Re: St Helens biggest ever flop !!! : Thu Feb 16, 2012 7:56 pm  

Chris Joynt - 2002 Grand Final

Re: St Helens biggest ever flop !!! : Thu Feb 16, 2012 9:42 pm  

Div wrote:

Not it wasnt it was the fact that he was world class in ability and did absolutely nothing in the red vee. Undoubted talent, clearly came for a holiday and put in zero effort.He was 5hite all season.

I don't think O'Connor came for a holiday at all. But there were limits to what he could do. He wasn't especially big, or fast. He wasn't a great ball player and he certainly wasn't - unlike Meninga - a one man team. In Australia O'Connor was the icing on the cake to teams with dominant packs and creative halves. Given space he was a ruthless points accumulator and rarely fluffed his lines.

The problem was Saints did not have a dominant pack. Our defence was leaky, our coach was unstable and with Holding spraying the ball about everywhere bar the breadbasket O'Connor was left with the expectation of not just finishing tries but creating them, too. Had he played for Wigan - behind their outstanding group of forwards - I expect he would have prospered. But for an inconsistent Saints team he was the wrong player to sign. We should have gone for someone like Gene Miles.

Re: St Helens biggest ever flop !!! : Fri Feb 17, 2012 1:11 am  

Back Row Singer wrote:

Chris Joynt - 2002 Grand Final

Re: St Helens biggest ever flop !!! : Fri Feb 17, 2012 9:44 am  

I always got the impression that although he wasn't the quickest, David Tanner was a 100% tryer. I could be wrong, but if my memory serves me right, he was one winger that Offiah had little success against.

The biggest flop without doubt has to be O'Conner. When he came over I think he was keeping Meninga out of the Aussie team, so we had every right to expect, yet did very very little. Although I do remember him scoring a brillaint try against Halifax.

Re: St Helens biggest ever flop !!! : Fri Feb 17, 2012 9:49 am  

RuddyScoosers wrote:

I can't believe someone on here has made Stuart Evans out to be anything other than a huge flop in a Saints jersey!!

"Devastating"...you're having a laugh.

I saw him play 2 or 3 games at least when he was near unstoppable, so go and "do one" in popular yoof parlance... Admittedly I also saw probably at least a dozen when he was a lumbering passenger, and many dozen more when he was in the treatment room instead of on the pitch in the first place, but in bursts he was awesome and with a bit better conditioning could have been a great. C'est la vie.

[TimperleySaint]

Re: St Helens biggest ever flop !!! : Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:25 am  

Surprised no one has mentioned Vila Matautia as a bit of a lumbering idiot who was carried in most games...

Re: St Helens biggest ever flop !!! : Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:32 am  

Evans had a bit of a cult following. I liked him. Always seemed to have his better games against high profile props. I think I remember him having a stormer againts Cas in a Prelimery Challenge Cup game, when they had Kevin Ward playing. He had his moments when he couldn't be arsed, but lets be honest, that was typical of the majority of Saints players around that time.

Re: St Helens biggest ever flop !!! : Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:52 am  

Anybody remember John Wills - he once got an interception on the opposition 22 and they caught him!

Re: St Helens biggest ever flop !!! : Fri Feb 17, 2012 11:08 am  

Back Row Singer wrote:

Chris Joynt - 2002 Grand Final

If you're going to be that specific you might as well add Leon Pryce and Francis Meli to the list...just about every Grand Final...Not that I'm complaining.

Re: St Helens biggest ever flop !!! : Fri Feb 17, 2012 12:09 pm  

Chief Stinkwort wrote:

If you're going to be that specific you might as well add Leon Pryce and Francis Meli to the list...just about every Grand Final...Not that I'm complaining.

I think you've misunderstood a little bit