` : Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:43 pm
Fans are knee jerk and so they see the current line up and think that we have changed tactics form developing our own. This is a mistake.
The RFL rules mean this is not even possible anymore for any club. Players not playing this week have not been abandoned. Also makinson going elsewhere would be 2 years down the line. By that time Saints would need to have replaced Meli. If makinson is good enough then he will be the replacement, so why would he opt to move, if he is not good enough, then Saints would not re-sign him anyway.
We went from a tried and tested system of drip feeding in new players maybe 1 or 2 ever 2 years or so to an excellerated feeding in of 4 - 6 players over a 2 year period. I would suggest that it's been recognised that whilst required last year, it has not given those players the benefits of playing alongside experienced heads.
So last week we still saw the youth in the team
Lance paired up with Lomax
Meli Pair up with Wheeler
Megennis on the bench with lots of experience around him
The difference is there are less areas of inexperience for the opposition to target. Whilst I would love Saints to feild a full 17 of our own. It is unlikely that such a thing would occur. I'm sure Gaskell will get further games this year as will Foster, dixon, Makinson, et al.
If we look to Wigan and their hot property of Tomkins, what did their coach do, did he throw more youth in alongside him at halfback. No a very clever coach took that talented halfback and put him to FB and threw in a very old head in Deacon to half back to control the game and allow the talented youngster to work with little to no pressure on him to organise the side. This also gave Tomkins the chance to work alongside experienced halfbacks who may not have had the same level of talent, but could still teach him new things that raw talent just can't give you.
The same for arguably our best ever half back happened. Longy was dripped in alongside experienced heads.