Everyone will see things in a different perspective, some with pessimistic others with optomistic viewpoints. Whats your opinions on this season.

1. Team Performance
2. Coaching Set Up
3. Match Officials
4. Projection for 2016.

I was just considering this type of thread.

I'm not one for tearing the team apart all the way through the year, I find it to be disappointing to be constantly questioning recruitment when there is still plenty of games yet to play. As last night showed we were not far away.

Having said that, the season is over so more than happy to give my 2p worth now.

Cunningham - has made some errors and almost lost it after the CC semi final. Needs to keep the critism in house and not public and needs to allow the team to attack with a bit more freedom that we saw in the last few weeks. I was not a fan of him getting this as his first gig, but having said that I would give him the full 2 years and then make a decision of were to go. Making 2 semi's and being a game away from winning the league is no mean feat for a rookie coach. One of the biggest tipped sides this year was Warrington and they have one of the most experienced coaches and they did not fair too well. Leeds have a good coach too and Cunningham was not far off matching that come the end of his first 12 months. Brown got a free ride in his first 12 months were as Cunningham seems to be getting it in the neck from some of his own even though he did better than Brown did in his first year.

Quinlan - has to go, not good enough and for me very worrying defensively I would not use the word coward about anyone who plays RL but he does not seem to have that confidence when the line is broken. Had a good start in his first 2 games but overall not good enough

McDonnell - I'd pay off if it was possible. thanks for coming in but that's a serious injury to gamble on
Lomax - I hope he can comeback but we need to think about what to do if he has lost that pace, I like him as a fullback and he manages the defensive line really well, but his big skill was attacking and chiming into the line, if he has lost that, then we have lost a really potent strike player and we can't afford to be sentimental. So I would be looking for a possible replacement FB for 2017.

Makinson - good player we need him to fully recover
Swift- is a good player, maybe small but can actually make something out of nothing
Percival - Definate quality and showed some of that last night, hope he can progress as we want him too
Turner - I like him but his defense is an issue, he does hold up the ball well and is strong busting tackles, but does not seem to get through, he's an unknown for me, but given we have lost Jones, then we need competition in the backs so I would keep him.
Dawson - is a squad player
Burns - great aggression but lacks any attacking flair, but will be useful to take pressure of Fages if Walsh is out.
Walsh - still seems to worry about his ankle too much, but it was a nasty injury, has made better strides in the last few weeks, occasionally even taking on the line, but with last year being his last and Burns getting older and Wilkin too, we need to be thinking about another big halfback signing for 2017 to partner what maybe fages at that time.
Walmsley - top class, maybe world class
Roby - world class, but needs an understudy, not sure why we don't play with a replacement but maybe fages will stand in whilst he learns his trade
Savellio - Has really come on and will be a starting prop
Wilkin - leads the team and is noticable when he's not playing
LMS - generally good, but could do with less brainfarts
Vea - a real threat
Greenwood - developing nicely lets not try to rush him
Amor - seemed towards the back end of the year to have recovered some form, the injury had probably took more out of him than we thought

The new recruits are all somewhat unknown quantities, but looking at the list above. Props seem to be a little light in quality. Yes we have quantity in Richards and Thompson, but I'd like one more quality prop.
And maybe a centre for 2016.

1. It's been a largely frustrating year, for me. One thing we've displayed plenty of is guts - with the exception of a couple of games after the CC semi we've really fought hard. But what we've really lacked is a bit of nous. Our halves haven't clicked, we've been too one-dimensional and we've consistently let opponents off the hook with indiscipline. It always felt to me like we were only a couple of tweaks away from being a real force, but we never quite managed it.

2. The jury's still out, IMO. For a new and inexperienced coaching team they've had a decent first season on paper. But given that we made life unnecessarily difficult for ourselves for so much of the year with our ultra-conservative game plan I was left wondering at times what the coaching staff were trying to achieve. The recruitment hasn't yet been exactly inspiring either (although I'm quite excited by the Fages signing). There'll be more pressure on them to get things right next year - I really hope they pull it off.

