Re: Surprise! Surprise! No changes ... : Thu May 31, 2012 11:02 am  

bewareshadows wrote:

When Northampton and Mugwup agree surely that's a sign of the apocolypse.

Whilst we are not great, we are more organised. Rush and Cunningham(interesting we've now seperated them and MR is getting all the flack) seam to have taken us on a basic game plan which works against most SL outfits, is far from enertaining, but they have simply no interest in managing players.

However I do believe that every cloud has a silver lining. This extended period is allowing to see some home truth's.
I've rated Wheeler from one 30 minute spell, but this constant run shows that it's not something he can do on a regular basis. Lance can't say he's not been given any chance at half back, until he got a run it could have been a case of us not playing well but thinking that maybe lance could change it all if he got a run at half back.

Wellens the mind is willing but the body just cannot do it and he is being asked to do more than ever to make up for failings elsewhere in the team, but has been ghosted past by too many players for it to be a one off.

True Dat!
Guilty of It myself,If they dont shift Hoahia its gona seriously p1ss me off.
Lance has nothing to offer at s/off.sort it out.

Re: Surprise! Surprise! No changes ... : Thu May 31, 2012 11:18 am  

Offside Monkey wrote:

I was an advocate of getting rid of Royce when we did and, to be honest, I stand by it. My mood, which mirrored that of most after the Hull and Bradford was at an all time low. We lost to those two sides without them doing very much, to be honest (save a bit of magic from Turner).
I genuinely think those performances were going to have a severe detrimental effect on next years ST sales if they were allowed to continue, which I think would have been at the forefront of McManus's mind.

I think we can safely say that's true. McManus has staked the crown jewels on the future success of the stadium and there was simply no way he'd tolerate a fall-off in season ticket sales when he's doing everything in his power to increase them.

But with or without Royce he's facing trouble. This year is the first I've brought my two kids on season tickets. So far they've enjoyed the Wigan game in the league, Leeds and bits of the others. But on numerous occasions they have been bored out of their minds. No atmosphere. No performance. No entertainment. Which is certainly NOT what I expected early in the year.

Now, I'll more than likely renew and I'm sure the kids will enjoy the game more as they gather an understanding. But I'm also sure there will be many others who will simply drift away.

It's all well and good for McManus and Rush to be thinking of picking experienced players over rookies to win this game and that. But if we're out of the competition anyway the only thing winning alone guarantees is a few extra quid at the end of the season. The missing element here is ENTERTAINMENT.

If we can't win the competition what would you prefer - wins or good rugby (I'm not saying these terms are mutually exclusive, btw)?

Re: Surprise! Surprise! No changes ... : Thu May 31, 2012 11:47 am  

The 'six days before the Wigan game we were the best thing since sliced bread' comment is ridiculous.

Who actually thought this? I'd take a guess at not many...

Re: Surprise! Surprise! No changes ... : Thu May 31, 2012 12:00 pm  

Albion wrote:

The 'six days before the Wigan game we were the best thing since sliced bread' comment is ridiculous.

Who actually thought this? I'd take a guess at not many...

These were my thoughts straight after the game

bewareshadows wrote:

Look at Saints in the first 15 mins against Wigan and Leeds, there is no difference. We dominate territory and possesion in both games and come away with near enough nowt in both games.

Then throw TP in the mix and it all changes.

I don't think the win will change anything next week, but TP might. He brings a creative factor that breaks the oppositions defenses and then once that happens the rest of the team seams to kick into gear.
I think the coaches have really taken some of the critism from last week and done something with it. Basically by taking most of the kicking away from the halves once in the other half, grubbers, bombs all from other players, even Perry doing the dinks into touch.

So glad i wrote might

Re: Surprise! Surprise! No changes ... : Thu May 31, 2012 12:37 pm  

Albion wrote:

The 'six days before the Wigan game we were the best thing since sliced bread' comment is ridiculous.

Who actually thought this? I'd take a guess at not many...

He hasnt done himself any favours with that comment.
He already comes accross a smug lover without patronising the fans.

Re: Surprise! Surprise! No changes ... : Thu May 31, 2012 12:47 pm  

Mugwump wrote:

But if we're out of the competition anyway the only thing winning alone guarantees is a few extra quid at the end of the season.

You don't even get that - the team finishing 9th makes more money out of the league than anyone else does...

Logic would normally dictate that the season is now over and we might as well throw some kids in and try some different tactics and formations and see what happens. Thing is that under the current playoff system we only need to win 3 more games to be "champions" - Wigan look as though they're peaking way too early this season again and could be burnt out come the playoffs, Warrington always manage to do a Warrington at the end of the season, and Leeds might not even make the playoffs at all (not likely but possible). Rush' and KC's thinking might just be that grinding it through the middle, and getting the same senior players well entrenched into the mindset of doing so might end up being enough to win it all, so why bother changing anything... I would suffer immense mixed feelings if we did end up winning at O/T this season of all seasons...

Re: Surprise! Surprise! No changes ... : Thu May 31, 2012 12:59 pm  

Mugwump wrote:

It needs to dawn on Jon Wilkin that the value of "Jon Wilkin" TM, (c), Patent Pending, All Rights Reserved is directly proportional to something called "Performance". It's all well and good writing for the BBC or being SKY's "go to" guy when they need someone to shill their new Monday Night SL programme. But if he thinks his social circle of media hacks and corporate whores will be there for him should his form fall off a cliff he's very much mistaken.

lol

Re: Surprise! Surprise! No changes ... : Thu May 31, 2012 12:59 pm  

Northampton_Saint wrote:

You don't even get that - the team finishing 9th makes more money out of the league than anyone else does...

Logic would normally dictate that the season is now over and we might as well throw some kids in and try some different tactics and formations and see what happens. Thing is that under the current playoff system we only need to win 3 more games to be "champions" - Wigan look as though they're peaking way too early this season again and could be burnt out come the playoffs, Warrington always manage to do a Warrington at the end of the season, and Leeds might not even make the playoffs at all (not likely but possible). Rush' and KC's thinking might just be that grinding it through the middle, and getting the same senior players well entrenched into the mindset of doing so might end up being enough to win it all, so why bother changing anything... I would suffer immense mixed feelings if we did end up winning at O/T this season of all seasons...

I would not worry your feelings too much, we ain't going to make it this year.

Re: Surprise! Surprise! No changes ... : Thu May 31, 2012 1:07 pm  

bewareshadows wrote:

I would not worry your feelings too much, we ain't going to make it this year.

Almost certainly not, but most people thought exactly the same thing with exactly the same level of despondency at this point last season if you recall... It's only 3 or 4 games and a whole world of things can happen between then and now...

Re: Surprise! Surprise! No changes ... : Thu May 31, 2012 1:12 pm  

Last time I looked we were sixth in the table, five points behind Cats in third and have a stretch of games which could help us to get up to fourth if we win them all (especially with Cats and the Giants game straight after them). Given that we've only lost to Wigoon (comfortably admittedly) I think there's a degree of panic among those who appear to have some sort of inferiority complex about the pies.

Of course there are some problems that need to be addressed i.e. defence, but all this talk of apocalypse is naughty and bad form. We may not win anything this season but after Simmons leaving pretty much all of us had written off this season anyway and now, because of those two wins at the start of their reign, people are going mad and losing their cool. There's too many Joffreys in here and not enough Tyrions.