Re: KC - An Alternative Option : Tue May 10, 2016 3:48 pm  

Judder Man wrote:

I think it was Sean Long who recommended Peyroux who is bit better in defence but not as good in attack as Turner. We should have made Owen a loan signing with a future contract if up to the mark. For me if Thompson can put on a bit more kilos he would replace Richards, also Knowles deserves a place in the 17 but he would have to replace Wilkin which won't happen.
Haven't got a clue whats going on with Savelio, is he a prop, second row or loose forward, Vea, LMS and Greenwood are keeping him out of the team but only just.

We,ve got loads of player "wastage" who are not up to the job, we definitely need a major cull next season.

I agree.

On the topic of defence, I appreciate there's a technique to be learnt in terms of tackling & the resulting wrestle, and the organisation of the defence as a whole...but these lads would never have been given a pro contract if they could not carry out the very basic aspect of the game which is to tackle. So to me, it's an attitude issue rather than a technique issue. Daniel Anderson turned a Saints side who's philosophy at the time was 'if you score 30 then we'll score 40', to a side that took great pride in defending the line. He did this without showing half the team the exit and instead tweaked and honed what he already had.

This is obviously just an opinion and I accept that it could be wrong, but the weak tackling is a symptom of a lack of commitment. The reasons for that I just don't know. And looking at KC's interview on the St.Helens Star website, he doesn't know either.

Re: KC - An Alternative Option : Tue May 10, 2016 6:16 pm  

Twentyman wrote:

This is obviously just an opinion and I accept that it could be wrong, but the weak tackling is a symptom of a lack of commitment. The reasons for that I just don't know. And looking at KC's interview on the St.Helens Star website, he doesn't know either.

Our weak tackling is probably the most easiest aspect of our game to fix and I find it unbelievable that they can't show some technique and effort and will to improve the situation. We all see it in almost every game over the last 3 seasons, our approach is a sliding defence which means in most cases we tackle the upper body first, the opposition can still drive to make metres and we lose control of the ruck, our players work very hard to try and stop momentum but we rarely tackle around the lower body and follow up with wrapping up the ball. If Sean Long is in charge of our defence then KC has to take a lot of responsilbity for this.

We only have 3 players who can tackle around the legs in Lomax, Swift and Roby, the majority of the rest are "tackle grabbers" who can't bend there backs, our emphasis on a sliding defence needs to be replaced with good line speed and tackle impact to control the ruck area. The last time I checked we are the worse team in super league for mis-tackles which means we have lots of minutes when we are not in control of the game.

Re: KC - An Alternative Option : Tue May 10, 2016 9:37 pm  

I can't see any justification, reason or excuse for him to remain as head coach as things stand. It would have to take something extraordinary to turn this around.

I agree with the above that recruitment has not helped, but you can see he has lost the dressing room. Players who should be playing are being left out (e.g. Savelio/Thompson) and playing lads who don't deserve to play (Richards/Tasi). His press statements are an embarrassment and he unfairly blames the kids, shielding the senior players who are not performing.

Alex Walmsley is half the player now than he was last season and it would be interesting to hear what he has to say. I'm not suggesting anything by that, I just think he looks a frustrated player at the moment.

Another question is who would replace him and I have absolutely no idea who that could be.

Re: KC - An Alternative Option : Tue May 10, 2016 9:39 pm  

Albion wrote:

I can't see any justification, reason or excuse for him to remain as head coach as things stand. It would have to take something extraordinary to turn this around.

I agree with the above that recruitment has not helped, but you can see he has lost the dressing room. Players who should be playing are being left out (e.g. Savelio/Thompson) and playing lads who don't deserve to play (Richards/Tasi). His press statements are an embarrassment and he unfairly blames the kids, shielding the senior players who are not performing.

Alex Walmsley is half the player now than he was last season and it would be interesting to hear what he has to say. I'm not suggesting anything by that, I just think he looks a frustrated player at the moment.

