Re: It's time to pull the trigger : Mon May 14, 2012 9:15 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

The truth is that many have believed the Saints publicity machine.

Hohiah - world class halfback.
Perry - enforcer prop.
Laffranchi - top class prop.
Solioa - world class tough player, (46 metres only 13 tackles, and 4 missed tackles, Hock laughed his b*ll*cks off at him on Saturday)
Wheeler - top class young player.
Flanagan - a major coup signing from Australia.
Roby - best hooker in the world.
Shenton - best centre in England.

Wake up and smell the coffee.

Hardly anyone believed hardly any of that. Other than that, you're spot on.

Hohaiah was a signing most of us questioned, particularly as a HB.
Perry was an enforcer prop while plying his trade in the NRL, we're entitled to scratch our head on this one.
Laffranchi was a 2nd Rower we're expecting to prop, and in fairness he's going well, but no-one would have classed him as a top class prop. Because he wasn't a prop.
Soliola is quality.
Wheeler is a great young player, it's his injuries that have cost him.
Flanagan - pretty sure no-one saw him as a 'major coup signing from Australia' - he's a strong squad signing, and he's gone well so far. A monster in defence.
Roby - best in SL by a mile. That will do us. I don't see many arguing that he is better than Cam Smith.
Shenton - far better player while at Cas, so again he is a head scratcher, but I don't think anyone had him as the 'best centre in England'.

Re: It's time to pull the trigger : Mon May 14, 2012 9:31 pm  

Saint Simon wrote:

Lance or Perry wouldnt sit out their contracts in the reserves, they'd go home.

I don't know about Lance but Perry wouldn't. He's already whinged to the press about not being automatically selected when Royce was here. Boo hoo.

Re: It's time to pull the trigger : Mon May 14, 2012 9:32 pm  

Cragganmore Kid wrote:

His argument is based on quality of player, not current form. It's quite possible that a good coach (and we believe we have one for next year) could bring the best out of our undoubtedly underperforming players this year, and if so it's quite possible that more than just TP and Roby would be shoe-ins for a merged Saints / Wigan side (god forbid that should ever happen!!).

Players like Perry, Shenton, Hohaiah, LMS, Wilkin are without question currently failing to replicate the performances that prompted us to sign them. Should a coach be able to relight the fire in them, they are 5 international quality players. Not to mention the improvements to the young kids in Lomax, Gaskell, Makinson, Foster, et al that a top coach can influence.

We're miles away... on current form. With each set of players firing, we're not quite so far.

The problem is that Roby and Puletua still look like class players, despite the coaching and whatever else may or may not be holding players like Shenton, Hohaia etc back. Expecting the players that are underperforming to such a degree to find an improvement to bring them to the level of Roby and Puletua is a big ask. If Brown can pull that off it will be a far bigger achievement that the changes brought about by Madge at Wigan and with less strength in depth than MM inherited it looks like a big job for your new man.

Re: It's time to pull the trigger : Mon May 14, 2012 9:39 pm  

Deano G wrote:

Expecting the players that are underperforming to such a degree to find an improvement to bring them to the level of Roby and Puletua is a big ask. If Brown can pull that off it will be a far bigger achievement that the changes brought about by Madge at Wigan and with less strength in depth than MM inherited it looks like a big job for your new man.

I take your point to a degree but the nucleus of this side, but for untimely injuries during the game, would have won the GF last year.

Didn't Wigan finish 6th the season before Maguire came in? We'll do something similar this year, I imagine.

We're not a poor squad, we're an underperforming one. With a couple of additions, and if Brown can do what we hope he can, we'll not be far off.

Re: It's time to pull the trigger : Mon May 14, 2012 9:42 pm  

I should have added the brilliant Saints academy system. So good that it hasn't won anything in years.

Great PR spin from Saints, but nothing like reality.

Re: It's time to pull the trigger : Mon May 14, 2012 9:44 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

I should have added the brilliant Saints academy system. So good that it hasn't won anything in years.

Great PR spin from Saints, but nothing like reality.

You still here?

Re: It's time to pull the trigger : Mon May 14, 2012 9:48 pm  

Cragganmore Kid wrote:

You still here?

Well if I'm not someone else has stolen my identity.
What a strange question.

But you know I'm correct.

As I've said before Saints are like Wigan were around 2003 - 2005, when we believed (and I was one of them) that our young players would all come through together and make us a force once again. How wrong we were.

Re: It's time to pull the trigger : Mon May 14, 2012 9:50 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

I should have added the brilliant Saints academy system. So good that it hasn't won anything in years.

Great PR spin from Saints, but nothing like reality.

I've warned you before about derailing threads, holiday time me thinks

Re: It's time to pull the trigger : Mon May 14, 2012 9:50 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

Well if I'm not someone else has stolen my identity.
What a strange question.

But you know I'm correct.

They'd soon give it back.

Actually, you're far from correct as my response to your ridiculous earlier post shows... you chose to ignore that, though, as is your usual style.

But, you know that.

Re: It's time to pull the trigger : Mon May 14, 2012 9:50 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

I should have added the brilliant Saints academy system. So good that it hasn't won anything in years.

Great PR spin from Saints, but nothing like reality.

It makes me laugh the amount of time you spend on this forum, some may say that you are OBSESSED with Saints...