Re: Larne Patrick : Sat Mar 24, 2012 11:11 am  

Just seen Patrick's try against Cas, lovely try stepping off both feet and showed a lot of pace!

Re: Larne Patrick : Sat Mar 24, 2012 9:59 pm  

Mugwump wrote:

Bright enough to offer Francis Meli, a player who has cost Saints two Grand Finals (and had a hand in a third), repeated contract extensions?

Bright enough to let the Eastmond saga drag on six months too long, which threatened, at one point, to blow the team apart and has ultimately left us with NO scrum halves?

Bright enough to offer repeated contract extensions to Ade Gardner, a player who has had possibly eighteen months of good form in his career and undoubtedly one of the slowest wingers ever to wear a Saints shirt?

Bright enough to be spending up to the cap for the last five years (his words) whilst the team has been hemorrhaging talent like blood from a severed limb?

Bright enough to turn a team which has ALWAYS offered a potent attacking threat from the backs (Ledger, McCormack, Quirk, Hunte, Sullivan, Albert, Gibbs, Iro, Newlove, Lyon, Gidley, Martyn, Long etc.) into one of the slowest in the league?

Bright enough to keep Paul Wellens two years past the point when he was shot?

Bright enough to sign Royce Simmons?

I'm getting worried.
I agree with you.
Mr. Teflon getting it wrong, never.

Re: Larne Patrick : Sun Mar 25, 2012 8:43 am  

Mugwump wrote:

Bright enough to offer Francis Meli, a player who has cost Saints two Grand Finals (and had a hand in a third), repeated contract extensions?

Bright enough to let the Eastmond saga drag on six months too long, which threatened, at one point, to blow the team apart and has ultimately left us with NO scrum halves?

Bright enough to offer repeated contract extensions to Ade Gardner, a player who has had possibly eighteen months of good form in his career and undoubtedly one of the slowest wingers ever to wear a Saints shirt?

Bright enough to be spending up to the cap for the last five years (his words) whilst the team has been hemorrhaging talent like blood from a severed limb?

Bright enough to turn a team which has ALWAYS offered a potent attacking threat from the backs (Ledger, McCormack, Quirk, Hunte, Sullivan, Albert, Gibbs, Iro, Newlove, Lyon, Gidley, Martyn, Long etc.) into one of the slowest in the league?

Bright enough to keep Paul Wellens two years past the point when he was shot?

Bright enough to sign Royce Simmons?

I agree with some of your comments but I also think your being a little harsh.


No way we are spending to the cap, ive said this for the past four years and I I've never bought all this we are going with youth rubbish, he's tried to do it in the cheap!

I also agree that Meli and Ade should never have got new contracts but looking at it from his view, we've only one centre at the club and if Meli had gone we would have been screwed for a centre.

He's certainly made to mistakes with the last two coaches, especially Royce who was a shocking appointment.

My biggest gripe with McManus was his constant banging on last year that we would have a team to grace the new stadium and look what he's gives us!

Most importantly tho - HE'S BRIGHT ENOUGH TO SECURE THE IS A RUGBY TEAM IN ST HELEN'S FOR THE MANY YEARS TO COME!

Re: Larne Patrick : Sun Mar 25, 2012 8:46 am  

St pete wrote:

My biggest gripe with McManus was his constant banging on last year that we would have a team to grace the new stadium and look what he's gives us!

So not only was the coach crap but the players are crap too?

Re: Larne Patrick : Sun Mar 25, 2012 9:01 am  

SaintsFan wrote:

So not only was the coach crap but the players are crap too?

I didn't say that.

If someone (our owner) bangs on about acgrearctean to grace the stadium and then we lose jammer, pryce and eastmond and replace them with hohaia, flanaghan and laffranchci then I'm pretty disappointed to be honest.

If your not going to put together a great team to grace the stadium then he shouldnt have said it.

Re: Larne Patrick : Sun Mar 25, 2012 9:04 am  

St pete wrote:

If someone (our owner) bangs on about acgrearctean to grace the stadium and then we lose jammer, pryce and eastmond and replace them with hohaia, flanaghan and laffranchci then I'm pretty disappointed to be honest.

Laffranchi has been playing very well and Hohaia is very clearly needed. Both have played on the international stage for their respective countries and the latter is a current world cup winning medal holder, so I don't really see how much better you could get.

Re: Larne Patrick : Sun Mar 25, 2012 9:11 am  

SaintsFan wrote:

Laffranchi has been playing very well and Hohaia is very clearly needed. Both have played on the international stage for their respective countries and the latter is a current world cup winning medal holder, so I don't really see how much better you could get.

They ain't exactly gracing Langtree park thô ate they?

I do agree, they both doing ok and come in for some flack which IMO is wrong but when a owner comes out and days we will have scream to grace the stadium I did expect better quality than the three we brought in.

This team couldn't grace blackbrook at the moment.

Re: Larne Patrick : Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:58 am  

St pete wrote:

I agree with some of your comments but I also think your being a little harsh.

No way we are spending to the cap, ive said this for the past four years and I I've never bought all this we are going with youth rubbish, he's tried to do it in the cheap!

We can only go off McManus' words. And they are words he has repeated over and over again. Looking at the quality of players in the squad I don't think we are spending the cap. Unless we are overpaying. Which really would be a dumb thing to do.

Again, I don't see the need to lie about the cap. Perhaps McManus is playing games something like those we see at United where in fear of lower season ticket sales Ferguson is wheeled out in the close season to say they have eighty odd million in the kitty to spend, which mysteriously never manifests itself for the start of the new season. I'm pretty sure Saints fans would have accepted four or five years of modest salaries if it secured a new ground.

He's certainly made to mistakes with the last two coaches, especially Royce who was a shocking appointment.

I don't think he made a mistake with Potter. Let's remember, he was a very attractive prospect after Catalans performances that season. In terms of achievement he'd done far more than Millward.

My biggest gripe with McManus was his constant banging on last year that we would have a team to grace the new stadium and look what he's gives us!

That's just sales patter. McManus knows how to spin good PR. He has a long, long history of flashing shiny gold in the palm of his hand whilst his other is reaching into your back pocket for the wallet. The trouble is you can only get away with that trick for so long before people get wise to it. And McManus is right on the limit, IMO.

Most importantly tho - HE'S BRIGHT ENOUGH TO SECURE THE IS A RUGBY TEAM IN ST HELEN'S FOR THE MANY YEARS TO COME!

Absolutely. And he should be showered with praise, honoured with gold effigies, streets to be named after him etc. But let's not think for one moment that even after all his long efforts securing Langtree Park the fans wouldn't turn on him with a long enough run of bad results. I'm sure he'd be given longer than any other chairman in SL. But ultimately even McManus isn't impervious to form.