I'm proud of the lads getting to the Grand Final. And they tried their best tonight. For all Wigan's dominance in the game, to keep them to just 22 points was commendable.

I very rarely post but I always read the threads on this board. So I don't want to come on now being all negative or owt. I'm just concerned about our lack of speed in the team. If we break clear from deep, we seem to lack the pace to take it all the way. That's not judging on tonight by the way cos Wigan's defence was incredible.

With the current crop, and obviously the new additions coming through for next season....I'm still not really encouraged that this is going to change. Eastmond is lightning fast but my little lad can build more sterdy lego structures than him. And Pryce is fast granted....I'm just rambling & I'm gutted, but can someone put me straight & tell me we'll be a faster team next season?

No one can reliably tell you that.

the facts are against you.

Shenton is quick, i suppose and you may want to introduce some new young acadamy players.

But speed is not something you have bought.

Why do you always put it down to speed?

It's an inability to score points at the crucial times at key points in the game that keeps costing you. That's not especially down to speed, but composure and link up play.

Shenton will give us a bit, however i think thats it really for next year.

The only genuinly quick lad in the reserves and academy is Brotherton. However he is a very raw lad who only just signed for us.
No doubt we will beef him up and he will end up looking like a back rower and have the pace of one as well.

Gaskell can shift a bit, and I personally think will possibly end up as a centre or fullback, as ive not seen him be that creative to be honest.
More an individual style player.
Then there is Wheeler who once had lots of pace, but now has lots of gut.

If it makes you feel better, we signed a young 18 year old winger from somewhere (northampton i think). Saints entered him into the fastest man in super league competition so he must have some pace.

I'd stay off the speed if I were you. Try just going to bed, it won't seem as bad in the morning.

We've brought more speed to the side this year with the likes of eastmond, lomax and foster.

We've also brought in shenton next year and i don't think kyle and leon are slow.

Just read up and that 18 year old lad is called Dan Brotherton. He finished 3rd in the fastest man race. www.thisishullandeastriding.co.u ... ticle.html

Just read up and that 18 year old lad is called Dan Brotherton. He finished 3rd in the fastest man race. www.thisishullandeastriding.co.u ... ticle.html

That's Brotherton, who was mentioned by Chair Maker above.

Haha, I've just had a glass of milk mate, I'm chilling out now.

Over the years, I've just been used to us having teams with a few players that could light up a game by scoring trys from deep from a break. I'm honestly not knocking the lads, which would be easy to do tonight but I wouldn't back Meli, Gardner, Foster, Soliola, Flannery, Wilkin, Wellens etc going all the way to the line.

Ah, take no notice. I'm stuck in the past when we used to have fast wingers & centres ie Sullivan, Albert, Lyon, Newlove....Quirk (hehe)they were good times.

The fact that Meli was caught by Keith Mason and Wilkin was caught by Andy Coley does make for depressing reading. Hopefully saints will surprise us all and announce the signing of a world class, lightning fast outside back. (we can live in hope)

Meninga...he's coming back. Don't say he's not!!

He's probably faster than Meli, even at the age of 50 (or so?).

Do you ever have those dreams were you are trying to run, but you can hardly move? That's how it is for Meli on that pitch. He caught a high ball tonight under pressure, I was stunned!

He did it twice! The ironic cheers were deafening.

Meli was great all round tonight I thought. Had he played like that in previous Grand Finals we'd probably be licking our wounds about a won 3 lost 2 run.

I agree, he played quite well. He did get caught out in defense down that side a bit though, for gleeson's first try and tomkins' try he missed tackles. However, no mistakes from him and a definate improvement from the past couple of years.

Yep, he did well defending those two tries he let in. they made up for the one he scored. Same old, same old for mine. Except he caught two balls.

Along with the outside backs, there is a distinct lack of pace / power in the backrow (unless Roby starts at 13 and most of his work is up the middle - he runs in harder than most props do).

You have to go back to Scully of pre 2006 really before our back rowers had the speed and power and the ability to break tackles. Wilkin and Flannery made 28 and 22 "tackle busts" this season, Joel Tomkins made 64. Wilkin and Flannery made 9 and 11 clean breaks respectively, all season. Thats one break every 2 or 3 games! In 2004 Scully made 25 clean breaks - more than those 2 put together. I wish we could get Dick Huddarts stats!

Unfair comparison really though seeing as sculthorpe is one of the best players to ever put a shirt on!

Speed did not have a great deal to do with our performance in the Grand Final. We just weren't organised in defence or attack. Hopefully our new coach can sort that out.

Quite so. But the comparison with Tomkins is extremely valid. I put Scully in there as an indicator as to what can be achieved.

I did acknowledge this in my opening post....but...think of the very few opportunities our wide men had, ball in hand. If I remember right, Meli had some space in the 1st half were he could have done much better, and Foster had a few on the other. Admittedly, they were only half chances. If they had some pace, they'd have got us much further up that pitch or created a chance for a supporting player to run on to. What happened though, Meli got quickly closed down, tried to go inside & tackled easily-chance gone. Foster, tried to kick past the covering defence. Which is creative play to be fair but he didn't have the speed to chase the ball, despite the defence having to turn.

I'm not slagging them off in terms of quality, but in terms of pace our backline doesn't trouble the opposition like we used too. This might sound a bit daft...but wingers (and centres) are supposed to be very fast! As usual, there seems to be a lack of respect for the wing position in this country. We throw players who are centres, stand off's, scrum halfs etc in the Youth team on the wing in the 1st team???!!! ie. There's a lad who plays stand off in the youth team, they all harp on about him being next big thing. So what do we do, we promote them to the 1st team & throw them on the bloody wing. If they're not good enough to trust them to play in the same position as they do in the youth team then don't pick them!! The winger position is a specialist position & should be treated as such.

Sorry for ranting, but just to add...what if you're signed from an amateur club & you play on the wing. And you watch the lads playing in the halfs being promoted to the 1st team to play in your specialist position. You'd be gutted. No wonder the Aussies always smash us in the backs.