I'm still to be convinced.
Our turnaround in the Wigan game was brought about by McManus rather than Brown. In this week's League Express Hohaia in his interview refers to the players receiving a kick in the pants from McManus. Given the very poor standard of play in most of our matches this year, particularly at home (and especially against Hull KR), it would appear Brown is not that hot on discipline, either in terms of penalties given away or with ball in hand, and until very recently our defence had become very weak. I used to be fairly sure we could defend our line for long periods but under Brown we became very soft. Our defence now does appear to have improved. However, according to all reports (and the radio commentary), our overall performance against Wakey suggests our attitude towards ball retention and overall discipline has slipped back to pre-Wigan match standards, which is concerning. We are going to struggle enough without a single recognised halfback playing at halfback without giving the opposition invitations into the match with poor ball retention and bad discipline.
Speaking of halfbacks, I thought Brown was a complete idiot to get rid of Gaskell, leaving us without any halfbacks at all. Gaskell's attitude (if he had one) is no excuse. The coach is paid to man manage and so he should have done so instead of leaving us so vulernable all season. The temporary presence of O'Brien, who while a hard worker was no world beater (not as yet anyway), shows what a positive impact an actual halfback can have on a team.
I don't like his tweaking, and he tried it again in the second half against London. He needs to stop. That is one of the most annoying features of his coaching and I know he drove Huddersfield fans to distraction with it. It's one thing managing a squad or providing opportunities for young players to have a go at first grade; it's entirely another to change the personnel so much that it causes break down in communication and all manner of confusion, especially when injuries have not forced his hand.
I do like it that we can score from deep these days, and some of our tries have been special. Saints recently compiled a 'top 10 so far' clip of tries we have scored this season and while they were all good, some were terrific. However, we aren't going to be as good as we could have been in the attack department without any recognised halfbacks so keeping Lomax and our backline generally (which is looking nifty since Brown copied Simmons and shifted Meli to centre) fit and playing well is vitally important to our hopes for the rest of the year IMO. We are going to be overly dependent on them for tries I think.
