Re: Holbrook must take the blame : Sun Sep 03, 2017 2:34 pm  

The Chair Maker wrote:

He may be of the viewpoint that Saints are not in the position this year to win it.
He is therefore using this season as a developmental season to see what works and what doesnt.
He has seen how Fage and Richardson work together so now he is testing how Lomax and Smith work.
Based on that he will probably formulate the optimum solution for next season.

In the off season we will see lots of work done to change the players physiques to suit the playstyle Holbrook wants. The current players are all built for bash and barge rugby as per Cunninghams desire. I also anticipate lots of work will need to be done on learning the basics of how to pass. The players have been woefully deskilled in this area, and while they have made significant improvements under Holbrook there is still a lot of improvement that can be gained.

I'd hope he isn't of this viewpoint seeing as we're so close to the top 4. If we were in the position Huddersfield are in i'd be all for him trying out different combinations.

Re: Holbrook must take the blame : Sun Sep 03, 2017 4:34 pm  

SecondRowSaint wrote:

I'd hope he isn't of this viewpoint seeing as we're so close to the top 4. If we were in the position Huddersfield are in i'd be all for him trying out different combinations.

100% agree

Re: Holbrook must take the blame : Sun Sep 03, 2017 6:49 pm  

SecondRowSaint wrote:

I'd hope he isn't of this viewpoint seeing as we're so close to the top 4. If we were in the position Huddersfield are in i'd be all for him trying out different combinations.

I,m sure he is aware that Saints have not missed a play-off in Superleague, so I still think he wants top 4, but the problem is he still doesn't know his best team to start a game. Our final executions are killing us though especially when this season we have very little rub of the green, for me Holbrook as yet has not implemented any smart set plays and looks as though he is match coaching off the seat of his pants.

Re: Holbrook must take the blame : Mon Sep 04, 2017 8:52 am  

St pete wrote:

Why on earth would he pick virtually new spine in the biggest game of the year and must win game ?

Ben barba hasn't played rugby league for nearly 12 month and he looked that way . He looked way off the pace, he was out of position on kicks and coming across in defence. He was really blowing after 20 mins but it's to be expected as not match fit and still rusty but he should have been on bench or not in 17.

Picking barba meant lomax goes to 6 to play in halves for first time in many years and first game in halves with the woeful matty Smith. We looked like a team playing first few games of new season when we trying to get used to new combos but to do this in a must win game is crazy.

He should have gone with barba on bench with fages and Smith in halves and used barba as and when needed.

You can't go with new combos in the play offs when we have fully fit squad.

We looked blunt in attack most if the year but we had no direction at all last night and nobody looked comfortable.

Spot on mate, a stupid thing to do in the knock outs, plus Barba looked like he needed a mobility Scooter after 20 mins, should have started on the bench to come on not play full game with two woeful haves. Bet Fage was kicking his Skull cap around langtree watching that, arguably our player of season and gets dropped! and for what?

Re: Holbrook must take the blame : Mon Sep 04, 2017 2:11 pm  

Is it possible that playing Barba was at least partly a commercial decision? Bums on seats?

Re: Holbrook must take the blame : Mon Sep 04, 2017 3:22 pm  

Geoff wrote:

Is it possible that playing Barba was at least partly a commercial decision? Bums on seats?

You could say something similar for the reason to play Lomax at 6 to make room for Barba, isn't a portion of Lomaxs wages paid for by the RFL?

[Sadfish]

Re: Holbrook must take the blame : Tue Sep 05, 2017 8:47 am  

It was a bad call from Holbrook, however, I am more concerned with the poor start to the game, we need 100% completion rate for the first 15 minutes in future as seem to play better as the game goes on we just went so far behind due to not focussing on the basics in the early passages that we couldn't catch up.

Re: Holbrook must take the blame : Tue Sep 05, 2017 10:40 am  

Sadfish wrote:

It was a bad call from Holbrook, however, I am more concerned with the poor start to the game, we need 100% completion rate for the first 15 minutes in future as seem to play better as the game goes on we just went so far behind due to not focussing on the basics in the early passages that we couldn't catch up.

He's swapping the combos about again this week he's said. Why experiment this time of the year? Utter madness

Re: Holbrook must take the blame : Tue Sep 05, 2017 3:22 pm  

We werent that far off in the two previous games points wise even though we arent playing great attacking rugby, for me against Wigan I would have gone with

1 Lomax
6 Fages (along with Tommy and Roby in our top 3 this season by a country mile)
7 Smith
sub Barba

Keep the continuity, players used to each other in a big game, keep it tight early on, settle into the game and not panic trying to throw the ball about, get Barba on when the fatigue starts to set in and we hopefully would look a bit better in attack.

Instead as others have mentioned we disrupted a large chunk of the spine plus Lomax was poor away at Cas when we got beat at their place playing at 6 after not playing their in a long time. We just repeated the same with Lomax in a big game after him not playing at stand off in a while again and effectively said to him theirs the stand off position, go and perform! Not fair on the lad.

For me it was a bad call by Holbrook/coaching team to disrupt the team so much and leave Fages out in this big game but I think we had to include Barba in the 17. I am sure Holbrook will learn from this and I would like to see Richards back in now starting in the halves. My choices for the Wakefield game would now be

1 Lomax
6 Fages
7 Richardson
sub Barba

Nothing much wrong with that 1, 6 and 7 last time we played Wakefield and won. Barba again coming off the bench to use his attacking ability from fullback and getting used to the players plus match fitter, Lomax then available to cover in the halves, hooker etc if someone not on their game on the day.

I think Richardson should be given his place now until the end of the season and tell him to go out and play and play at pace, with Smith missing out unless injuries or loss of form......just IMO

COYSaints

Re: Holbrook must take the blame : Tue Sep 05, 2017 8:00 pm  

He s on about changing the halves again and I feel Smith will make way this week. He was impressed with lomax and barba so I'd imagine Richardson will come in at 7 and fages will go on bench as Amor been axed.

It's the right thing to do this week but all this chopping and changes at crucial part of the season has cost us 4th spot..ws just got to hope we win and hull beat Wigan