It has been a very good season in tough circumstances. The injuries we've suffered have made it nigh on impossible to pull a string of results together, and added onto that the resurgance of Wigan and Warrington into title challenging sides have added more pressure.

I guess a lot of people weren't happy with the inconsistancy we showed mid season - beating Wigan away and then going on to lose at home to Catalans for example.

But overall, a good season so far that has the chance to get even better.

I think anyone in their right mind would see the last two seasons as a success. Won nothing, granted, but these were always going to be transitional years.

I think Potters done a great job.

In hindsight it's clear he has brought solidity to the club in a period that could have brought a Wigan-esque fall from grace under a different coach.

I think the pressure he came under though was firmly routed in the style of play we employed at times which was completely incompatible with how Saints approach things.

Its been an wawful season. Not once have we seen the following -

1. Our coach looking cool in shades
2. Our coach whooping and cheering
3. Our coach looking mad and losing his temper

One wonders exactly what we pay the entrance fee for.

Who cares though? Seriously, we have had a coach with no charisma so therefore its been an awful season. I dont care if Saints win the grand final, it will still be a poor season because our coach has no charisma.

Sizzler is the same. next season will also be a huge failure

This year reminds me a lot of Shaun McRaes last year in charge of the Saints (1998 I think). We started off the season playing to the Coaches plan i.e. 5 drives and a kick, because that is all the coach knows. Which is just annoys the hell out of us. Why are we playing down the middle against teams that we could blow away with expansive rugby? A few weeks into the season the coach is told that he is not going to get his contract renewed and to just let the team play naturally. The team relax and play the way they want to (Saints style) rather than the way the Coach wants us to play (Bradfords style).

At the end of the season everyone thinks the coach is actually not that bad but this is only because he has taken a back seat and let the players do what they want.

I have said this a few times during the season in many pro/negative Potter threads but he was the right man for the job of coaching a team in transition. His record of bringing young players into the team at Les Catalans was impressive and that is why he got the job. He has done well helping junior player mature into first team players. Now Lomax, Foster, Eastmond, Wheeler, Gaskell etc are first team players we need a coach to take them to the next level.

As for this season we have done pretty good. Given the injuries we have had and the young players we have blooded we have done remarkable. With Leeds having similar problems it just shows how well we have done.

I think that it is probably more a surprise to other teams fans as to how good we have been but most Saints fans that attend games and keep one eye on the juniors coming through will have had a good idea that we would not be that far off this time around.

The anti-Potter brigade are a bunch of idiots.

It has been a great year, started awful, with THAT game that we could not see and Hull + Longy giving us a good hideing, lots of fans saying " Potter lost all our attack style, we cant score and wont be in the top 4 "..we have ended up 2nd, scored more than anyone, think ended up with the 3rd or 4th best defence, gone all season with a team seriously disrupted with injuries, had 2 players miss pretty much the entire season, lost our 6+7 at crucial times, made the semi final and just lost out winning it, were 80 mins from our 5th consecutive GF, we have promoted so much youth its been aamzing to see them come in and do the job well, we are in a period of transition, both on and off the field, lots players going at the end of 2010, the old stadium going, facing 12 months as s in Widnes, a new coach on his way in...Oooooo its been one hell of a year, and here we are riding high and close to another final ! Not bad for a crap coach, old players, a team with no speed, and a shyt stadium eh !

2010 OUR YEAR !

Spot on. I said at the start of the season I would be happy to get into the play off semi finals and we've done that. I never thought we would do so well considering the injuries we've had and putting faith in young players to get us through the tough parts of the season. I think its been a good season for saints considering all the tough obstacles we have overcome.

All the good things that have happened are down to the players.
All the bad things that have happened are down to the coach.

Simples.

Potter out.

Potter has done the job he was brought in to do - take an ageing team through the transition it needed. The team has probably over achieved this year, whether due to failings in other teams (Leeds, Wire, Hull) failing to take advantage of our weaknesses, or due to the quality of the team.

Whatever happens tonight, Potter can look at his time at Saints as a success IMO.

Having said that - it was the correct decision to replace him.

I think that is far from certain at the moment.

Hopefully we'll see an improvement on 2010 given the squad the new coach will have in 2011, but it's a big "wait and see" as far as whether allowing Potter to leave is a good call. Here's hoping we got it right.

It's been a great season even if we don't win anything. The team Potter inherited needed a lot of change.

It's probably a bit too early in this team's development to talk about it winning the Grand Final but to be in with a chance is a real achievement.

He leaves us in a much better place than we were in when he came - that's his legacy.

As I like to argue for potter in the face of the A.P.S. (Anti Potter Squad), I don't often get to give a rounded testimony of my opinion, instead focussing on his plus points for the majority of the time.

I think he's done fantastically well for us to be in this situation with the squad he's had and the lack of transfers in - that even before we start to talk about the injury situation. He's also showed an uncanny ability to get our youngster (superstars or nay) up to SL standard.
I'll state that I'm a fan and think Bradford have got the exact guy they need to get them selves back on their feet.

In the negetive, I have just two points. I do sometimes wonder whether the large number of injuries has something to do with our training/conditioning regeime and although Potter may not be directly responsible, he should be ensuring we've got the right guys keeping our players in good nick (this may not be the case, and we may just have been unlucky).

The other negetive was the period towardss the end of last season when we seemed completely rudderless. The problem was epitomised by us continually failing to get the ball to our kicker on the last, and finding ourselves with graham or gilmour hoofing the ball anywhich way. We scraped our way to the GF, but looked [ifar[/i from a champion team. That does all seem behind us though.

Apart from that, a big pat on the back for Mick from me. He's left us in good stead for the future and Royce is in a great position with our additional signing for next year. He even replied to the odd email that I sent him.