yes we have id say,,this is his 1st season with "his" team aftr a covid and mikey taking players debut season,,change doesnt happen overnight..look at sts with holbrook and they was worse than a few teams....see this site hasnt got better for armchair wayne bennetts

I'll get jeered but we needed someone like Brian Mc to sort out the poor culture in the club imo.

why criticise Swift?
Playing outside Griffin woulndt help any wing
Griffin needs to be dropped
Possibly cost us this game and cost us the game against Saints last season

odds on that Gaz Ellis will take over as coach

Taken you long enough

Now that the dust has settled on our cup exit for me it was all too predictable as once again we promise so much yet deliver so little. look at Wigan today what a focussed and determined outfit they looked yet we took them so close away from home last game out, but once again when it comes to the crunch too many players play below par in the next game and once again our coach confirms what we all thought in that we didn't have the same 'head's on'. How often have we seen that. Wee simply can't show any sort of mental consistency and on that front nothing really has changed for years. It was almost predictable, when players were commenting about 'how well we always raise our game in the cup' during the week, that some wouldn't be on it mentally. . I think on reflection the performance on Saturday can be summed up in one sentence really . After the previous weeks showing, in such a critical game for our season, the 2500 or so travelling fans expected at least 80 minutes of focus and commitment to the cause and the club and really did deserve better (as they have so often before).

I have my sources

Holbrook is likely a bad example for you as it did change pretty much over night.

Before Holbrook; Warrington 40-16 Saints
After Holbrook; Hull 0 - 45 Saints

And I’m still utterly convinced if a) Percival could kick a goal in Castleford or b) Morgan could not give away the worlds stupidest penalty or c) Castleford weren’t allowed American football style blockers for their drop goal taking out two of our chasers, then we would have gone on and won it in 2017.

Unfortunately for Holbrook, it massively played into the psychology at the club at the time, that we had forgotten how to play in big games, which was subsequently compounded by Barba-gate seeing us out at the first opportunity the following year, and Hicks-gate in the cup the year after (annoyingly both to Warrington) after struggling to see off Halifax in the semi. In a lot of ways we were incredibly lucky in 2019 GF to be playing someone as overawed by the occasion as we were, as it helped reset the narrative.

How much of the transformation was down to Holbrooks ability and how much was him simply not being Cunningham who had created such a toxic atmosphere players were actively frightened to play is obviously up for debate but the effects were pretty instantaneous.

Of course Woolf has been able to come in and build on this legacy, finally seeing us win the cup last year, and the Catalans game this week is the most assured I have seen Saints in a knock out game in a very long time.

I presumed Lane was injured, but just read he wasn't selected, no way in any kind of world is Johnstone a better option at 13 than Lane.

Disgraceful decision by our hapless coach.

Indeed you do

Must admit I find the constant inclusion of a player that was told at the end of last season that he was affectively surplus to requirements and no club seemingly came in to take him a baffling decision. So not only do we play a player that has been deemed not good enough we also play him out of his position. For Johnstone to be in the 17 ahead of a player such as Lane who up until his back injury had been given high praise by BH himself and has played well and for me even on an off day is better than Johnstone is hard to fathom.

ATEOTD Huddersfield were the better team on Saturday and deserved to win but that said I didn't think they were that great being honest, that we were still in the game at half time after being so poor I think shows it was another game we could and should have won had we got the team/bench selection and mental attitude right.

Boooo hissssss gerrrofffffff

The only reason could be if Lane has had a poor attitude in training, BH quota could be interpreted it that way maybe.

Is there anywhere to see the stats from this game?

I read that too
in one sentence he is praising Lane then saying he has one or two issues to work on
Lane does tend to give away too many penalties but to leave him out as you say for Johnstone is another of his selection errors

i agree with most of what you say, apart from claims any hull fan hates Danny H is false . i have been a critic of how Danny has been flogged by every coach during his career often negating any attack skills he had/has ? he is and will always be a club icon the criticism you hear from fans is frustration at how he is used not how he plays imo

Interesting comments about Houghton and good to know what opposition fans think.

Slight exaggeration re Connor though. I understand opposition fans dislike him greatly but he wasn’t trying to win penalties at every set


He certainly wasn’t when he passed out to Swift, who dropped it whilst in the clear, when he kicked upfield or was catching the ball above his head?
His problem is his lack of pace. Don’t know if he has lost a yard or is another carrying a slight injury but he was very slow at times. Wasn’t the only one though.

One incident that annoyed me during the match was the penalty against us for breaking up the scrum. It was quite clear Hill was never packed correctly and pushed forward breaking well away from his own pack. Why the ref saw that as a penalty against us is beyond belief?

Exactly there's no hate for Houghton its the opposite, most of us have simply stated that Houghton is at the latter end of his career and flogging him for 80 mins doesn't benefit him or the team. Which is why many of us are so frustrated that he is still expected to do 80mins week in week out, he may be one of the fittest but not spelling him for me reduces his effectiveness in games as when we need to rely on him he's out of gas and that not his fault thats down to the Coach. Houghton isn't the player he was as age is catching up with him but he was certainly far better when he was spelled under Last and no one would argue he'd was in the 17. Its much like Roby at St's great player who used to do 80 mins every week but St's see the value of spelling him in games rather than flogging him.

I didn’t particularly think houghton looked that tired, not as tired as some of the others - and they did less work! I think he’s capable of 80 if he isn’t doing the work for the rest who should be doing more.
Connor was trying it on at times, you just have to watch him, constantly chirping at the ref and waving his arms around - frustrating as he doesn’t / shouldn’t need to he should let his skills do the talking. It’s not an injury - his lack of pace has ALWAYS been a down side to his game, something discussed many times when he was at Hudds. brilliant half backs may have and use that pace initially - but inevitably they lose it later in their careers and so have to adapt- clever players like briers and brough did that. Connor never had it in the first place so you’d think he would learn to adapt and use his other many skills- but despite no longer being that raw youngster anymore he was when at Huddersfield he just doesn’t seem to have done that. I think much of that is down to poor coaching, he was just emerging as a talent and then went to Hull and was never given the chance to settle into one position and really learn to perfect his craft at a crucial part of his development, and so has just always ended up “winging it”. That’s why we have the Connor we have.

jools still obsessed with Connor after all these years.

I'm sure most will remember your hilarious dummy spitting when he signed for us.

Just can't get over it, can they.

Jake has developed excellently at Hull, won a trophy and capped by England.

Not saying he doesn’t try it on but you said he was doing it every set? He did it a couple of tImes yes. Plus it works both ways. Players do go too far at times trying to wind him up and he gets little to no protection from the referees.

Interesting to know he had little pace when playing at Huddersfield. Don’t remember him being this slow but it probably shows up more at full back.

As for position. My understanding is we signed him to be a half back and it his preference to play full back. I’d be rethinking that decision if I was him.

He was flirting between halves, FB and centre whilst at Hudds, but still relatively young and a raw talent. He’s continued doing that and has never really had the opportunity to really cement himself in a single position. I honestly think this is one of the reasons why he hasn’t got that consistency everyone keeps going on about. He still has that raw skill and talent that can do amazing things on the field but hasn’t developed the depth of knowledge and experience and maturity to his game that is developed from playing in one position week in week out.

2 of the Giants tries Jake was too slow

FFS when will anyone frigging realise he’s not a FB - he’s too slow