3. Not too bothered about match officials. There have been some weird calls, but there always have been and always will be. We do need to be a bit smarter at playing the refs, though.

4. A lot depends on how we line up and how we approach the game. I'd like to see Fages at 6 (we're crying out for pace in the halves) and Burns as a rotation 9. I'm not quite sure where that leaves Turner. But most importantly I'd like to see us adopt a less conservative style. If we do that then we'll be up there.

To be realistic I was not expecting to win anything this year so I am not disappointed. Really missed Lomax and a half back with pace and guile who could break a defensive line. and free up our .

On Team Performance I think its been served up in 3 parts, first third of the season playing with confidence on the back of our grand final win. second part hit by injuries and inconsistencies, bad attitude, poor discipline etc, third part a bit Jeckyll and Hyde some encouraging wins then the occasional bad game. Walmsley and Swift our most improved players, think we as fans have under estimated the loss of Manu and Soliola on our go forward, LMS, Vea (when fit) have put the effort in. Frustrating year from the players to be honest.

Our coaching team has done OK considering its a new set up, Cunningham has a season under his belt now, I get the feeling Longy is not used the right way should be our attack coach full stop. We should be playing smarter with better game plans to open up options, the one man rugby just won,t work with the better teams trust KC will learn from this.

For the match officials, the PTB needs to be cleaned up, players are "playing the ref" these days, the officials need to be stronger to cut down the false appeals and back chat. Video refs to be given 1 minute review time after that back to the field ref for his initial call. This season it was all about lack of consistency again and taking too long to make a decision, we are now kicking off at 8-00pm and finishing closer to 10-00pm.

Next season looks as though we have a bit better cover in the pivotal positions, the biggest improvement has got to come from the coaching team in how we play this game, if there is no change then it could be another frustrating season. I'm slightly optimistic of an improvement in this area.

1. Team Performance

Bit of a curate's egg.

Walmsley, Roby, Swift, Vea, Percival, Wilkin have all had good seasons, albeit Vea and Wilkin suffered serious injury lay-offs.
LMS and Amor have had good games and bad games, but all need more consistency next year.

Tommy Makinson was excellent before his injury, but was way off form and confidence on his return. Hopefully a good close-season and he'll be back to his best. I had worries about the lack of size in our wingers, but he and Swift convinced me that their ability to squeeze in tries from close range justified their continued selection.

We need to decide whether to use Turner as a centre, where his attack is great but his defence is weak, or in the forwards. I personally see him as a centre, but the signing of Peyroux suggests KC sees Turner as a packman. I don't think his workrate is sufficiently high for the pack. His place in the squad has got to be looking under threat now.

Roby does need more spelling, as we're just not using him properly. His greatest asset is his attack of a broken/retreating line from dummy-half, and he does that very rarely now, because he's usually shagged from making 50 tackles. He needs spelling, and it wouldn't surprise me to see Burns doing this next year.

Walsh still isn't doing enough. I know why, and I don't pretend it's easy, but he has to get back to the form he showed when he first arrived, or he's wasting a salary. I thought in the first 20 minutes of the Leeds game, he showed a willingness to threaten the line, but after that, he became just a catch-and-pass merchant. We can't carry that. I'd like to say that Fages will pressure him for a place, but realistically, he's not going to be dropped on his salary. Somehow, the coaches need to build him back up.

In terms of the leavers, I don't think we lose anything by waving goodbye to Quinlan, who - in the absence of stunning pace or silky skill - is too small to be a pro RL player in my view. Likewise Flanagan never really progressed beyond slow, solid, medium-sized workhorse - the Tim Jonkers of the modern side. Mose takes his enigma with him: on his day, a devastating wrecking ball - you could make an argument that his contribution was the single most important in winning us the title in the final last year. But either we never used him effectively, or he wasn't up to be used. Either way, he hasn't justified the salary overall. A shame. The one we'll potentially miss is Josh Jones. He secured the left flank defensively, and was a good standard for a utility player.

Richards and Thompson look to me like the sort of players who we'll keep on small pay packets as reserves. Hard to see evidence that they'll make it.

