No you prefer that the club invests more than any other in staff and facilities, but never wins the big cup.

Successful season though, always our year.

I expect the club to look to improve every season, this year that has happened, in all honesty my pre season expectation has been smashed no matter how disappointed I am with losing both finals.

I never expected us to be in the hunt for silverware this season, it's hugely disappointing to lose the big ones but I'm very happy with the shield and the forward strides we have taken. I'm optimistic about next year, it's not our divine right to make finals so it would be nice to just be in then hunt again next season.

The biggest plus for this season for me is that in Toby King and Declan Patton I think we have a couple of future stars. Onwards and upwards.

Let's have a little game. We'll take it in turns to list all the 'world-class' half-backs in SuperLeague.

I'll go first.


....


Your turn.

I suppose a forum is a place for all views regardless of how much you agree or disagree with them.

I rate Gidley and Sandow. At the start of the year they were almost unplayable. Injuries have played their part but that's part and parcel of the game.
I'm happy they're with us next year, and with Patton and Ratch we have quite a few choices.
I can easily see why Gidley is rated by most - his influence on and off the pitch appears to impress most including his team mates.
Yes he's made mistakes and has been found wanting more than once this season with his one on one tackling - including at the GF - but does that make him an 'ordinary' player? I think not.

I know, which is why I posted:



So, you agree with me.

Saddened, I can see from your posts on Redvee that you are totally disillusioned with the winning culture and entertaining rugby at Saints, if you want to become a Wire I'm sure you'll be accepted we're a very broad church.

gidleys to old.and we are prepared to go again with him next season.disaster awaits..we have a gem in young declan but where does that leave arnold sorry sandow.for me its last chance saloon for this guy as it is for tony smith...2 non english half backs in games that matter was never ever going to work..

I'd prefer to see him as full back.

I saw him.at the Wigan game before the super 8s n his shoulder was strapped then as it was still in the gf.

He can see more and his ability to read the game will allow hi to compensate for lack of pace.

Again I'm sure gidley and sandow presence has aided Patton progression so to have them playing and coaching Patton makes them a little better value than just as players.

I hope there are more signings to come that may not even be announced until after the 4 nations. Until we know the full ins and outs it's hard to gauge what to expect but either way gidley staying is a positive for me I just hope we can rotate him more next season for some games to keep him fresh for when he does play

When I heard we had added Gidley to the squad I thought of the dynamics between him and Sandow I expected classy play, control of the game through kicking, game management plus the odd shows of sheer brilliance from NRL stars. Yes early doors before Sandows hamstring went they looked good together, after the injury not so. We are paying a lot of cash for these guys to steer the boys around the pitch and it doesn't happen. Then we let DP have a go and hey presto a half back that can do just that! Give DP a half back slot and let one of the others go for me. I am not sure which one, but Sandow does seem to have a more troubled time where ever he is?

We all know that Gidley is a little suspect with one on one tackling which bewilders me as to why we would put him at full back when Russell is condemned for the same fault.

My issue with Gidley isn't his tackling, it's his decision making with the ball, in the semi vs saints there was at least 3 times where he made the wrong call, again in the GF he should of threw it wide at the very end and went himself.

I feel like his 'experience' is massively overhyped, yeah he's been around a long time but he spent all his career at one of the worst teams in the nrl, only 'big game experience' is state of origin and even then he was mostly a utility player off the bench.

For me, he's the dictionary definition of the Emporer's New Clothes.
The RL equivalent of
Ben and Jerry's
Coldplay
The new "must see" TV series from America.

We're led to believe that he guides us round the pitch, when, since our great start to the season, he's done anything but, as all we do is drives or dummy half scoots. You don't need to be a genius to work out our current style of play, so , in my book, he's a luxury (at a reported £200k) we can easily do without.

Just for balance, I think he's had a very good season.

As has the club.

i think he had a very good first half of the season.. But i do think, with no major trophy, that the Sandow and Gidley experiment may have to be classed as a failed one, especially when you consider that they are both probably the highest paid players at the club.

I would like to see Patton start in the halves next season every week..... i wouldn't be overly concerned if we lost one of the 2 big name aussie halves.

I think Gids gets let down by his runners to be fair .

there's the thing i've alluded to in the savelio thread, if you go back a few years, they say a good winger gets made to look good by a centre, but we've seen its the second row that makes the difference, logan swann and then for ages westwood, guided by briers made bridge and gleeson and whoever was on that right wing look excellent.

