Re: Left channel of the defence : Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:06 pm  

Murphys Magic wrote:

I'm glad that two fellow supporters also recognise what the problem is with regards to a lack of a proper experienced left centre.

Why on earth the club hasn't recognised the same problem I will never know. Having said that I think Saints did orginally intend to sign Soliola to play at left centre hence him wearing number 4 jersey. Sadly its not worked as planned.

Playing sia centre was never the intention, he'd been playing backrow for the roosters for two seasons as it was common fact he's to slow to play centre.

Re: Left channel of the defence : Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:11 pm  

Whilst I agree on the Talau thing, left centre was not the issue last night. There was one try that went down the left centre position, the rest of the match it was as tight as the rest of the line.

Last night was about our half backs, we did not use the position and the territory we had to any real effect. It took a barge from Ade and a show and go from TP to score.

We did not break the line to score at all. No bombs, no grubbers, no 2nd phase, no dummy runner, no feckin crossing for gods sake.

We had no cutting edge to break the Hull line.

Re: Left channel of the defence : Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:16 pm  

St pete wrote:

Playing sia centre was never the intention, he'd been playing backrow for the roosters for two seasons as it was common fact he's to slow to play centre.

I can think of several newspaper articles at the time of his signing which suggest otherwise.

He might have been playing second row at Sydney Roosters for a spell but the intention was for him to play at centre and its why he ended up wearing number 4. If you don't beleive me Google in "Saints sign New Zealand Centre Sia Soliola" and find the Guardian newspaper article about his signing and also read Eamonn McManus' comments about him being one of the best centres in the game at 22.!!!

Re: Left channel of the defence : Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:20 pm  

bewareshadows wrote:

Whilst I agree on the Talau thing, left centre was not the issue last night. There was one try that went down the left centre position, the rest of the match it was as tight as the rest of the line.

Last night was about our half backs, we did not use the position and the territory we had to any real effect. It took a barge from Ade and a show and go from TP to score.

We did not break the line to score at all. No bombs, no grubbers, no 2nd phase, no dummy runner, no feckin cross for gods sake.

We had no cutting edge to break the Hull line.

It might not have been a issue last night but is been a issue for the past four seasons and the fact our club can't recognise that teams play with two centres is worrying.

It's been 4/5 years since we actually had two centre play together and we question why we can't win big games and finals.

I've said it for past god knows how many seasons that our recruitment is awful and the clubs "youngsters" is the way forward is a way hiding the fact we are doing it on the cheap again.

When you lose the likes of talau, gidley, long, scully, KC, pryce and graham and not replace them with players of near their ability as we can, the. We've got problems. I know the names mentioned IMO are not replaceable but we've not even gone close with the players we've brought in.

Re: Left channel of the defence : Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:20 pm  

bewareshadows wrote:

Whilst I agree on the Talau thing, left centre was not the issue last night. There was one try that went down the left centre position, the rest of the match it was as tight as the rest of the line.

Last night was about our half backs, we did not use the position and the territory we had to any real effect. It took a barge from Ade and a show and go from TP to score.

We did not break the line to score at all. No bombs, no grubbers, no 2nd phase, no dummy runner, no feckin cross for gods sake.

We had no cutting edge to break the Hull line.

It might not have been a issue last night but is been a issue for the past four seasons and the fact our club can't recognise that teams play with two centres is worrying.

It's been 4/5 years since we actually had two centre play together and we question why we can't win big games and finals.

I've said it for past god knows how many seasons that our recruitment is awful and the clubs "youngsters" is the way forward is a way hiding the fact we are doing it on the cheap again.

When you lose the likes of talau, gidley, long, scully, KC, pryce and graham and not replace them with players of near their ability as we can, the. We've got problems. I know the names mentioned IMO are not replaceable but we've not even gone close with the players we've brought in.

Re: Left channel of the defence : Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:22 pm  

St pete wrote:

It might not have been a issue last night but is been a issue for the past four seasons and the fact our club can't recognise that teams play with two centres is worrying.

It's been 4/5 years since we actually had two centre play together and we question why we can't win big games and finals.

I've said it for past god knows how many seasons that our recruitment is awful and the clubs "youngsters" is the way forward is a way hiding the fact we are doing it on the cheap again.

When you lose the likes of talau, gidley, long, scully, KC, pryce and graham and not replace them with players of near their ability as we can, the. We've got problems. I know the names mentioned IMO are not replaceable but we've not even gone close with the players we've brought in.

If it's worth saying it's worth saying twice.

Re: Left channel of the defence : Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:24 pm  

Murphys Magic wrote:

I can think of several newspaper articles at the time of his signing which suggest otherwise.

He might have been playing second row at Sydney Roosters for a spell but the intention was for him to play at centre and its why he ended up wearing number 4. If you don't beleive me Google in "Saints sign New Zealand Centre Sia Soliola" and find the Guardian newspaper article about his signing and also read Eamonn McManus' comments about him being one of the best centres in the game at 22.!!!

If saints thought he was the answer to the centre problem then whoever dies our recruitment is worse than I thought.

He was getting caught out as a 20yr old centre/winger with his lack of pace for a outside back and then add a couple of serious knee injuries.

Re: Left channel of the defence : Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:24 pm  

St pete wrote:

It might not have been a issue last night but is been a issue for the past four seasons and the fact our club can't recognise that teams play with two centres is worrying.

It's been 4/5 years since we actually had two centre play together and we question why we can't win big games and finals.

I've said it for past god knows how many seasons that our recruitment is awful and the clubs "youngsters" is the way forward is a way hiding the fact we are doing it on the cheap again.

When you lose the likes of talau, gidley, long, scully, KC, pryce and graham and not replace them with players of near their ability as we can, the. We've got problems. I know the names mentioned IMO are not replaceable but we've not even gone close with the players we've brought in.

Fully agreed. It was one of the reasons why we lost against Wigan in the Grand Final. Gleeson had a field day against Johnny Lomax at Old Trafford and at the time Potter was putting a different player in the left centre position week by week.

Re: Left channel of the defence : Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:25 pm  

bewareshadows wrote:

If it's worth saying it's worth saying twice.

I've said it thousands of times over the years as you know.

Re: Left channel of the defence : Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:27 pm  

St pete wrote:

If saints thought he was the answer to the centre problem then whoever dies our recruitment is worse than I thought.

He was getting caught out as a 20yr old centre/winger with his lack of pace for a outside back and then add a couple of serious knee injuries.

I agree with you in that the recruitment in this regard has been bad and Soliola should never have been signed as a centre but he was!!! I was very suprised when he was signed as a replacement centre and many people at the time were saying the same thing as he had played most of his his recent rugby at second row and were questioning why and where he would infact play.