Savelio, I'm going to be controversial about : I don't think he's yet showed the form people claim he's capable of. I haven't been particularly impressed. He tends to stop before he hits the line, often turning sideways or even reversing into the collision. Not good enough for a man of his size. He needs to become the wrecking ball, and that means working on some speed into the collision. He also misses too many tackles, and that's largely because he is not laterally mobile, so a lot of those misses are people putting a bit of footwork on him, and then going through his outstretched arm because he can't get his shoulder in front of them. I hope we didn't break the bank to keep him off Warrington, but if we did, he needs the whip cracking a bit.

Greenwood needs to put on some bulk up top. He's a very big lad, and he runs good lines, but he's losing the collision in defence and attack too often. Eat a lot of eggs, Joe.

Dawson, worth keeping as cover.

2. Coaching Set Up

Clearly Cunningham has been very conservative in his first year, and I, like many others, think that we could have done more with the ball. However, being risk-averse isn't the same as being poor. It's notable, for example, that the coaching team [iDID [/irespond to our terrible wide defence, and in the last quarter of the season, that tightened up a lot. That suggests to me that they're capable of diagnosing and reacting to a problem. The problem they next need to tackle is our attack.

We desperately need to find a way to use a wider attack. Saints have easily the most predictable and one-dimensional attack of all the top eight teams. It's also a criminal underuse of Percival, who's our most elusive centre since Lyons.

At the moment, with the exception of a rare-as-hen's-teeth solo linebreak from Swift, opposing teams know that they are simply not going to be tested in defence by Saints anywhere outside their own twenty metre line. As a result, opposing teams have been playing us with a highly compressed defence when we're in our own half, because they know we're not ever going to work it wide, and even if we tried, it'd be amateur and likely to fail. This is one of the reasons why our pack has found it so hard to make metres - they're being met each time by 3 or 4 defenders who are rushing off the line safe in the knowledge that we're not going to exploit any gaps they leave further out.

We also need to work on the offload game. We do have big men who can free their hands, but we have no second-phase attack at all. That should come when we have a class fullback again, but it's also a job for an activist halfback or stand-off.

3. Match Officials

I've got no real issues here. They make fewer errors per game than the players, and most of those errors are unavoidable without the benefit of a slow-mo replay. Some work for us, some work against us.

4. Projection for 2016.

It's really hard to call. If Kirmond signs, alongside Fages, Peyroux and Tasi, then I think we probably make a net gain in quality over the departing Jones, Flanagan, Masoa and Quinlan.

By far the biggest question is fullback though. If Lomax comes back and can still run, then we essentially have the equivalent of a top-class new signing. Plus a possible decent cover for the whole backline in McDonnell. Look on those as new signings and you've definitely got a strengthened squad. However, that's a huge "if". Saints will have to be ruthless with Lomax. If his knees are gone, and he can't do what he previously could, then the club will need to do a Wellens and persuade him to retire, to free up his salary. We don't have size in the threequarters, and we don't have blistering pace either. So it's essential that we have a top-notch fullback.

For me, that's the key. If we can develop a backline attack, then we'll challenge strongly for the prizes next year. But if we don't, and we carry on playing conservative, forward-dominated rugby, then we're going to be semi-final losers again next year, behind the teams who can defend as well as us up the middle, but can do more with the ball out wide.

I'd give them a B- for this season.

We've definitely suffered from a lack of direction at halfback which was more of an injury issue. We've also not shown enough imagination in attack - which is a coaching issue. Tough for any coach in his first season and judged against most Cunningham has done a pretty decent job.

I'm sure he knows we need to improve. We've got a good squad for next season so I'm very optimistic. Although we could really do with a bit of luck with Lomax and McDonnell's recoveries from serious injury.

On this point I really agree. Some all-time gutsy performances this year. Any coach who can encourage his players to fight like we've done this season has some potential at the very least. It's just unfortunate we lost so many key players because coupled with such effort I think we would have been laughing.

