Re: Larne Patrick : Fri Mar 23, 2012 12:18 pm  

Huddersfield have A LOT of good young kids. Our academy has been praised for successfully producing young talent (and rightly). But it just goes to show that all the talk of Saints' youth system being "peerless" a few years ago (which even McManus bought into) was a mixture of hot air and spin. And other clubs have not been idle.

Re: Larne Patrick : Fri Mar 23, 2012 12:22 pm  

Smurf wrote:

:PRAY:

He'd be our fastest player

and could catch a ball when given a clean break

Re: Larne Patrick : Fri Mar 23, 2012 12:24 pm  

Mugwump wrote:

Huddersfield have A LOT of good young kids. Our academy has been praised for successfully producing young talent (and rightly). But it just goes to show that all the talk of Saints' youth system being "peerless" a few years ago (which even McManus bought into) was a mixture of hot air and spin. And other clubs have not been idle.

Top clubs, mainly Leeds, with their crop of McGuire,Sinfield,Burrow, Bailey, Walker and Calderwood showed the rest that a constant flow of youngsters was the way to sustain your fortunes with less room for error. Its a proffesional era, so good strategies are going to be copied.

Re: Larne Patrick : Fri Mar 23, 2012 12:33 pm  

The mistake McManus made was thinking other clubs would simply accept a dominant Saints academy and lie down. Not that our academy setup was ever perfect. I've talked at length about our appalling record of producing props.

I'd argue Saints' youth development setup has pretty much always been oriented toward the backs. From eight to thirteen (excluding hooker) our record is sketchy to say the least.

Re: Larne Patrick : Fri Mar 23, 2012 2:11 pm  

Mugwump wrote:

The mistake McManus made was thinking other clubs would simply accept a dominant Saints academy and lie down.

Did he mention this to you personally? I think we should give credit to Mr Mc for being a bit brighter than that don't you?

Re: Larne Patrick : Fri Mar 23, 2012 2:22 pm  

Mugwump wrote:

The mistake McManus made was thinking other clubs would simply accept a dominant Saints academy and lie down. Not that our academy setup was ever perfect. I've talked at length about our appalling record of producing props.

I'd argue Saints' youth development setup has pretty much always been oriented toward the backs. From eight to thirteen (excluding hooker) our record is sketchy to say the least.

You must be going back a while. I can't remember any Saints side dominating the academy and reserve competitions. The only two that have, would be Leeds in the early part of the Millennium and the present Wigan side, who last year won the reserve comp for the fourth (maybe fifth?) time in a row.

As for producing props. You may not have created many but you did produce the best prop in the last 20 years IMO, and are now paying the price for his departure.

Re: Larne Patrick : Fri Mar 23, 2012 3:43 pm  

LovesToSpooge wrote:

:shock:

You must be going back a while. I can't remember any Saints side dominating the academy and reserve competitions. The only two that have, would be Leeds in the early part of the Millennium and the present Wigan side, who last year won the reserve comp for the fourth (maybe fifth?) time in a row.

It would be silly to claim players such as Eastmond, Wheeler, Graham, Lomax that emerged a few years ago weren't part of a dominant Saints academy. Did they win every trophy on offer for years - of course not. But the academy consistently performed well and these (and other) youngsters were pretty much universally regarded as an outstanding crop and certainly the best the club had produced in years. This (along with salary cap constraints) was the reason McManus felt confident in letting older squad members go. Players which - with the benefit of hingsight - were never replaced because these kids were too young to compete physically or weren't capable of making the jump to first team football.

Re: Larne Patrick : Fri Mar 23, 2012 3:58 pm  

Harry Pinner wrote:

Did he mention this to you personally? I think we should give credit to Mr Mc for being a bit brighter than that don't you?

Bright enough to offer Francis Meli, a player who has cost Saints two Grand Finals (and had a hand in a third), repeated contract extensions?

Bright enough to let the Eastmond saga drag on six months too long, which threatened, at one point, to blow the team apart and has ultimately left us with NO scrum halves?

Bright enough to offer repeated contract extensions to Ade Gardner, a player who has had possibly eighteen months of good form in his career and undoubtedly one of the slowest wingers ever to wear a Saints shirt?

Bright enough to be spending up to the cap for the last five years (his words) whilst the team has been hemorrhaging talent like blood from a severed limb?

Bright enough to turn a team which has ALWAYS offered a potent attacking threat from the backs (Ledger, McCormack, Quirk, Hunte, Sullivan, Albert, Gibbs, Iro, Newlove, Lyon, Gidley, Martyn, Long etc.) into one of the slowest in the league?

Bright enough to keep Paul Wellens two years past the point when he was shot?

Bright enough to sign Royce Simmons?

Re: Larne Patrick : Fri Mar 23, 2012 4:06 pm  

Mugwump wrote:

Bright enough to offer Francis Meli, a player who has cost Saints two Grand Finals (and had a hand in a third), repeated contract extensions?

Bright enough to let the Eastmond saga drag on six months too long, which threatened, at one point, to blow the team apart and has ultimately left us with NO scrum halves?

Bright enough to offer repeated contract extensions to Ade Gardner, a player who has had possibly eighteen months of good form in his career and undoubtedly one of the slowest wingers ever to wear a Saints shirt?

Bright enough to be spending up to the cap for the last five years (his words) whilst the team has been hemorrhaging talent like blood from a severed limb?

Bright enough to turn a team which has ALWAYS offered a potent attacking threat from the backs (Ledger, McCormack, Quirk, Hunte, Sullivan, Albert, Gibbs, Iro, Newlove, Lyon, Gidley, Martyn, Long etc.) into one of the slowest in the league?

Bright enough to keep Paul Wellens two years past the point when he was shot?

Bright enough to sign Royce Simmons?

The new stadium really does paper over a lot of cracks in many peoples eyes!

Re: Larne Patrick : Fri Mar 23, 2012 4:25 pm  

I think he looks like a very good player. He's got great feet, speed but maybe lacks a little size for front row at the moment.

I'd 100% sign him if possible, he's already better than LMS and clough.