Re: Transfer Talk / Rumour Thread V3 : Tue Oct 12, 2021 5:19 pm
Magic Superbeetle wrote:
Totally accept that its a squad game, but when I tried to expand it out to 1-17 or wider, it becomes much harder to assess whether someone missed out because of an injury or because they weren't selected (part of the reason my original post flip flops between including Walker and Myler). Welsby played the most games for Saints this year (26/27) with a squad number of 18 so wouldn't be included in a comparison, but was more to do with him playing his way into the team rather than injuries itself (as even when everyone was fit he still made the team).
Due to different team compositions, it also makes injury comparisons much more difficult to compare. On the face of it, saying a back to back winning halfback in Fages can be replaced by a teenager in Dodd without blinking an eyelid would be silly, but its not luck that Dodd was in a position to do that (its why we sold Richardson to Castleford) which was the original assertion.
I would also say its very rare for Saints to move players out of their natural position. I can think of some in game examples when we have a limited/ forwards only
bench, but even in games where we play deliberately weakened teams, either a kid plays or a player who normally occupies the position (hence Grace and Lees played vs Salford for example).
Due to different team compositions, it also makes injury comparisons much more difficult to compare. On the face of it, saying a back to back winning halfback in Fages can be replaced by a teenager in Dodd without blinking an eyelid would be silly, but its not luck that Dodd was in a position to do that (its why we sold Richardson to Castleford) which was the original assertion.
I would also say its very rare for Saints to move players out of their natural position. I can think of some in game examples when we have a limited/ forwards only
bench, but even in games where we play deliberately weakened teams, either a kid plays or a player who normally occupies the position (hence Grace and Lees played vs Salford for example).
I wonder if the comparison is to look at the league games and they list who played how many games from the whole squad. May give a sense of how deep you need to go into your squad during the year.
I think we have just been really unlucky with injuries in the halves to first and second choice players and then when we have injuries it seems to be all in the same area, such as props all at the same time. However better conditioning helps here and Saints are IMO the best conditioned team in the league. They also rotate sensibly as and when required.
