After a few hours of reflection, I still feel as frustrated as I did after the first 15mins of the game. Wigan showed last night how you turn up and compete with a "bigger and better" team and simply out muscled and out enthused a more experienced Leeds side.
As has been said on here, watching saints through the early 90's, you would have seen a part time Saints team get demolished by a full time wigan side time and time again, but you couldnt imagine the likes of Roy Haggerty, Paul Forber, Bernard Dwyer, Paul Bishop, Shane Cooper putting in a completely inept performance as we have seen today. They may be outclassed, or outplayed due to the differing fitness levels, but they would never have shown such a woeful lack or heart or commitment. What they lacked in a level playing field, they more than made up with their attitude and a desire to "give it a go", which is what we saw from the Wigan kids last night.
As much as I dislike McIlorum, when was the last time you saw any of our players stand up to Jamie Peacock and take him off his game? Answer......never. Where is Sonny Nickle when you need him. Im all for respecting the opposition, but there is a big difference between respecting them and being in awe of them and quite simply, our forward pack is second best to Leeds, Wigan, Warrington and Huddersfield. From what Ive seen over the weekend, Id say Cas also had a better pack. When push comes to shove, we will be lucky to finish in the top four this season and after such a good start, that makes it all the more frustrating.
There is no short term fix for our problems, sacking brown will mean Rush appointed again and we will revert back to the team running the team, rather than one man in charge. The old boys club at saints has a lot to answer for and has been responsible for our issues over the last 5 years, particularly the performances that got Potter and Simmons sacked. We now seem to be doing the same in order to force the Chairman to do the same to Brown, rightly or wrongly, this is like Turkeys voting for Xmas. My question would be, what do the players actually want in a coach? It seems no one is good enough and it doesnt take long for the senior players to lose faith, as a result, they lose the dressing room and then the team capitulates. We have seen it time and time again. Unless as a club we invest in a coach that doesnt take any poop, and the chairman backs him and his decisions 100%, we will be forever in this downward spiral.
Its clear Brown cant motivate the team, nether could potter, neither could simmons, yet we keep appointing the same "type" of coach and then complaining that we arent getting the best out of the team......why??
Finally, as everyone knows we are desperate....thats DESPERATE for a 6. There must be someone knocking about in the Championship that can do a better job than HiHo and take some of the pressure off Walsh. I wouldnt be surprised if he does leave at the end of the season, why would you continue to get battered week after week when you are surrounded by such woeful and enthusiastic-less players?
