Re: 2013 Squad : Wed Dec 12, 2012 8:48 pm  

No1 Saint wrote:

Could go the other way though , if Jones kicks on and Brown can get the best out of Turner then we could have a good long term partnership . I agree on Wheeler though , he just doesn't seem to be able to string together the games needed to build some decent form and I still cant get over how badly out of place he looked at centre against the goons last year.

lack of quality/experience in the halves will no doubt bit us again this year, Gaskell has basically missed a year of development in favour of a dud in Hohaia

I would expect Jones to suffer from second season syndrome. Is there a player that hasn't?

Re: 2013 Squad : Wed Dec 12, 2012 10:58 pm  

Billinge_Lump wrote:

I would expect Jones to suffer from second season syndrome. Is there a player that hasn't?

Josh Charnley?

Re: 2013 Squad : Thu Dec 13, 2012 8:26 am  

Northampton_Saint wrote:

We're a bit lacking compared to Warrington and Leeds maybe but I wouldn't swap our backs for Wigan's - a probably-soon-off-to-RU-or-NRL Tomkins and a past-it Richards aside they have little there to frighten the horses frankly. Goulding and Charnley are OK but hardly world-beaters and Smith/Green is vanilla-looking even if we're being charitable.

But I'd rather have Goulding and Charnley over Turner and Gardner. I'd rather have Tomkins over Wellens/Hohaia. That's the point I was making.

In the halves they look weak, but so do we considering what happened last year. At least we have youth on our side and hopefully Brown can get them back to how they played in 2011.

Meli is a proven top attacking player whether you like it or not

I said Meli was one of our better performers - don't be so defensive over him!

I frankly see no reason for doom or gloom over our backs at this stage and plenty for hope and excitement.

I've posted numerous times about being excited for 2013 - I was just making the point that on paper our backs let us down, and they did so at various points last season. There is lots of room for improvement and there is potential there.

Re: 2013 Squad : Thu Dec 13, 2012 9:36 am  

Billinge_Lump wrote:

I would expect Jones to suffer from second season syndrome. Is there a player that hasn't?

Sam Tomkins, James Roby, James Graham, Zak Hardaker.

Re: 2013 Squad : Thu Dec 13, 2012 10:22 am  

The Yellow Giraffe wrote:

Sam Tomkins, James Roby, James Graham, Zak Hardaker.

They were all eased into first team action though. Jones was thrown in (and has done very well).

I actually think his 2nd season syndrome came towards the end of the season. He wasn't doing anything wrong, but not as much was going his way.
I'm looking forward to seeinghim next year.

Re: 2013 Squad : Thu Dec 13, 2012 11:49 am  

The Yellow Giraffe wrote:

Sam Tomkins, James Roby, James Graham, Zak Hardaker.

Tomkins I'll give you, I think Hardaker's tough time will come this year when he's playing a full year as the No 1 full back. I think both have benefited from positional changes that allowed them more freedom in attack whilst excused certain defensive mistakes that would have been questioned more had they stayed in their initial positions. Roby and Graham had the benefit of being in positions where they were able to be rotated when they were struggling, bar that their second seasons were nearly ten years ago and I don't remember them fully.

You've also picked 3 arguably world class players and a potential one, I'm not sure Jones is at that level (though he may turn out to be). IMO second season syndrome is a product of youth players being found out to an extent, what worked for them initially is noted and defended, and it's whether they are able to change their games and get past that which decides what kind of player they are going to be.

Offside Monkey may well be right, Jones's difficult period may have been the back end of the season when he was found out a touch. I just hope that if he does go through a period of difficulty next year the fans stay off his back in a way that some didn't when Foster went through a similar period.

CM Punk wrote:

Josh Charnley?

Didn't Charnley go through a period where he struggled badly defensively especially under the high ball? He does appear to have worked through that to an extent, and I'm not sure second season syndrome actually lasts an entire year