Re: LMAO - Ade and the kings view on potter : Thu Sep 08, 2011 12:03 pm  

Mick Potter, for me, took Saints backwards in the way we played rugby and went from an entertaining team under DA to a sometimes boring and negative team to watch...we also seemed to lack the ability to put games to bed under Potter when we were in a position to win them - 2009 GF and 2010 CCSF v Leeds both good examples of this

Simmons has had a very tough first year and has not been able to field his first choice 17 at any point due to injuries, yet has still taken us to within 80 mins of Wembley and to 3rd in the table (which considering the adversities he has faced is a great achievement imo)

Will be interesting to see how we fare in the playoffs, we have been very close to Wigan 3 out of 4 games this season and should have beaten them at least twice if it wasnt for silly mistakes, so could go to the DW in playoffs and turn them over yet which would be massive for us as well as how we go next year with hopefully better luck with injuries

I think some people have been overcritical of old Royston this season and think he is doing a good job at the moment of erasing the bad work done by Potter and will eventually prove to be a very good coach for us

Re: LMAO - Ade and the kings view on potter : Thu Sep 08, 2011 12:20 pm  

wakey_saint wrote:

Mick Potter . . . . we also seemed to lack the ability to put games to bed under Potter when we were in a position to win them - 2010 CCSF v Leeds

Simmons has had a very tough first year and has not been able to field his first choice 17 at any point due to injuries, yet has still taken us to within 80 mins of Wembley and to 3rd in the table (which considering the adversities he has faced is a great achievement imo)

So to summarise

Potter (despite injuries) got us to 2nd, a CCSF and the GF in 2010 and we were the league's top scorers = going backwards.

Simmons (despite injuries) got us to 3rd and a CCSF = great achievement.

How odd.

Re: LMAO - Ade and the kings view on potter : Thu Sep 08, 2011 12:25 pm  

wakey_saint wrote:

Mick Potter, for me, took Saints backwards in the way we played rugby and went from an entertaining team under DA to a sometimes boring and negative team to watch...

Mick inherited a squad in decline and kept us in contention when a lot of coaches would have failed (a la Brian McD at Leeds). He didn't have the luxury that DA had in 2006 of one of the most dominant packs SL has seen, helped by the refs' instructions at the time to favour quick PTB, and commanded by Sean Long in his pomp.

IMO he had us defending much better than we do currently, especially on our line.
He could beat Wigan with imo a weaker squad than we currently have.
He also faced terrible injury problems, which had us questioning the conditioning staff, and blooded plenty of youngsters who've gone on to have SL success of varying degrees.

The rugby was dull. We relied too much on short kicks for tries as we didn't create well out wide. We were also often infruiatingly unorganised on the last tackle, which is fairly unforgivable.
He was part (along with DA and Nobby) of that Brian Smith school of coaching which revolved around having a bigger pack than anyone else and did not include a plan B.
I also think we got so used to scraping through, given the injuries he had, that we were guilty of forgetting what talented players we had and not playing enough rugby.

Re: LMAO - Ade and the kings view on potter : Thu Sep 08, 2011 12:30 pm  

Did I hear someone say we were entertaining under Daniel Anderson?

Re: LMAO - Ade and the kings view on potter : Thu Sep 08, 2011 12:33 pm  

Ski wrote:

Did I hear someone say we were entertaining under Daniel Anderson?

Only beacuse he wore sunglasses.

Re: LMAO - Ade and the kings view on potter : Thu Sep 08, 2011 12:45 pm  

For me the dip started with the mid season sacking of Milward. Sacking a coach when we are top and in the semis of the cup unforgivable. We should have won the GF and CC that year but the disruption set us back. DA steadied the team the next year but then we had the player drain start. Scully being a huge loss IMHO.

We should have kept Milward and thrn sacked at end of the year if the board really wanted rid. DA could have been tapped up without all the legal battles mid season. Fans revolt. Player splits etc. We took a successful team and took it apart. It been a slower decline than most teams ie Wigan Bradford. I feel we are at the bottom of the curve and we will make it a top three next year.

Re: LMAO - Ade and the kings view on potter : Thu Sep 08, 2011 12:46 pm  

Ski wrote:

Did I hear someone say we were entertaining under Daniel Anderson?

Entertained me enough:

Re: LMAO - Ade and the kings view on potter : Thu Sep 08, 2011 12:54 pm  

DA was a top coach and it was obvious the played respected him and he also hada nasty streak in him. Players knew he was no mug and didn't think much of reputation.

He also was very good in terms of organising us defensively which IMO sets him above Ian millward.

DA was also tactically sound, something we've not had fir 3 years.

Re: LMAO - Ade and the kings view on potter : Thu Sep 08, 2011 1:34 pm  

Offside Monkey wrote:

IMO he had us defending much better than we do currently, especially on our line.
He could beat Wigan with imo a weaker squad than we currently have.
He also faced terrible injury problems, which had us questioning the conditioning staff, and blooded plenty of youngsters who've gone on to have SL success of varying degrees.

He may have beaten Wigan 4 times out of 6, but Wigan were nowhere near as strong in 2009 (where 3 victories came from) as they were last year and still are now, and I think if this seasons team played against Wigan of 2009, we would win a lot more convincingly than we did that year.

In 2009, he took us on a run starting after Round 22, where we lost the CCSF, 3 league games and a GF(5 games out of 9 we played)...and in all of these games could not manage to score 20 or more points - at no point in all the time of watching Saints have we ever scored less than 20 points in 9 consecutive games) His attacking play was appauling and we often didnt look to have any idea - and that was including a fully fit Leon Pryce, Keiron Cunningham, Matt Gidley and Kyle Eastmond when Long was missing - all of who we have missed massively this year imo

At no point that I remember under Potter did we have 11 first choice players out injured and be as depleted as we have been this season and we are playing far better rugby now than over the past 2 years on the whole for me. The players obviously werent happy with Potter either looking at comments made by KC and Gardner which will have also had a negative effect on things. Royce is a massive improvement on Potter, mind you saying that my grandad possibly has more motivation and inspiration in him than Potter and he's been dead 10 years!!

Re: LMAO - Ade and the kings view on potter : Thu Sep 08, 2011 1:39 pm  

St pete wrote:

DA was also tactically sound

Until we faced Leeds at Old Trafford.