Gids has got jack hughes, who whilst good, isnt' dynamic or a big defence worrier and also rhys evans playing outside him.

Solid is the best you can say about them.

Im gonna make a bold prediction that he won't be in your team next year.
That Patton looks a real player and at 21 is still very young for an organising half, so if he plays at 7 and runs the game, you have to ask who is the more creative out of Sandow or Gidley to play next to him.

Gidley had 60 mins of the GF to create something with Patton doing all the tactical kicking and iirc correctly he didn't even get a line break assist?
Compare him to Danny McGuire, who I'm sure you all think is overrated, but has got a try or assist (often more than one) in all 8 GFs he has played in.

If you watch the final back Gids was putting in some awesomely timed passes , If that was gleeson outside him would be scaring defenses to death. However it just seemed that it got passed to Evans and the play died , No disrespect to Evans I have been one of his greatest fans this year but he needs to learn how to release his winger .

It's nothing to do with the runners, great halves make mediocre players look good.

You cannot have 2 big money halves and expect to have a world class backline as well.

The problem with Gidley is that his natural position is fullback but his legs went a long time ago, so is getting shoe horned into the halves.

And it hasn't worked in the big games, where the defences are tough to break down.

After watching back the grand final and watching Gidley confirm what I saw at the time tells me he's not the half back we need.

Our last play of the game. Gidley gets the ball and runs to the line. The centre is sucked in and so is Charnley. Gids has Atkins to run a line with Hughes stood out the back of him and Russell is in open space. Not a soul near him. All he would have to do is hit Hughes out the back who would than give it the Russsell to take us within two points. But instead he tries to burst the line himself and the rest is history.

Did he do that because he knew he wasn't confident to kick the 2 points from the touchline? Did he not pass because he thinks he's better than he is? Or did he not pass simply because he doesn't have the vision a top halfback does?

If Briers was in that situation or Sandow Russell would have ended up with the ball.


Its quite worrying that we went 60 Minutes in a game without scoring a point, something we've been unable to do consistently for a long time... Put points on the board. Our attack has been next to clueless in the second half of the season.

The Stats show us to be the best attacking side and the best defence in Super League. Most top pundits on TV and in the Press think Gidley has had a great positive influence throughout the season. He was selected in the Dream Team. I'm sure at least half the sides in Super League would love to have him. But Joe Soap (from Warrington) ... who thinks he knows the game inside out thinks he's useless. Are we just too critical of our own players?

We have the right to be too critical of our own players when we keep losing finals!!

Ah yes ... and how one or two love this wonderful "right" to moan and groan even when supporting a team having such a successful season. "Always look on the bright side of life" seems to have passed one or two by. Of course we'd love to win both finals but remember the song 1-2-3 ... always look on the ...
Cheer Up! You've never had it so good.
You lucky people! (T Trinder)

I don't think is wrong to highlight and discuss all areas where we can improve.
As we do commend when good(if not enough).
Nobody on here comes on and just says..,
Your loving shaat

I am surprised at the amount of stick Gidley is getting on here. If you look at it objectively, he brings a lot of cutting edge to the attack which we had lost when Briers finally retired. Cast your minds back a year or so and think just how toothless we were with ball in hand 10 or so metres from the opposition line. And with Sandow missing 12 or so weeks, he had to do much of that himself. Then there is the tackling, he doesn't simply take his man but seems to go looking for the major threat in the opposition line and then brings them down. In terms of organisation, you can see him calling both the plays and waving his arms during defence in order to keep the right spacing and the defence drifting. In the early part of the year his goal kicking was excellent - that has definitely dropped off, but I suspect he might have picked up some leg injury ? We don't see what happens on the training pitch, but I strongly suspect he will be mentoring the likes of Declan Patton as well as doing a fair bit more for some of our other younger players like Rhys Evans.

Is he Mr Perfect ? Nope. He does make mistakes both in terms of decisions with ball in hand and tackling, but who doesn't. And, he is getting noticeably slower. But I think he has been a canny buy, not just because he has filled a major hole at HB, but because of the amount of experience and knowledge he can bring to what is really a pretty young squad. I would imagine Patton must think he has died and gone to heaven - a top class player to learn from and also somebody whose shoes he can fill at the end of next year.

I think the issue is that in the GF we looked toothless with ball in hand 10 yards out, he made a bad tackle miss on Farrell leading to their try, and fluffed the last minute attacking play by not passing. He stopped kicking due to his hamstring if I recall. All in all he still offers us something but he will be one of the most highest paid players in the squad...and does he give us the best return on that?