Re: Royce Simmons OUT : Mon Mar 14, 2011 9:12 am  

I think its pretty clear that no-one is calling for Royce's head, just asking him to bring the performances up to scratch. Besides, sacking a coach mid way through a season is a fairly certain way to guarentee your side not to win a trophey.
If we're 12 weeks in and not in a play off spot, then Royce should be worried, but for now, he's going to rightly get the benifit of the doubt.

Re: Royce Simmons OUT : Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:10 am  

BrisbaneRhino wrote:

I'd agree that if Eastmond isn't really putting in for the team you'd be better with someone else playing, even if on paper it weakened the team. But wouldn't the players and coach already have picked up on that? If they had, surely he would have been dropped?

Lack of options is a problem for us this season. If we drop Kyle then at present we could replace him with Gary Wheeler or Jonny Lomax. Except Wheeler was injured until this weekend and Lomax went off injured on Friday. There is no-one else to replace Eastmond (and Kyle will know that).

Re: Royce Simmons OUT : Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:13 am  

SaintsFan wrote:

Lack of options is a problem for us this season. If we drop Kyle then at present we could replace him with Gary Wheeler or Jonny Lomax. Except Wheeler was injured until this weekend and Lomax went off injured on Friday. There is no-one else to replace Eastmond (and Kyle will know that).

Jamie Ellis, you utter berk.

I've been very happy with what I've seen from Gaskell and think he would be a good foil for Pryce when he's back.

Re: Royce Simmons OUT : Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:19 am  

Offside Monkey wrote:

Jamie Ellis, you utter berk.

He signed on a 2 year deal with Leigh beginning of this season.

Re: Royce Simmons OUT : Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:21 am  

He signed on a 2 year deal with Leigh beginning of this season.

No, I wasn't calling SaintsFan a berk for missing him, I was calling Jamie Ellis a berk for getting himself binned off (allegedly) by Saints.

Re: Royce Simmons OUT : Mon Mar 14, 2011 1:14 pm  

There is no point dropping Eastmond for anyone else currently available in the squad. Neither Lomax nor Wheeler would do any better than him at the moment, and would pile even more pressure on Gaskells shoulders as neither have a kicking game.

When Pryce is fit then we have an option, until then forget about it.

I'm also thinking that, although I do agree that he's been half hearted when playing, not all of this is down to Eastmond. Neither half back is really getting involved in play until the last tackle, instead the forwards and the wingers are driving it forward. There is also a major lack of dummy runners causing confusion in the opposition defence. Eastmond has made runs, but only late on in games when gaps have started appearing (him running with the ball led to one of our tries on Friday).

Whilst our attack is stunted from having two inexperiences half backs, there is a lack of defensive intensity and that falls squarely at the feet of the coach. There are no excuses for that.

Re: Royce Simmons OUT : Mon Mar 14, 2011 1:43 pm  

Billinge_Lump wrote:

There is no point dropping Eastmond for anyone else currently available in the squad. Neither Lomax nor Wheeler would do any better than him at the moment, and would pile even more pressure on Gaskells shoulders as neither have a kicking game.

Wheeler does have a kicking game; I've seen it. He needs to practice it because when I have seen his kicks they have been a little too strong, but he does have a short kicking game. Wheeler also has an element of craft that Eastmond does not. Since this season is going to be a long one thanks to the ongoing injury of our experienced halfback, I would rather see Wheeler get an opportunity to show us his wares at halfback than continue with a half-hearted Eastmond who does nothing but attract the wrong kind of attention from fans and is obviously not going to start doing things like organising, creating and taking on the line. He can be our backline cover on the bench.

Whilst our attack is stunted from having two inexperiences half backs, there is a lack of defensive intensity and that falls squarely at the feet of the coach. There are no excuses for that.

It may be the coach. However, it may be that the players have the wrong attitude. They just look like they did last season in defence. Well, they have to change their attitude in defence. They need to put 100% effort in for the full 80 and James Graham needs to stop thinking he is a halfback. They need to be in the faces of the opposition from the first second to the last second. Nothing less will do.

Re: Royce Simmons OUT : Mon Mar 14, 2011 2:11 pm  

I noticed this on the Andy Wilson blog this morning:

Royce Simmons wondered aloud afterwards why the team seemed to be performing so much better in away games, hinting at a lack of professionalism in some of his players' preparation for home fixtures. "When we're away together talking footy we've come out and played pretty good," he said. "When they're at home all week, I don't think the boys are thinking enough about footy."

Interesting!

Re: Royce Simmons OUT : Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:17 pm  

SaintsFan wrote:

Wheeler does have a kicking game; I've seen it. He needs to practice it because when I have seen his kicks they have been a little too strong, but he does have a short kicking game.

But he'll need more than just knocking a few grubber kicks in occasionally, he needs a long kicking game and that's not somethign I've ever remember seeing.

Wheeler also has an element of craft that Eastmond does not.

I'm not sure on that, he does seem to have more of a sniff of the tryline, but the craft of putting people in?

Since this season is going to be a long one thanks to the ongoing injury of our experienced halfback, I would rather see Wheeler get an opportunity to show us his wares at halfback than continue with a half-hearted Eastmond who does nothing but attract the wrong kind of attention from fans and is obviously not going to start doing things like organising, creating and taking on the line. He can be our backline cover on the bench.

He has taken on the line though, him taking on the line led to Meli's try on Friday. What he isn't doing is doing it when there is little or nothing on and trying to make a half break.

At this moment in time Wheeler and Gaskell would be as much of a failure as a half back combination as the current one is turning out to be, if not worse because at least Eastmond has experience of playing at 7 more than a handful of times.

It may be the coach. However, it may be that the players have the wrong attitude. They just look like they did last season in defence. Well, they have to change their attitude in defence. They need to put 100% effort in for the full 80 and James Graham needs to stop thinking he is a halfback. They need to be in the faces of the opposition from the first second to the last second. Nothing less will do.

We look worse than we did last season in defence, we were more intense last year. I think you're blowing the Graham thinks he's a half back argument out of proportion there, that's a cheap easy shot from poor journalists and opposition fans. He's the major metre maker in the team, if not the league at the moment (I've not checked the stats past the Wire game), if he was passing too much he wouldn't be doing that.

Re: Royce Simmons OUT : Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:19 pm  

SaintsFan wrote:

I noticed this on the Andy Wilson blog this morning:

Interesting!

Then he isn't doing his job properly as coach if that is happening, the preparation isn't good enough. It also looks as if he's attempting to deflect criticsm elsewhere, if he's doing that this early is that a good sign?