Wrong choice of appointment in the first place.

I can remember when the appointment was announced and the Hull fans were saying, top bloke, yes, will run marathons for you, but head coach? No.

Eamonn was trying to emulate Wigan by taking an NRL assistant coach and hoping he would do the magic over here. Dont want to sound ageist but, there was a reason why Madge was no 2 at the most successful club in the NRL by his mid thirties. And also a reason why Royce was not a head coach in the NRL by his fifties.

At least Eamonn has had the balls to admit his error and tried to rectify it.
KFC I don't think is the answer, too much too soon, could do more damage than good and could take him years to recover ala Betts at Wigan.

What you need now is an old hand to steady the ship in these troubled times

Wayne Bennett must be total crap then!

he wasnt making a living from rugby league his whole life

What?

You keep saying there were props available. So far you haven't listed a single viable candidate. And I shall restate an obvious point - a club's "best player" is BY DEFINITION extraordinarily difficult to replace. There are only two or three props in the world capable of doing Graham's job. NONE were available.

You describe Laffranchi as "average". Yet he has played for both NSW and Australia and has consistently been regarded as one of the top back row forwards in the NRL. I mean, you're making yourself look utterly stupid.



Did you miss the bit about saving players for the playoffs?



Were you complaining when David Fairleigh was picked at prop for Saints? And since when was it unusual for a back row to gravitate toward the front? Since when was it unusual for a full-back to play in the halves? A full-back who, I might add, has represented New Zealand in the halves.



How many good props have Saints produced in the last twenty five years? When I said "good" I mean a player with the wherewithal to cement a long-term career at the club (say five or six years in the first team).

Lauaki and Dudson are second rowers by trade. People would have levelled the same complaint they are now about converting second rowers.

Like I said, ten NRL props switched clubs last year.

I ain't listed any?

Blair, Gibbs, kite, king, hill, dudson, Luke bailey, griffin along with tye other NRL props that was available.

We've got clough, laffranchci, TP all converted from the backrow with only perry and LMS as props by trade.

Also, Leeds, Widnes, Wigan, hull, hull kr, Wakefield, bradford all signed a couple of props on.

David ferrioul was also off contract

Dudson isn't, out and out prop but he hasn't played for us yet this season. You thinking of Flower perhaps?

They were available. But this doesn't mean they were available to us. The NRL knows the value of a good prop. Which is why such very, very rarely come to the UK. I mean, sure - there was a time when we could offer significantly higher wages and this did attract some. But given the amount of lolly swilling around in the NRL these days (not to mention unfavourable exchange rates coming to the UK) we can no longer compete for all but one or two.

Some of the above names go beyond wishful thinking. Of the remainder you are forgetting those who see no good reason for signing with Saints. If I were a player looking for a SL club Leeds, Warrington and Wigan seem to offer better prospects.



Since when did it become impossible for back row forwards to migrate to the front?

Have you forgotten that Kevin Ward, Andy Platt, Jamie Peacock and David Fairleigh - four of the greatest props in the last thirty years - ALL moved up from the second row?

And Graham.

I reckon Laffranchi has been our best prop so far this year, admittedly, none of them have been particulalrly good, but even so, he has done ok. Perry is an out and out prop, and he has failed dismally so far.

Anyone who thinks TP and Clough are anything but props is on a different planet to me.

Seems to be a few people on here a bit deluded, at the end of the day in most sports the coach/manager pays the price for poor performances and results. We are no doubt light in some areas of the team (An experienced halfback (not a guy who's mainly played fullback and hooker) and a monster prop) that may or may not be Royce's fault but it doesnt matter really as he is paid to coach what we have to perform at their peak week in week out and for whatever reason he's not managed it.

Time will tell if it was the correct decision at this point in the season but tbh I dont think his contract would have been renewed anyways so all we have done is bring forward the inevitable

With Rush and KC in charge I wonder if they'll make the tough calls? The Wello question springs to mind - for me he shouldn't be our first choice at 1 , if they see it too will they make the call and bench/change Wello's position ....

I kind of agree but I think TP would be fine in the second row if we had better options at prop , running wide he would create havoc and importantly space for our centre's with his ability to draw in defenders and offload

Clough is a bettering ram and a prop every day of the week

When we signed him, I was hoping for a Lauititi type second row to play out wide, but ever since he's pulled on the Vee he's played up the middle (and a very good one).

Cant argue that, we need 2 of him really

If Soliola could do a Ruben Wiki and complete his transition from centre to prop next year that would help us out a lot.

But, as I've said, we've got 5 props who should be enough to compete with any other set in the league. The problem is we're not getting the best out of them.

They're making yards for us, which is admirable considering our one up playing approach, but we don't seem to be winning any quick plays and we don't get many offloads.

I reckon Soliola will end up a prop, though.

I think the problem is that we aren't moving off the ball at all. Because there are no dummy runners it's obvious who is going to hit the ball up in every play, which means it's easy and safe for our opposition to put numbers into every tackle. As a result we're getting a slow play the ball and a set of forwards who are knackered after 60 minutes.

In which case, the yards which the forwards are winning shouldn't be sniffed at, as they're getting [ibrick walled[/i whenever they get the ball.
When we started the bradford game there was a little bit of extra running (i was looking out for it following my dissapointment at the Hull game), but it did not last and we ended up playing one up drives.

I don't like using the stats page, but I think it can be quite useful when looking at props.
[url=http://www.superleague.co.uk/statistics_player?hs1=2012&hp1=778&hs2=2012&hp2=2290&stat=tries&season=2012Here's Boof vs Morley[/url. He doesn't look too shabby on that form.
Average metres per carry of over 7.5
Plenty of marker tackles shows he's working hard.
Not many missed tackles or errors, but a penalty a game isn't great.

Looking further into the stats, Tony P has only managed 2 offloads all season! His go forward yardage is ok, so he's carrying his ball, but that stat demonstrates how the Opposition are able to et multiple defenders around him to shut that sort of thing down.

I've said for a whole that sia will end up prop but I think it's a few years off yet and could offer much more if was used proper a little wider.

Stupid, short sighted decision by Saints board. You'll come to regret it when you get the uber talented young English coach that is Rich Agar from Wakey when they bin him off...lmfao
Seriously, all things considered I can't think of any logical reason to get of Simmons now. Sure you've lost some games, a pretty poor points haul so far but you'd have been there or thereabouts come the end of the season. You've been seriously unlucky (The Cats wonder try that shouldn't have been for one) and some players just switching off/underperforming (this happens in sport no matter how good a coach you are)
with the squad you had at your disposal this year it would have been a big ask to win silverware IMO but rebuilding and bringing on the youngsters so they make fewer and fewer mistakes was a priority for you this season. As others have said you are in transition after having had a huge amount of success with some mainstay players that are no longer there.
IF you lose the next 3 games then I think you'll be lucky to make the 8 personally

If we lose the next 3 games we can still easily make the 8.

It's a cert. I'd give him a new contract with the intention of moving him there next year.

I'm glad others can see it too. All I hear around me at the ground are morons who clearly dont understand Rugby screaming for us to 'throw it wide' which we do and go nowhere because of the lack of options to make a defence work.