Re: Hull FC Match Thread - Saints 12 v 19 Hull FC : Sat Aug 02, 2014 6:53 pm  

Saints are really struggling for the next 9 at the club below James Roby. They have signed a number of potential half backs and hookers amongst the crop of u16's recently signing for the academy but obviously it will be a number of years before they are ready for the first team.

I think Eastmond was the last 7 we developed but Offiah got his mits into him and turned his head to RU. The rest is history. Lance was a panic buy when Eastmond told saints he was leaving - he was bigged up by his agent as the man to fill our half back vacancy - as a World Cup winner with wealth of experience, we bought it.

It's a real shame that it didn't work out for us and him, but I doubt the club will ever offer an overseas player a 4 year contact ever again.

Re: Hull FC Match Thread - Saints 12 v 19 Hull FC : Sat Aug 02, 2014 7:47 pm  

Judder Man wrote:

Didn,t Saints force him out to the centres and he left the club because of it.

Yes they signed Bob Prosser from Wales RU and Tommy Bishop from Blackpool.

Re: Hull FC Match Thread - Saints 12 v 19 Hull FC : Sat Aug 02, 2014 7:51 pm  

The Chief wrote:

Saints are really struggling for the next 9 at the club below James Roby. They have signed a number of potential half backs and hookers amongst the crop of u16's recently signing for the academy but obviously it will be a number of years before they are ready for the first team.

I think Eastmond was the last 7 we developed but Offiah got his mits into him and turned his head to RU. The rest is history. Lance was a panic buy when Eastmond told saints he was leaving - he was bigged up by his agent as the man to fill our half back vacancy - as a World Cup winner with wealth of experience, we bought it.

It's a real shame that it didn't work out for us and him, but I doubt the club will ever offer an overseas player a 4 year contact ever again.

I do like the look of Rob Fairclough, he is a real tough little scum half, a bit scrawny at the moment but he will probably fill out with full time coaching / conditioning. As with all academy kids it's difficult to tell how they will turn out. What are your thought on Joe McSperitt?

Re: Hull FC Match Thread - Saints 12 v 19 Hull FC : Sun Aug 03, 2014 3:52 pm  

The Chief wrote:

The frustrating thing for me is that without these daft results, we would have had the league leaders shield in the cabinet already and we could have used the remaining games to throw in Charnock or Hewitt and see how they went against a good side. If you remember, the one and only game Charnock played was in three feet of snow so hardly a good yardstick for his potential effect on the first team.

I coached Swifty at Saints service area level u14/u15 and he did play in the halves. One solution would be to put him in there and see how he goes. His poor defensive positioning would be less of an issue 3 in from the touchline rather than on the wing. At least with players either side of him he could be more structured and disciplined.

What surprises me is that this may be last chance saloon for Gary Wheeler. It's is one opportunity to string a run of games together and show that he really does have the nads to make it as a super league standard half back. He should have grabbed that game by the scruff of the neck and strangled the sh*t out if it. As it was, he was pretty anonymous.

If he carries on as he is for the remainder of the season, unless he's got lewd photos of the coaches wife, I can't see him being given a second/third/fourth/fifth chance to see if he lives up to his potential.

I think Brown puts the anonymous display in the halves down to a poor pack performance on the basis that it is very difficult to look good behind a beaten pack;
"To help them make life easier we need our forwards to do a little better," Saints coach Nathan Brown said. "I didn't think we were as good through the middle as we've been in the last five or six weeks.

"Hull have got some good forwards but I'd like to think we could have done better. I thought they rolled down the field very easily."

Re: Hull FC Match Thread - Saints 12 v 19 Hull FC : Sun Aug 03, 2014 4:02 pm  

saint at wire wrote:

I think Brown puts the anonymous display in the halves down to a poor pack performance on the basis that it is very difficult to look good behind a beaten pack;
"To help them make life easier we need our forwards to do a little better," Saints coach Nathan Brown said. "I didn't think we were as good through the middle as we've been in the last five or six weeks.

"Hull have got some good forwards but I'd like to think we could have done better. I thought they rolled down the field very easily."

It's a chicken and egg situation though. Yes the pack dominating makes the halfbacks job easier, but if poor kicks allow the opposition a simple, quick start to the set, then no matter what our forwards do they're gonna get a role on and make ground and put yet more pressure on the kickers. This limits the space halfbacks can work in, but they aren't creating the gaps to put people through.

Adam Swift is playing 6 today for Rochdale #justsaying

Re: Hull FC Match Thread - Saints 12 v 19 Hull FC : Sun Aug 03, 2014 4:10 pm  

Magic Superbeetle wrote:

It's a chicken and egg situation though. Yes the pack dominating makes the halfbacks job easier, but if poor kicks allow the opposition a simple, quick start to the set, then no matter what our forwards do they're gonna get a role on and make ground and put yet more pressure on the kickers. This limits the space halfbacks can work in, but they aren't creating the gaps to put people through.

Adam Swift is playing 6 today for Rochdale #justsaying

Saints have time off this week, few lads gone away.

Re: Hull FC Match Thread - Saints 12 v 19 Hull FC : Sun Aug 03, 2014 4:20 pm  

St pete wrote:

Saints have time off this week, few lads gone away.

I would have though it would have been better to approach this two weeks as if we were playing each weekend, given that we will have another week off for the CC final in a few weeks' time, since we need to be working on our halfback combination for the next match. But I suppose that would have been to fly in the face of the culture at Saints which isn't to work too hard I guess, especially when we actually need to.

Re: Hull FC Match Thread - Saints 12 v 19 Hull FC : Sun Aug 03, 2014 4:20 pm  

The low meters made would seem to bear out some truth in the pack not doing their role.

Flanagan and Mose had the best average gain in the pack. But Mose had low number of carries, slightly more tackling than usual for him

Re: Hull FC Match Thread - Saints 12 v 19 Hull FC : Sun Aug 03, 2014 4:33 pm  

St pete wrote:

Saints have time off this week, few lads gone away.

Good idea, they can all cone back approaching the remaining games as a mini season with new targets rather than being stuck in a rut.

Re: Hull FC Match Thread - Saints 12 v 19 Hull FC : Sun Aug 03, 2014 4:54 pm  

Judder Man wrote:

Good idea, they can all cone back approaching the remaining games as a mini season with new targets rather than being stuck in a rut.

What rut are we stuck in? Losing 1 on the bounce is hardly classifies as a rut