We was league leaders shield holders and super league champions and favourite to make old Trafford and we finished 4th, lost in cc semi final and was embarrassed by south's in the wcc so I'd say it's been a pretty poor season based on them stats.

We have played the most boring rugby since I can remember and lost to some awful teams.

It's been very poor season and all your excuses in the world can't hide this fact

Can't argue those facts and tbh I agree on the quality of the rugby on show, we have been for the most part dire to watch. Hopefully a pre season and some lessons learned and we'll see an improvement next season.

We learn from mistakes so hopefully. I just think our recruitment for next year is poor so far so I'm not optimistic for next year.

I think a top class experienced assistant coach might be the best siging we can make

I said last year I would have liked to have seen a Director of Rugby at the club, someone like Anderson who KC respects who could have provided some advice and guidance when needed.

You're pathetic.

Aaah great...there are toys chucked everywhere, guess I'll have to pick them all up then.

You can't handle the truth.

A team that finished top the previous year and won the super league the previous year and tipped to win it this year but finishes 4th has to be seen as a poor season.

Not to add to the fact we was humiliated by south's so that's surely a poor season?

1. Team Performance: I have been at times proud, impressed and yet others dismayed at our team performances this season. The WCC was quite the best I have ever seen an opposition play against us, South Sydney were out of this world and would have crushed any Super League Team on that night. Our performances in all 3 Derbies this year have impressed me greatly, we really should have won at the DW Stadium on Good Friday despite having a side ravaged by injuries, if Walsh or Burns would have played that day I would better my last dollar we would have been 3-0 up on games this season. Against Leeds we have been poor especially in the first 3 meetings of the season against them, infact we were disgraceful at times. Only in the Second Half of the Challenge Cup Semi-Final and last week's play off match did we really give it too Leeds. Both of them games I hold with a tinge of regret for different reasons. All in all I think our performances have been okay this year but nothing more. We have looked great in parts, okay in parts and sometimes downright disgraceful in others.

2. Coaching Set Up: Cunningham has appointed the right Assistant Coach but made the wrong decision on his role within coaching the side. Longy has been and will always be a Attack coach, that's where his strength lies that there is no question. Cunningham has had what I would call "just about acceptable first season" but needs to improve his skill set in a number of areas in my opinion. He must reign his criticism of his players for a start, that does team harmony no good of any kind, he needs to work out a system of resting and rotating players as I do strongly believe that this new structure will be a case of "survival of the fittest" For example: James Roby cant put the herculean efforts week in week out without at some stage near the future I fear, his body will pack up altogether. Charnock is a great prospect for the hooking role, use him and leave Robes out from time to time. Same goes with Alex Walmsley who has had a truly magnificent season. I really feel we need to change our style of attack. Don't play off the cuff Rugby which has been the hallmark of many of the club's trophy success in the last 20 years. We have the players that can play a more imaginative style of Rugby and I hope Cunningham can develop this over the coming months and going into next season and beyond. I don't want to sound like I am having a go and Cunningham because I love his passion but I only write from what I see.

3. Match Officials: In all honesty we have given the Match Officials a easy ride this season. We give them every reason to penalise us for errors that are of our own doing. I don't have a problem with the officials, its down to the players to make sure they give them NO reason to penalise them.

4. Projection for 2016.

Strongest side for 2016:

Lomax
Makinson
Percival
Turner
Swift
Burns
Walsh
Amor
Roby
Walmsley
Greenwood
Vea
Wilkin

Bench

Fages
LMS
Tasi
Savelio

That team has more than enough quality in it too make a Final, no question. If we sort out our problem conceding penalties and change our attack structure I think we will be in the hunt for trophies again. The is no doubt that we have a tremendous team spirit as that has clearly been evident in a good few matches this year especially last week. If we avoid any major injuries next season and like I said change a few things, Cunningham probably maybe infact should have his first major piece of silverware in the Cabinet of Langtree Park as the clubs Head Coach.

A decent pack but Burns? A very poor halfback who barks but has no bite. As for Long well let's wait and see.
Any team that has Roby, Walmsley, Vea will be be a very strong and hard to beat.