Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Sun Feb 26, 2012 11:36 am  

Mugwump wrote:

My worry is that given the current "safety first" trend it won't be long before some coach makes a complete farce of the competition and damages its reputation.

No, Sky and the RL have already done that - coaches are just doing what they're paid to do i.e. maximise their teams' chances of winning trophies which under the current system boils down to not bothering to put effort into preparing and playing the game properly until the last 8 or 9 league games and forcing fans to pay their 300 quid a season watching a never ending stream of dead, intensity-less warmup games until then. Unlike the NRL, NFL, NBA etc. SL simply does not have even remotely enough talent to be able to support a competitive playoff-based championship system with the cap as it currently is. The only way it could work would be to slash the salary cap still further to force the talent that does exist to be more evenly distributed through the league and make more teams have a chance each season.

Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Sun Feb 26, 2012 12:06 pm  

Northampton_Saint wrote:

No, Sky and the RL have already done that

I'm not sure what your point is here. I mean, I hate SKY as much as the next guy. But I'm pragmatic enough to realise RL was dead on its feet before SKY came in and injected its cash. It's certainly not SKY's fault the money was frittered away. And when one dances one must pay the piper.

SKY is here to stay. It's up to SL to fight for a competition structure that gives SKY what it wants whilst keeping the fans happy. Right now I'd say the balance is tipped too far toward TV and corrective action is required.

Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Sun Feb 26, 2012 12:43 pm  

Northampton_Saint wrote:

No, Sky and the RL have already done that - coaches are just doing what they're paid to do i.e. maximise their teams' chances of winning trophies which under the current system boils down to not bothering to put effort into preparing and playing the game properly until the last 8 or 9 league games and forcing fans to pay their 300 quid a season watching a never ending stream of dead, intensity-less warmup games until then. Unlike the NRL, NFL, NBA etc. SL simply does not have even remotely enough talent to be able to support a competitive playoff-based championship system with the cap as it currently is. The only way it could work would be to slash the salary cap still further to force the talent that does exist to be more evenly distributed through the league and make more teams have a chance each season.

Alternatively we could move back to the 1st past the post system, whereby 6 games into the season, most teams have nothing left to play for, as having lost 3 or more games they are completely out of the running for being champions. No point therefore watching the rest of the games as they then become meaningless friendlies in the literal sense.
Of course its all fine and dandy for fans of the two or three big clubs who can retain interest till near the end of the season when one team breaks clear with four or five games left, and makes the final few games of the season for all sides into meaningless friendlies.

No wonder RL gates were far smaller under the 1st past the post system. Buying a season ticket was a complete waste of time, much better to pay on the day, and go the early games see if your team had a chance of doing anything, then sack it off for the season once you knew there was nothing left to play for.

Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Sun Feb 26, 2012 1:00 pm  

St pete wrote:

Inside men

Talking of inside men, did anyone watch the last one the other night on bbc? If so, what the hell was that ending all about?

I take it they are not pally with Wellens, given that you have let him have it this weekend.

Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Sun Feb 26, 2012 1:10 pm  

bewareshadows wrote:

I take it they are not pally with Wellens, given that you have let him have it this weekend.

If I don't think someone has played well I'll say that, no matter if I'm his mate or not.

Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Sun Feb 26, 2012 1:16 pm  

The Chair Maker wrote:

Alternatively we could move back to the 1st past the post system, whereby 6 games into the season, most teams have nothing left to play for, as having lost 3 or more games they are completely out of the running for being champions. No point therefore watching the rest of the games as they then become meaningless friendlies in the literal sense.
Of course its all fine and dandy for fans of the two or three big clubs who can retain interest till near the end of the season when one team breaks clear with four or five games left, and makes the final few games of the season for all sides into meaningless friendlies.

No wonder RL gates were far smaller under the 1st past the post system. Buying a season ticket was a complete waste of time, much better to pay on the day, and go the early games see if your team had a chance of doing anything, then sack it off for the season once you knew there was nothing left to play for.

Congratulations on imposing a false - and completely ridiculous - dilemma. It's like responding to someone critical of democratic government today with the argument that "alternatively we could move back to the days of a despotic monarch whose word is law". Just because fans are unsatisfied by the way early matches are deemed to be non-essential by coaches (a perfectly reasonable complaint, IMO) this does not automatically mean they want to see a return to a league format, winter rugby, cloth caps and such.

Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Sun Feb 26, 2012 1:34 pm  

St pete wrote:

If I don't think someone has played well I'll say that, no matter if I'm his mate or not.

I was curious, though you might say that.

I'm still not sure on Simmons as I don't know how much of this is down to back loading the season and how much is Saints playing below the standard we expect.

Alot of people where expecting Catalan to match us, even sky went 50/50 on who they tipped. So the defeat was not a shocking defeat, just a shocking last 30. Maybe another way to look at it though was it was a shocking opening 50 to nullify Catalan.

I'm not trying excuse the defense, it was bad, but if you had given the scoreline without seeing the game, it would not have shocked most RL fans. So I guess neither coach will be happy, for shipping in so many points and looking so stagnent and unable to control the game for key periods.

Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Sun Feb 26, 2012 1:39 pm  

St pete wrote:

From what I hear, he's not even got plan A.

What a load of total bollox. Sometimes you do talk absolute drivvel! You're even worse than me for it.

I can just see the coach of any club admitting on TV to any plan whatsoever, except to a general 'game plan' statement. I'm sure he wants Brown to know what he has up his sleeve for the Hudds match for instance.

Incidentally, his game plan was working fine for 60 minutes on Friday. Pity the players chose to go their own way after that. If we'd stuck to the plan we might well have won. Ditto for Hull KR.

Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Sun Feb 26, 2012 1:56 pm  

SaintsFan wrote:

What a load of total bollox. Sometimes you do talk absolute drivvel! You're even worse than me for it.

I can just see the coach of any club admitting on TV to any plan whatsoever, except to a general 'game plan' statement. I'm sure he wants Brown to know what he has up his sleeve for the Hudds match for instance.

Incidentally, his game plan was working fine for 60 minutes on Friday. Pity the players chose to go their own way after that. If we'd stuck to the plan we might well have won. Ditto for Hull KR.

I'm sure our players would!!

Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Sun Feb 26, 2012 1:59 pm  

Benidorm John wrote:

I'm sure our players would!!

Oh, they will know. Whether they can be bothered sticking to it for the full 80 is another matter. Hopefully they will have been embarrassed enough by their performance on Friday to realise that sticking to the plan is actually a good idea. When they did so last season we got good results.