Another question is who would replace him and I have absolutely no idea who that could be.

The should be no place for Longy at the club either from what I heard few weeks back. He should be gone now!

Re: KC - An Alternative Option : Tue May 10, 2016 11:25 pm  

St pete wrote:

The should be no place for Longy at the club either from what I heard few weeks back. He should be gone now!

I wondered how long it would take for him to self destruct. I haven't heard anything but I presume he's done something proper stupid? If it can't be said on here then I respect that.

Re: KC - An Alternative Option : Wed May 11, 2016 6:28 am  

Albion wrote:

Another question is who would replace him and I have absolutely no idea who that could be.

This is the biggest problem, we can all huff and puff towards a KC departure but I can't think of any proven suitable coach who will have the strength of character to do do a major overhaul of the team(s) both on and off the field.
We are no longer a "top 4" team and McManus can't see the forest for all the dead wood hanging around, to improve our player quality is not going to be a quick fix.

Re: KC - An Alternative Option : Wed May 11, 2016 8:54 am  

I think we all agree that a change is needed but who exactly is available? As a club we have adopted a bargain basement approach to player recruitment over recent seasons, signing absolute dross in the hope that someone will come good. They havent. We then have a coach who has time left on his current contract that he only extended a matter of months ago. It will cost McManus hard earned dosh to terminate his contract. Then you have the option of signing a coach already under contract.....simply not going to happen because of the compensation payments, so then we are looking at off contract NRL failures or NRL assistant coaches in the McGuire mould looking to make a name for themselves. The difficulty with that one is that whoever comes in needs to be able to change the attitudes of the players currently in the team, so has to be able to command respect and get the current squad playing for him. Thats no mean feat for an unknown name.

Lets compare our fortunes to that of Salford. Obviously an underperforming squad who then brings in one of the most experienced NRL coaches in Tim Sheens. Sheens then signs some quality players whilst ridding the squad of the higher earning under performers. This is not an overnight process but obviously a very costly one.

They are still not the finished article.

Then add in the factor of a wealthy owner with deep pockets willing to spend his money. Then add in the fact that they have allegedly breached the salary cap rules for the last few seasons.

You can start to see what kind of hole McManus and Saints have dug for themselves.

Re: KC - An Alternative Option : Wed May 11, 2016 10:06 pm  

Latest words of wisdom from our super coach http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/36267098 "It's difficult because we can't really get on the field [to train], recovery is the biggest key, Easter is still biting so we can't really implement things." still blaming Easter; apparently we are the only team to have an Easter.

Latest words of wisdom from our super coach http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/36267098 "It's difficult because we can't really get on the field [to train], recovery is the biggest key, Easter is still biting so we can't really implement things." still blaming Easter; apparently we are the only team to have an Easter.

Re: KC - An Alternative Option : Thu May 12, 2016 6:23 am  

He also says: Quote

"We're quite a young team regardless of what fans or pundits say,"

I wonder if he has some false birth certificates because we only have a few players that are u/23. Don't know what his definition of young is, for me a young player is someone between 18 -21 which if we use that benchmark we only have Knowles who has played a couple of games this season.

Re: KC - An Alternative Option : Thu May 12, 2016 8:29 am  

Judder Man wrote:

He also says: Quote

"We're quite a young team regardless of what fans or pundits say,"

I wonder if he has some false birth certificates because we only have a few players that are u/23. Don't know what his definition of young is, for me a young player is someone between 18 -21 which if we use that benchmark we only have Knowles who has played a couple of games this season.

I've noticed his choice of words a few times now when he feels he's under fire a bit. He takes a bit of a pop at the fans. Other coaches will say things about understanding the frustration of the fans and that they've let them down etc but not KC. He talks about us like we are stupid and don't know what we're talking about. Somebody needs to have a word in his ear because we'll simply stop turning up at games and we'll have more 2/3's of an empty stadium turnouts like the Challenge Cup game.