Re: 2015 : Thu Nov 06, 2014 7:42 pm  

St pete wrote:

We scored a few long range tries at the start of the year when Walsh was on fire. Percy and Turner both have the speed to break the line if they get good ball.

I'd like to see Percy pin his ears back a little more when he makes a break. His first reaction is to look for the pass.

I reckon Percy and Turner will go well next season with the better distribution from Walsh and Burns.

For me Percy could be international standard, he,s got great footwork, balance and speed another full season and he could be the best strike centre in superleague.

Re: 2015 : Tue Nov 11, 2014 12:10 pm  

Judder Man wrote:

For me Percy could be international standard, he,s got great footwork, balance and speed another full season and he could be the best strike centre in superleague.

Agreed. Percival could be a real superstar.

Whilst lots of the England lads have given a decent account of themselves over the last month, I went through our line up and, realistically, the following players should all have it as a (realistic) goal to make the England squad next year -

Lomax, Makinson, Percival, Turner, Swift, Amor, LMS and Walmsley. Obvisouly they'll be competing with each other for a spot as well as the current selection, but a (hopefully) more fluid back line with Walsh and Burns running things should mean that our backs are seen in a very good light. The forwards just need to work on consistency.

Re: 2015 : Tue Nov 11, 2014 9:05 pm  

Roy Haggerty wrote:

Likewise, I like our wingers. Both good lads, nothing wrong with them at all, and can find their way to the line. But let's be honest, I'd take Joe Burgess or Ryan Hall if they were on offer.

I wouldn't. I bet you my month's wages that Makinson wouldn't have dropped that ball over the line like Hall did in the match against NZ last weekend and when it matters Makinson steps right up in defence as well as scoring tries no other winger in SL can manage. Nothing I have seen of Burgess makes me want to swap him with Adam Swift either. I think we have two excellent wingers.

Re: 2015 : Wed Nov 12, 2014 11:22 am  

SaintsFan wrote:

I wouldn't. I bet you my month's wages that Makinson wouldn't have dropped that ball over the line like Hall did in the match against NZ last weekend and when it matters Makinson steps right up in defence as well as scoring tries no other winger in SL can manage. Nothing I have seen of Burgess makes me want to swap him with Adam Swift either. I think we have two excellent wingers.

Agree with you fully about Makinson, but Swift no way! and there are no wingers like Vollenhoven around today, wingers these days run into the opposition and rarely side step them, Hall can be a battering ram!

Re: 2015 : Wed Nov 12, 2014 11:44 am  

jaybs wrote:

Agree with you fully about Makinson, but Swift no way! and there are no wingers like Vollenhoven around today, wingers these days run into the opposition and rarely side step them, Hall can be a battering ram!

Swifty reminds a little bit like Joey Hayes in his style of wing play. I think we are being a bit unkind of wingers today they have far less room to work with these days and are under a lot more pressure with tactical kicks.

Re: 2015 : Wed Nov 12, 2014 12:04 pm  

Think I'd have hall before any of our wingers to be honest. One dropped ball over the line doesn't make him bad.

Only need to look at Hall try scoring record for club and country to show what a top class quality winger he is.

Re: 2015 : Wed Nov 12, 2014 1:26 pm  

I think the fact we're all discussing the squad and saying we possibly need a prop or a three quarter suggests we're in a very good position next season.

The squad has a very good spine with lots of size in the pack, good halves and a young backline. We also have a very flexible squad with a number of players being able to cover different positions.

We could maybe do with another player to add a little bit more depth but with the likes of Thompsion and Richards becoming 1st team players the next conveyor belt of talent like Savelio & Fozard will be looking to push their way in.

Re: 2015 : Wed Nov 12, 2014 2:01 pm  

Blobbynator wrote:

I think the fact we're all discussing the squad and saying we possibly need a prop or a three quarter suggests we're in a very good position next season.

The squad has a very good spine with lots of size in the pack, good halves and a young backline. We also have a very flexible squad with a number of players being able to cover different positions.

We could maybe do with another player to add a little bit more depth but with the likes of Thompsion and Richards becoming 1st team players the next conveyor belt of talent like Savelio & Fozard will be looking to push their way in.

Pretty much agree with the above...

Of the players we have lost, Gardner, Beaumont & Clough & Forster (plus other young players) were non-existent to us in 2014, McDonnell was only ever short term, Laffranchi was effectively already replaced by Richards at end of last season, Soliola has been replaced by Vea, Manu is effectively replaced by Thompson (bearing in mind Wilkin & Flanagan will also be competing for back row spots again next year & LMS hopefully moving there permanently) and Wheeler is effectively replaced by Burns (with Lance covering the "utility" tag) which IMO puts us stronger than last season (Soliola aside).

My only (slight) worry would be that we need another prop, as we currently have Masoe, Amor, Walmsley & Richards as our first choices, after that we will be relying on Walker/Hand or moving a back rower such as Thompson/Savelio/LMS up to prop as cover which wouldnt be ideal...especially if we picked up a couple of injuries (Amor & Masoe both had injuries last year and were missing for parts of the season. a Wigan's pack looks a lot stronger than last year with Tautai, Mossop & Patrick added to their front row, with plodders like Dudson being released and I would like to see us have a similar depth & competition for places in the front row like we have in pretty much every other position. That said, would rather see us wait for the right player to become available than panic buy for the sake of it.

Looking at Wigan's signings, they must surely need to shed some players off their books and a year's deal for Scott Taylor could be a good addition for us if we could get him?

Re: 2015 : Thu Nov 13, 2014 7:56 am  

I think we are pretty much well covered for short term injuries next season, if we don't suffer as much in previous years then it gives us the chance to rotate our squad a bit and give more game time to Greenwood, Sav, Charnock and Hewitt.
We are in a decent position with LMS and Thompson moving up to the front row if needed with Lance, Dawson and maybe Wello covering in the backs.
For me we will miss Manu's unpredictable style of play, with Walsh and Burns I can see us being a bit more structured, if we only have half the injuries of last season I can see us going very well for 2015. Saints and Warrington are my top 2 next season.

Re: 2015 : Thu Nov 13, 2014 10:19 am  

Judder Man wrote:

I think we are pretty much well covered for short term injuries next season, if we don't suffer as much in previous years then it gives us the chance to rotate our squad a bit and give more game time to Greenwood, Sav, Charnock and Hewitt.
We are in a decent position with LMS and Thompson moving up to the front row if needed with Lance, Dawson and maybe Wello covering in the backs.
For me we will miss Manu's unpredictable style of play, with Walsh and Burns I can see us being a bit more structured, if we only have half the injuries of last season I can see us going very well for 2015. Saints and Warrington are my top 2 next season.

If we can rotate the front row without affecting the back row then I'm more than happy for the next gen kids to be brought through. I guess the easiest thing will just be to bring lms back into the front row and bring Flanaghan or greenwood in ...

Does anyone know which kids are being brought through to first team next year?

(Also not convinced by Warrington being top 2, I don't do predictions but on paper I'd say Saints and Wigan are so far ahead of the rest it's scary...)