[Fantastic Mr Catpiss]

Re: Daryl Powell : Sun Aug 15, 2021 9:35 am  

Captain Hook wrote:

There is a lot of blame aimed at Woolf by Saints fans based on the team he inherited from Holbrook but I’m not sure it is fair. Having watched their televised games I think he is dealing with a team that has become very limited and got them playing to their strengths.
If you look at the influential players from Holbrook time
Coote, still solid but not as effective in attack, age catching up?
Lomax, I’ve never been a massive fan but he looks extremely blunt now. Injuries catching up?
Roby can still tackle but absolutely no threat with ball in hand.
Walmesley still a decent prop BUT Luke T leaving means defences can concentrate on Walmesley
Personally I would be giving Woolf huge credit for getting the results that he does.
However, Cas beat them with a significantly under strength team which included at scrum half a player most of Saints fans consider a clown. They beat an under strength Catalans and thought that shows where they are.
Their constant blaming of referees for their defeats shows a lack of insight.
They also believe all rugby league is played in as boring a manner as their team does, which is far from the truth!
I would much rather watch any team in SL than Saints for entertainment.
As for winning…massively over rated!

I pointed this out a couple of years ago

Fages and lomax whilst limited half backs, were complimented by saints pack and style of play under Holbrook.

20m out, they were lethal, obvs they had their big middles, but they 2nd rowers were big straight forward up and at em runners, so you got whacked out wide as well as in the middle.

What that meant was it afforded the likes of lomax and fages to to step/jink and catch defences out as they're gearing up to take the runners.

Think how many times lomax caught us out, or how many times he's copped a high tackle coming back against the defence, how many penalties he's received and the couple of sin binnings that have occurred because of it.

Thats not how saints play now they're back row has changed completely, they ended up starting bentley at right, from taia, peyroux and Paulo (bit part I know)

Bentley a lot smaller doesn't run as direct and hard.

Re: Daryl Powell : Sun Aug 15, 2021 3:26 pm  

MorePlaymakersNeeded wrote:

Yes it is. How can Dodd have a better kicking passing and running game than Fages weaken your team when he's in it. As for Welsby, he's played 14 SL games this season for Saints, and hasn't missed many for you. Again, how can he weaken a team that he's already in.

Because there are other things in the game. Fages is probably the best tackler amongst the half backs, he competes and makes a nuisance of himself. His decision making is also decent so he'll make the right decisions most of the time. These are the kinds of areas where we'll find out whether Dodd will improve us and they are things players will get better at with experience. Danny Richardson is a better kicker and passer than Fages but isn't anywhere near as good as him overall.

Re: Daryl Powell : Fri Mar 11, 2022 9:49 pm  

Wolf Hall wrote:

Anyone else concerned about the performance of our next coach and his current team?
Since beating us on the 5th June they have lost 6 games on the bounce and including the CCF. Now I know they have less resources than Warrington but this is one of the worst sets of recent results in the SL. They also seem to have a lot of problems with Covid and injuries, I don’t know whether this is just bad luck or poor management.
Daryl Powell is moving to a much bigger outfit, he will have a bigger player roster some on big money and egos to manage, he will need to manage upwards and downwards, with bigger expectations and scrutiny. He has demonstrated in the past that he can develop players, hopefully he can develop the club.
If I was Mr Fitzpatrick I would be a bit worried. As am I. anyone else?

I'm still worried!

Re: Daryl Powell : Fri Mar 11, 2022 9:58 pm  

Wolf Hall wrote:

I'm still worried!

Not sure why. We have performed no better or worse than anyone could have sensibly expected.

This was never an overnight fix. Nights like tonight and last week are going to continue for a while yet, whoever is coaching them. This is a side with a number of issues.

The one person who gets a clear run this year (barring any unlikely flirting with the drop) is Powell. He needs to be given the chance to work long term with this squad. As discussed in other threads, we are a club with many ingrained demons and simply expecting a new coach to come in and suddenly fix that is laughable.

Re: Daryl Powell : Fri Mar 11, 2022 9:59 pm  

Wolf Hall wrote:

I'm still worried!

Nope it was never going to be pretty his first season. For me it was just let’s do well and then the following season he gets a squad he wants instead of a lot of the dross he as inherited.

Re: Daryl Powell : Fri Mar 11, 2022 10:46 pm  

karetaker wrote:

Nope it was never going to be pretty his first season. For me it was just let’s do well and then the following season he gets a squad he wants instead of a lot of the dross he as inherited.

The dross he inherited finished 3rd last season, losing only 5 games along the way(same as the mighty saints). Oh, and we scored more points than them as well. It can't all be down to hill leaving surely?

Re: Daryl Powell : Fri Mar 11, 2022 10:54 pm  

Moe syslak wrote:

The dross he inherited finished 3rd last season, losing only 5 games along the way(same as the mighty saints). Oh, and we scored more points than them as well. It can't all be down to hill leaving surely?

Yeh then knocked out the playoffs by HKR. Letting Hill go was a massive mistake without replacing him. This club is not a middle of the table club with the backing and infrastructure in place but we may as well be, like Lefty says we to nice and not ruthless enough. Wonder what entertainment Mr Fitzpatrick as got for us next week, would rather watch Saturday night takeaway than whatever he comes up with.

Re: Daryl Powell : Sat Mar 12, 2022 12:36 am  

I think Saints, Catalans, Wigan and Huddersfield will be the 1st to 4th teams at the end of the season.

We are contesting the 5th spot in my opinion, which is pi$$ poor given the investment in our club.

Re: Daryl Powell : Sat Mar 12, 2022 9:21 am  

Of course there's zero guarantee that Hill would have made any difference, and had he still been here the cries would have been:

"He's too old, we should have let him go and given Bullock/Philbin a go...."

Re: Daryl Powell : Sun Mar 13, 2022 8:16 am  

I’ve been quite open with my reservations, but Powell hasn’t had his best team on the field yet. It’s not much of a saving grace, given that a few absences have been suspensions but let’s at least see what the first team can do.

I would imagine that Harrison would have been one of his first choice pack members, given that Powell made a move for him early.

Charnley is effective and was missed on Friday, his suspension hurt us. Holmes (for reasons unknown) appears to be a cornerstone of Powells pack and has sat out 2 games. Cooper, Clark, King are all starters who have missed.

That said, scraping home against 11 men against Leeds and putting away easy beats in Castleford and Toulouse is the summary of our success so far, not inspiring.