Pretty much sums it up !
Our GF appearances have flattered to deceive

Bang on IMO

The only thing that you can hold against brown is Gaskell, but if they don't rate him currently...well that's what he's paid to judge.

Howarth in at 6 was bizarre, but he's having to try anything to get us through. We need a half. I said last week that if we are going to stick with Wilkin (which I think is pretty much a guarantee) then the club are writing off this season and it's clear that they lack ambition.

I'm glad McManus dragged us out the poop when he came on board, and I'm over the moon that he delivered a stadium, but if he isn't going to invest in the team then what's the point of him keeping saints? We could have had Koukash!

Even though we have not been at our best for a few seasons now I do think some of our players seem to be struggling under Brown compared to last season. Just putting a balanced team out each week would help and stop making changes when they are not needed.

We struggled under Rush playing a 'safe' team last season too, difference now is that we are struggling with a team where the coach is trying something different.

I'd rather the coach do his job and try things.

IMO we are a lot worse this season with virtually the same team than under our "fill" in coach, now CEO.
In fact he has two signingings in Manu and Turner joining the team which should have improved it.

As stated in many threads his choice of HB's is bizzaire even if it is mainly as a result of injuries.
would any of the aforementioned coaches play Wello and Wilkin as a HB pair - would any SL coach, no matter how desparate?

But is it mainly as a result of injuries though? Brown claimed to have spoken to Wello in the off season about Lomax playing at fullback, so that's one of our halfbacks moved but not as a result of injury. Gaskell was shipped out, again not as a result of injury. Wheeler's absence IS a result of injury but then he is injured so often that nobody in their right mind would depend on his presence. That leaves us with whichever young halves we have in the under 19s, and he's played one for one half of a match. I find it bemusing that he hasn't at least tried to blood one of our young halfbacks since ditching Gaskell.

He tried Charnock tbf and he was pretty anonymous (in the snow admittedly) and Yates has been injured.

Well, it was his debut and in the snow, as you say. Didn't I read somewhere that Swift is a halfback?

Think he first came to the club as a stand off, but with Meli possibly be out for the season he will probably find himself out on the wing.
Brown will rotate Lance, Howarth, Wellens and Charnock at 6, none of them capable of controlling a game.

How depressing that sounds.

Charnock and even Lance I can understand but Wello cant pass and runs like he's dragging a truck in a worlds strongest man comp and Howarth is best suited to bringing on the water. Brown will kill what remains of this season (i.e the chance to blood Charnock and maybe Yates) if he persists with these odd and poor selections

Every player that was kept on too long will have his defenders though, look at Meli now.

I've no issue with youth being given it's chance, I know that you did not rate Ashurst, Dixon, et al and time has proven you correct, but they did jobs for the team, didn't let anyone down and have been replaced by more youth who will hopefully turn out to be better (Greenwood and Walker for example). The experienced players brought in have failed to live up to the standard that had been set under Millward and Anderson.

We've bought two big names in Hohaia and Laffranchi, neither have worked out. Players such as Gardner, Meli (one of them should have been binned off 2/3 years ago) and Wellens should have been replaced before now.

Have we been hamstrung by the fact that our youth half backs have been very promising? Eastmond, Lomax and Gaskell all have aspects to their games that promised much, had they not come through at the times they did, would we have made more of an effort to sign a half back?

We've also had the issue of the stadium, which is likely to be the main issue for me, it's obvious that not only has it's development maybe taken the management focus from the team, it's also taken the funding away from the pitch with stories of us not spending up to the cap. The roof redesign and the cladding issue will again take away focus from putting money onto the pitch, but if the club hasn't got it, it can't spend it.

He's got to pick lance at stand off to partner wilkin. Both ain't halfbacks and both ain't good enough but IMO they should be the halves.

Howarth has looked very poor the last three games and doesn't look a super league standard player so I'd pick the young lad until Roby is fit.

I'd also play Percival from the start from now on if he keeps this current form up, he's actually the best centre at the club.

I cant imagine we will see a lot of Charnock, Yates or Speakman until we start to get a bit of momentum back into our game. It would be stupid to throw such young half backs into a team playing so poor with only Soliola showing any quality out of the senior players.

I don't think they are keen on Charnocks aggressive side either pretty much the same as Wheeler when he broke through they wanted it out of his game.

We mentioned this 2 years ago that McManus will struggle to battle on all fronts with a new stadium and new players.
No 1 priority is long term survival with the risk of a longer term transitional player period.
You could say we are in recession with quality player availabilty, just shows how standards have fallen when we are considering Michael Dobson.