Re: Enough is Enough : Sun May 15, 2011 9:09 am  

Saddened! wrote:

The injuries are, IMO, the result of our recruitment policy. Rather than recruit senior pros we have replaced senior players and legends with kids. Having so many young players in your squad not only results in them being injured as they are regarded as senior players and are not protected appropriately but also in the senior players having to take on too much responsibility. Look at todays embarassing showing as an example. The kids missed just about every tackle they went into with the exception of Hale who did very well today. That led to players like Robes, Graham and Soliola running their blood to water to cover and ending up looking pretty vulnerable themselves. The senior pros in our squad are playing too many games and too many minutes in each game. This leads to..... injuries.

Can someone less important than me do an analysis of our squad and compare it to the rest of the league and see if my theory holds up at all. Do the other clubs have more established players than we do?

You make a fair point.

We've been very unlucky with injuries and it's easy to lay the blame with the physios and conditioners. Who knows, it may well be their fault, I don't know, I'm not a doctor. But it could also be that we have alot of players who aren't very druable and we have a pretty small squad? The likes of Roby and Graham don't pick up many injuries, so maybe we need to bring in some more players who are proven to be very durable to compliment the current players and young players we have, so we're not over reliant on certain individuals?

Re: Enough is Enough : Sun May 15, 2011 9:34 am  

When Wigan appointed Maguire they also changed some of the backroom staff, Mark Bitcon was employed as chief conditioner, and employed staff to work with him.

They also invested in extra physios, a sports psychologist.They now have a gps system that lets them measure and analyse things like collision impact, players speed and distance etc, and have someone in place to analyse alll the data and report it back to the coaching team.

Sports science is a very big part of that Wigan set up. Does the same thing happen at Saints?

Re: Enough is Enough : Sun May 15, 2011 9:35 am  

You could probably sum up our season so far in one word INSTABILITY. WE don,t really know what impact on new ground, new training, new coach, new conditioning is actually contributing each in a small way to the situation we are experiencing.
What concerns me at the moment is that we can,t rest players, the likes of Shenton, Roby, Graham and Sia need to be rested before the play offs. Our best bet is to target the Challenge Cup to rescue the season, I get the feeling a grand final is a bridge too far.

Re: Enough is Enough : Sun May 15, 2011 9:47 am  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

When Wigan appointed Maguire they also changed some of the backroom staff, Mark Bitcon was employed as chief conditioner, and emplyed staff to work with him.

They also invested in extra physios, a sports psychologist.They now have a gps system that lets them measure and analyse things like collision impact, players speed and distance etc, and have someone in place to analyse alll the data and report it back to the coaching team.

Sports science is a very big part of that Wigan set up. Does the same thing happen at Saints?

Is Britcon the slap head with the giggs that sits with maguire and wane?

Re: Enough is Enough : Sun May 15, 2011 10:08 am  

Blobbynator wrote:

You make a fair point.

We've been very unlucky with injuries and it's easy to lay the blame with the physios and conditioners. Who knows, it may well be their fault, I don't know, I'm not a doctor. But it could also be that we have alot of players who aren't very druable and we have a pretty small squad? The likes of Roby and Graham don't pick up many injuries, so maybe we need to bring in some more players who are proven to be very durable to compliment the current players and young players we have, so we're not over reliant on certain individuals?

I remember pre season the players were conditioned to be more mobile and lost weight. Many of the players said they felt a lot fitter from it and were looking forward to the dry pitches. Maybe this has made them less impact resistant.........personally I think it's just bad luck that the injuries have hit all the pivotal players all at once.
Cunningham, Scully, Martyn, Long, Joynt had bucket loads of injuries but they were never all out of the game all at once as we are now experiencing.

Re: Enough is Enough : Sun May 15, 2011 10:17 am  

Injuries happen, but what concerns me about the younger? "Twitter" players is their problem with sleeping? they seem to be up half of the night and when they are the tweet? I never remember not being able to sleep but then again we did not have twitter!

I may use twitter, but when it gets turned off that is how it stays!

Re: Enough is Enough : Sun May 15, 2011 10:29 am  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

When Wigan appointed Maguire they also changed some of the backroom staff, Mark Bitcon was employed as chief conditioner, and emplyed staff to work with him.

They also invested in extra physios, a sports psychologist.They now have a gps system that lets them measure and analyse things like collision impact, players speed and distance etc, and have someone in place to analyse alll the data and report it back to the coaching team.

Sports science is a very big part of that Wigan set up. Does the same thing happen at Saints?

As much as it disappoints me Rogues makes a valid point - I dont know the answer to these questions but again Paaaaat is another example of players comming back earlier for other clubs but never Saints...

Re: Enough is Enough : Sun May 15, 2011 10:47 am  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

WhenWigan appointed Maguire they also changed some of the backroom staff, Mark Bitcon was employed as chief conditioner, and emplyed staff to workwith him. They also invested in extra physios, a sports psychologist.They now have a gps system that lets them measure and analyse things like collision impact, players speed and distance etc, and have someone in place to analyse alll the data and report it back to the coaching team. Sports science is a very big part of thatWigan set up. Does the same thing happen at Saints?

Being updated as I type, 2 state of the Art Nintendo WII Sports packs are being ordered for the new stadium.

Re: Enough is Enough : Sun May 15, 2011 10:57 am  

St pete wrote:

Flannery played last week so it wasnt a case of rushing him back. He's been out injured so very commen to pick up niggly injuries.

But he wasn't in the 19 man squad that was named 2 days before the game. That would suggest he wasn't fit enough on Thursday.
Obviously they have taken a gamble to rush him back, probably down to desperation, and it as back-fired.

Re: Enough is Enough : Sun May 15, 2011 10:58 am  

Duke Eddington wrote:

But he wasn't in the 19 man squad that was named 2 days before the game. That would suggest he wasn't fit enough on Thursday.
Obviously they have taken a gamble to rush him back, probably down to desperation, and it as back-fired.

I asked this question on twitter and was told that Joe Greenwood was due to play but picked up an injury late in the week, which meant we put Flannery back in the squad.