Why do Saints look unbeatable? : Sat Jun 15, 2019 7:29 pm  

Look through their team, they have some good solid players but no real stand outs and they also have some very average players who are playing out of their skin. I mean take Coote for example. He was nothing more than a solid player in the NRl, far from a stand out performer but over here he is killing it. Is Holbrook really some kind of coaching genius? Some of the rugby they are playing is top drawer and they seem to be unbeatable when they are at or near full strength. Why are Aussie clubs not knocking the door down to get Holbrook and a few of their players as they would be if it was Wigan?

Or is it just that the rest of Super League is so utter terrible with such low quality personnel that players like Coote and Lomax look like RL wizards?

Re: Why do Saints look unbeatable? : Sat Jun 15, 2019 7:43 pm  

They don’t. London beat them last week.

It’s a fairly simple formula. Relatively for squad + confidence & belief = wins.

Re: Why do Saints look unbeatable? : Sat Jun 15, 2019 7:45 pm  

The_Enforcer wrote:

Or is it just that the rest of Super League is so utter terrible with such low quality personnel that players like Coote and Lomax look like RL wizards?

Whilst I think both Coote and Lomax are good players, you've hit the nail on the head with that last para. You only need to look around the league to see that the top players are mainly good to average NRL level players. Austin, Fifita etc never got a sniff of origin etc.

Saints made a couple of astute signings and they've also managed to retain some decent club produced players too.

Not rocket science sadly.

Re: Why do Saints look unbeatable? : Sat Jun 15, 2019 8:09 pm  

Only 34 players can play Origin; Australia produces a lot more good players than that. Coote is a good player by any reasonable standard. He can hardly be criticised for not being Billy Slater or James Tedesco. He held down a regular NRL full-back position, which is more than ex Man Of Steel Zak Hardaker managed.

SL is a lower standard than the NRL, nobody disputes that. And in SL this year, Saints are the best of the bunch. Not by a massive amount, but they are. Buttressed by the fact they have a fairly settled squad and a smart coach.

Re: Why do Saints look unbeatable? : Sat Jun 15, 2019 8:48 pm  

Justin Holbrook

Re: Why do Saints look unbeatable? : Sat Jun 15, 2019 8:52 pm  

Trainman wrote:

They don’t. London beat them last week.

They sent a depleted team.

Re: Why do Saints look unbeatable? : Sat Jun 15, 2019 8:57 pm  

I had a little insight last year into the Saints club and was impressed with the attitude of the coaches, really positive and a sense of togetherness with the squad.

Re: Why do Saints look unbeatable? : Sat Jun 15, 2019 9:30 pm  

If they can keep relatively injury free they should win the GF. If not that will be their undoing as other than their first 18/20 players they are quite poor.

If we manage to play a knock out game against us I still wouldn’t write us off. They’ve lost pretty much every semi final they’ve played in the last 8 years.

Re: Why do Saints look unbeatable? : Sat Jun 15, 2019 9:53 pm  

Wigg'n wrote:

If they can keep relatively injury free they should win the GF. If not that will be their undoing as other than their first 18/20 players they are quite poor.

If we manage to play a knock out game against us I still wouldn’t write us off. They’ve lost pretty much every semi final they’ve played in the last 8 years.

The Saints front row (in addition to their fantastic coach) show just how important controlling that area is. In Walmsley, Roby and Thompson they have an international class front row that is winning pretty much every forward battle hands down. It’s buying space for their backs and making even average Joes like Grace and Fages look like superstars. At the back of that front row is a bog average second row also but again they feed of that World Class front row and the game is easy for them.

The coach is the main man though. He’s done an amazing job and he’ll clean up the three trophies this year with no fuss. Once he goes back to Australia and Roby retires, it’ll be interesting to see how they can recover. Things can change very quickly as we’re seeing at the moment.

Re: Why do Saints look unbeatable? : Sun Jun 16, 2019 1:16 am  

NickyKiss wrote:

The Saints front row (in addition to their fantastic coach) show just how important controlling that area is. In Walmsley, Roby and Thompson they have an international class front row that is winning pretty much every forward battle hands down. It’s buying space for their backs and making even average Joes like Grace and Fages look like superstars. At the back of that front row is a bog average second row also but again they feed of that World Class front row and the game is easy for them.

The coach is the main man though. He’s done an amazing job and he’ll clean up the three trophies this year with no fuss. Once he goes back to Australia and Roby retires, it’ll be interesting to see how they can recover. Things can change very quickly as we’re seeing at the moment.

My question though is how do Saints hang on to that front row whilst we couldnt even keep hold of Sutton?