Re: Saints Squad away at Widnes : Mon Mar 28, 2016 7:44 pm  

I don't think there's any point playing Dawson at centre. I like him for a squad player, he's solid, hardworking and will fill in anywhere but he starves the winger of possession. Owens may as well sit in stand when we attack down the left cos he's never gonna get a pass, Dawson can't turn his head left. He just steps back inside and gets clobbered.

Playing Turner at left centre IMO reflects the attitude of a coach that is trying to win (thinks about his own teams strengths), whereas playing Dawson reflects an attitude of trying not to lose (Worries about the other teams strengths).

Re: Saints Squad away at Widnes : Tue Mar 29, 2016 8:03 am  

The number of times the referee blew up spoiled the match, Friday a referee but the whole team on a warning and the offences stopped! LMS still makes the most breaks in the pack, just don't rate both props, they are just average, two points but nothing "entertaining" and the Sky crew as ever made it even worse, Amor was on the pitch close to the end a minute, replacing Walmsley, made a break of two steps in front of the posts and stupid Barry claims still going strong, how would some of these players survived in the days of non stop replacements lol

Re: Saints Squad away at Widnes : Tue Mar 29, 2016 8:31 am  

The one thing that annoys me this season is how we manage awarded field penalties, we don't seem to get much distance and kicking to touch is slow and seems to be up for team discussion before kicking to touch. Quite a few times we get a penalty near the opposition 20 to 30 metre line and go for a tap penalty instead of a kick to touch, we take 2 drives in and waste 2 tackles to get 10 metres when we can do that with no effort with a kick to touch and then have 6 attempts close to the try line.
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Under Millward and Anderson we would kick to touch, and have a very deep attacking line to hit the opposition with momentum and disruption, these days its 6 drives with a semi static flat attack which goes nowhere other than a drop off pass and a grubber kick.

Re: Saints Squad away at Widnes : Wed Mar 30, 2016 3:16 am  

Judder Man wrote:

The one thing that annoys me this season is how we manage awarded field penalties, we don't seem to get much distance and kicking to touch is slow and seems to be up for team discussion before kicking to touch. Quite a few times we get a penalty near the opposition 20 to 30 metre line and go for a tap penalty instead of a kick to touch, we take 2 drives in and waste 2 tackles to get 10 metres when we can do that with no effort with a kick to touch and then have 6 attempts close to the try line.
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Under Millward and Anderson we would kick to touch, and have a very deep attacking line to hit the opposition with momentum and disruption, these days its 6 drives with a semi static flat attack which goes nowhere other than a drop off pass and a grubber kick.

Under Millward we regularly turned up at away grounds fielding criminally under strength sides and taking 50-point beatings because we couldn't be bothered.

Under Millward & Anderson we had significantly greater resources in the backs than we do now.

Don't you think the FAIR & BALANCED criticism of Cunningham in the context of the two coaches you mention should include these pretty important truths?

Re: Saints Squad away at Widnes : Wed Mar 30, 2016 7:28 am  

Mugwump wrote:

Under Millward we regularly turned up at away grounds fielding criminally under strength sides and taking 50-point beatings because we couldn't be bothered.

Under Millward & Anderson we had significantly greater resources in the backs than we do now.

Don't you think the FAIR & BALANCED criticism of Cunningham in the context of the two coaches you mention should include these pretty important truths?

Regular is inaccurate. During Millward's tenure he did that in less than a handful of games. I can remember a couple of times against Bradford and Wigan. He didn't do it for a laugh either as players weren't fit etc.

Even though he ended up coaching at Wigan, we had some of our greatest years under Millward and played some amazing rugby league. He had the courage from that first game at Hull to let us play off the cuff and brought Tommy Martyn back in from the wilderness.

Re: Saints Squad away at Widnes : Wed Mar 30, 2016 9:12 am  

Mugwump wrote:

Don't you think the FAIR & BALANCED criticism of Cunningham in the context of the two coaches you mention should include these pretty important truths?

In terms of Structure, Game Plan, Techniques and Mental approach to games no matter how inferior our players are today KC is way out of his depth at the moment. He's not a risk taker like Millward or Game Planner like Anderson, he's very much a steadfast person who seems to be stuck in his ways, maybe he's going through a similar fate as some of our developing players in a second season syndrome.
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KC has played under 6 coaches and surely some of the coaching methods good or bad are in memory banks, he seems to be finding comfort in the Potter and Simmonds eras probably because of the quality of our players.
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KC seems very nervous now facing the media and seems to losing that "connection " with the fans, there is also the rumour that some of the players are unsettled with our style of play and game plans. Once we get all our best players maybe he KC can change things around, in the meantime we are stuck in this boring flat as pancake stuff.

Re: Saints Squad away at Widnes : Wed Mar 30, 2016 4:37 pm  

Judder Man wrote:

In terms of Structure, Game Plan, Techniques and Mental approach to games no matter how inferior our players are today KC is way out of his depth at the moment. He's not a risk taker like Millward or Game Planner like Anderson, he's very much a steadfast person who seems to be stuck in his ways, maybe he's going through a similar fate as some of our developing players in a second season syndrome.
.
KC has played under 6 coaches and surely some of the coaching methods good or bad are in memory banks, he seems to be finding comfort in the Potter and Simmonds eras probably because of the quality of our players.
.
KC seems very nervous now facing the media and seems to losing that "connection " with the fans, there is also the rumour that some of the players are unsettled with our style of play and game plans. Once we get all our best players maybe he KC can change things around, in the meantime we are stuck in this boring flat as pancake stuff.

Whilst I'm not sure on KC, I think the accusations of stuck in his ways is unfair.
In his time he has dropped players who he thinks are under performing from juniors like Greenwood and Savelio to seniors like Turner and burns. As a team we have played grinding winter rugby and thrown it about wildly.

I'm fine with the accusations that he maybe struggling with such a big job as his first as you can't make mistakes and learn from them in a top job like he could elsewhere. But I don't buy the inflexible argument.