Re: Please, please rest Roby tomorrow : Sun Aug 21, 2011 8:53 pm  

R.B.A wrote:

I thought that your coaches treatment of Roby today bordered on the criminal. He is the best hooker in the country by a mile and obviously massively important to you but he wont be much use sat in the stand during the play offs because his body has packed up on him.

Roby gets more time off during the week than any other player so if I were you I'd wind your neck in about our coach because you know sod all about it.

Re: Please, please rest Roby tomorrow : Sun Aug 21, 2011 8:55 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

So now we've got Roby smashed to pieces again and we still lost. Tell me how we benefit from that?

We lost because we dropped ball and gave away penalties. That is our players who are doing that, not the coach. And Roby got a broken nose - well, Wilkin has had at least two. Did you say the same about him when his was strapped up while playing a final? Course not.

Stupid comments. You play your best players in every game. Simples. We lost due to our senior players - once again - not focusing on the game at hand.

Re: Please, please rest Roby tomorrow : Sun Aug 21, 2011 8:59 pm  

SaintsFan wrote:

We lost because we dropped ball and gave away penalties. That is our players who are doing that, not the coach. And Roby got a broken nose - well, Wilkin has had at least two. Did you say the same about him when his was strapped up while playing a final? Course not.

Stupid comments. You play your best players in every game. Simples. We lost due to our senior players - once again - not focusing on the game at hand.

No, we lost because with that lineup we're not as good a team as Hull KR.

Re: Please, please rest Roby tomorrow : Sun Aug 21, 2011 9:02 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

No, we lost because with that lineup we're not as good a team as Hull KR.

Rubbish.

We lost by two points. The two points they would not have had had Wilkin not tripped a player. Another duh penalty given away by our experienced, senior players.

We lost it in the first half. We lost it by dropping the ball three times during the first ten minutes when in attacking positions. We lost it by giving away stupid penalties. In short, we lost it by doing precisely the same things we have done so often this season and it is invariably our senior players - like Wilkin and Pryce (to name two who dropped the ball in the first half) - who do this and they have played on the winning side in Grand Finals. They are better than anything Hull KR have. But they didn't PLAY better, and that is the key.

It frustrates the fook out of me. We have top class players in our team and they let themselves and us fans down every time they don't focus.

Re: Please, please rest Roby tomorrow : Sun Aug 21, 2011 11:47 pm  

Saints fan you may feel we labour the points about Roby playing80 mins, about backs on the bench etc.. But Royce persists with this. So what roby gets off more time mid-week, maybe this is a consequence of the playing 80mins.

If he alternated every now and then, I'd have less concerns, but it seams on these 2 points the coach is dogmatic, which I feel is a weakness in anyone. The same routine is not needed for every game and a back on the bench is not needed every game and Roby doing a full 80 is not needed every game.

I'm not trying to be negative and we often lose at HKR. But in my opinion and that all these boards are, the risk reducing back on the bench tactic is limited at best. I'd rather move a dixon to centre, or flannery or moore or wilkin, during a match than see the same thing each week, 16 players and one bench warmer.

It did not cause the loss, but neither does it help our players over the course of a season to have to play more game time and have less rest during a match. I'm not comparing Roby with other Saints players, but Roby with someone like monaghan, or buderess etc.

Sure a couple of times in a year you may need a hooker to step up and do a full 80, but if not, why demand it each match.

Re: Please, please rest Roby tomorrow : Mon Aug 22, 2011 9:29 am  

bewareshadows wrote:

Saints fan you may feel we labour the points about Roby playing80 mins, about backs on the bench etc.. But Royce persists with this. So what roby gets off more time mid-week, maybe this is a consequence of the playing 80mins.

It's getting silly, frankly.

NO TEAM plays with FOUR forwards on the bench. ALL play with THREE. Usually, the fourth spot is taken by a replacement hooker.

Now, would you replace Roby with Moore? Especially when down on forwards? I wouldn't! He's a one man penalty machine and is inconsistent to say the least when it comes to his passes. But he can make yards and he can tackle hard.

People are not thinking. They are just desperate to have a go. Our performance yesterday, like so many similar performances this season, has nothing to do with the coach and his interchange policy, which I think is perfectly reasonable. It has everything to do with a bad attitude among some of our senior players.

If he alternated every now and then, I'd have less concerns, but it seams on these 2 points the coach is dogmatic, which I feel is a weakness in anyone.

He is, and rightly so. You should have been at the Newton Storm fans forum last week, as I was. Royce was asked about his bench policy. He stated quite clearly (a) that all teams only have three forwards on the bench and (b) he uses that fourth spot to cover backline injuries. He also said that he had been told that last season Roby played on the wing (which he did, and very well too, and scored a try). Royce thought that was a real waste of resources, and he is right.

It is that kind of thing that we would once again have (as we did under Potter) if Royce didn't play a back on the bench. People moaned last season about players playing out of position during injuries (or even not during injuries, since Potter had the weirdest personnel policy going). Now they are moaning because the coach wants to utilise his specialist players in their specialist positions and cover for what are now becoming routine injuries.

He played Soliola at prop, a position he hadn't played before, so even Royce was pushed into playing someone out of position due to the injuries (and apparently Sia was pretty impressive at prop?). But I'm sure most coaches will not want to do that but will instead want to slip someone in whose presence will not unduly disrupt the flow of the team.

Re: Please, please rest Roby tomorrow : Mon Aug 22, 2011 2:00 pm  

Deja vu anyone?

Re: Please, please rest Roby tomorrow : Mon Aug 22, 2011 4:07 pm  

Don Brennan wrote:

Deja vu anyone?

I'm not sure but it feels like it.

Re: Please, please rest Roby tomorrow : Mon Aug 22, 2011 5:27 pm  

SaintsFan wrote:

NO TEAM plays with FOUR forwards on the bench. ALL play with THREE. Usually, the fourth spot is taken by a replacement hooker.

A hooker is a forward. But I agree with the point you are trying to make.

Having a back on the bench is simply a novelty brought about by having an 80 minute hooker. Queensland always have Cooper Cronk on the bench nowadays, I don't hear many people blasting Mal about his team selection.

Re: Please, please rest Roby tomorrow : Mon Aug 22, 2011 5:49 pm  

Smurf wrote:

A hooker is a forward. But I agree with the point you are trying to make.

Yes, yes, yes. But not in the sense that others were meaning. Mr/Ms Pedant!

Having a back on the bench is simply a novelty brought about by having an 80 minute hooker. Queensland always have Cooper Cronk on the bench nowadays, I don't hear many people blasting Mal about his team selection.

They probably have no idea such dastardly deeds go on! There is another team in Superleague that has a back on the bench but I can't remember which one. It's not a new idea. Didn't it used to be the norm, back in the day? Anyway. People are just moaning for the sake of it. We don't have any less beef on the bench (when the beef is fit) than any other team and I don't see every other team suffering as a result. Bar one or two players, our team lost on Sunday because of their poor attitude towards the game not because of Royce's bench selection.