says that in his opinion he sees this squad as a good squad it just doesn't seem to be putting the effort in.

A lot of us have figured out about the lack of effort but while the squad isn't poor, it isn't our best.

I really dont think this is our worst squad in SL history. I think 1998 and 2003 run it close in my opinion.

Wellens
Makinson
Turner
Jones
Meli
Gaskell
Lomax
Perry
Roby
Laffranchi
Manu
Flanagan
Wilkin

Bench

Hohaia
Soliola
McCarthy-Scarsbrook
Puletua

That side is more than capable of mixing it with the best in Super League. We arent firing on all cylinders yet granted but how many years have we started like a house on fire and ended up collapsing at the back end of the season. Im prepared to support the club and players whilst they sort out there form which they will.

no team will ever have a squad like we did in '05 and '06.
this squad is one of the best in SL now. if Lomaskell start firing like two years ago we'll be fine.
Wello really needs to stop embarrasing himself now though. He never had pace, but now he's making mistakes he never would have before

Yeah thats my take on it,any team that is relying Perry for go forward,Lance for inspiration is going to struggle.
I'm trying to stay positive but its hard after such lack lustre performances,were lucky to have any points at all,we have to thank Ben Cross and the looney Clarke for two of them.
Of course the standard of SL has dropped due to the standard of Johnny Foreigner coming over,i mean we've had superstars playing for us over the SL era,replacing the likes of Long,Scully,KC,Joynt,Lyon,Gidley,Graham and so on and so on,we've been spoiled.
The board have done us proud with the stadium(apart from the cladding)but recent signings have failed to live up to expectations ,meaning we've had to give contracts to players who are possibly past their sell by date ie; Wello.Meli and it seems TP this season maybe 1 year too many.
Sorry to sound so negative but we need a complete revamp which i think will be very hard to do given salary cap restrictions and NRL pay increases.
Anyway onwards and hopefully upwards

I think last year could come back to haunt us to be honest.

We almost reached the grand final last year, in fact we were 40 minutes away from it. The worst thing that could have happened in my view. We needed a complete overhaul for this season, and unfortunately last year cost us that.

I support the club 100%, and will follow them where ever they go, but this current squad is not good enough in my view. We have major problems up front, and have done for several years to be honest. We have a set of forwards who take the ball standing still, never hit the line hard, never hurting the opposition, and bar LMS and Laffranchi ( a second rower) they seem afraid to role their sleeves up and get through some work.

On the back of that, we don't have a half back who can organise or control things, and we are really suffering from that this year. The annoying thing for me is that we had the exact same problems last year, but the club decided to buy a 32 year old second rower, rather than a quality prop or scrum half. Until we address these issues, we will continue to struggle IMO.

Absolutely right in all respects. It may all go pear-shaped yet and maybe Perry'll never turn up, and Gaskell'll never click and Lomax'll never find any form etc. etc. etc. but in a league where only 6 or 7 games in the last third of a long season ultimately count for anything it is completely ludicrous to start wailing about our form 3 games in when we're bedding in with a new coach and system and relying on way too many kids in the backs. In pure personnel terms we're as good as anybody pretty much and considerably better than all but a very few. As things stand now we're in with as good of a chance of silverware as anyone else is pretty much. And to even suggest we might only finish mid-table in such an awful league... It's just not worthy of comment frankly. Except for that one anyway...