ok perhaps i may sound a tad harsh on pansy and quick to jump but his style is worrying me ,pete to be fair as i said he inherited the best attack side but its not just lacking direction in key positions its as a team we lack that x factor that enabled saints to impose aka anderson stylee its a trend and to be honest i wasnt confident about pansy from day one

I would imagine that you will get beat again next week as well.It could also open the door for Hull Kingston Rovers to finish third.

I agree with some of what your saying but saints have been heading this way slowly over last few years. IMO I think we would have been nearly same team under DA.

We got a lot of kids playing at mo which IMO ain't I deal.

I've said for long time that fresh blood should be brought in every year to keep things fresh. I don't mean 4 or 5 every year but defo 1 or 2.

I think we paying price for not bringing in a centre.

We don't have strike players and don't have pace.

I've stook up for Gardner year after year but I can't anymore. He brings nothing to the team at all. He has no pace at all!!!

I went to the game today as a neutral and was surprised with your overall effort. Things never came off and players heads went down. Thudds upset Cunningham, Graham and Eastmond and it began to show in their performance.
You will still win the grand final though.

Major bit of knee jerking.

Certainly not as bad as the the last time we lost to HULL in a semi.

We really weren't that far away today. That's probably what makes in more frustrating.

We will continue to struggle as teams are far more reliant on a kicks to score tries and gain yards. Gardner this year has looked far less composed than previous years, wello is returning slower and covers less of the pitch and meli is an enigma under a high ball.

The wrestle in the tackle also prevents our quick roll on in attack , but I would be amazed if we dont see some relaxation of this next season.

Our second phase aint clicking at the moment, but the last few games are showing definate signs that as an individual Kyle will be a more than adequate replacement for longy.

His pace from standing still already adds a different edge to our attack.

The surprise for me was that Huddersfield had more desire and more guile in attack.

Given that the cup is the major source of income in the game missing out this year could hit us in recruitment.

Mr. Mcmanus may have to dip into his pocket this year..

Yes We have a great crop of youngsters coming through.

Soliola & Moore (who was a bit anonymous for me today) for next year.

But we need to get 1 prop minimum and possibly a replacement for gilly.

I can't believe most of the crap on this thread.

If we'd have had two fit props today plus Jammer it would have been different going up the middle, our half back and stand off would then have had a decent platform to play off.

We got over the line 3 times and had the try disallowed due to fantastic hudds defence. It was just one of those days.

Eastmond will have learnt a lot today and Moore looks like he'll do a great job for us next season.

Let fans of other clubs herald our demise like they've done over the last decade. Some posters on here need to take it on the chin and move on.

If we are being honest the problem today was we tried to go up the middle against the best defence in Superleague and it failed. It wasn't just about not having depth it was a bad gameplay made worst by our blind allegiance to sticking with it.

I take nothing away from Huddersfield, they outplayed us in every area and I sem to remember just applauding their final try for its brilliance in execution.

Why did we stick to a gameplan that was so obviously wrong? When we took it wide we looked more like scoring but again the wingers coming in quickly often stifled this aspect as well. Our tactics were sadly reminiscent of Cataland last year but without the size of the pack.

I wish Huddersfiled well in the final but will be sticking with my Lancashire roots.

To stick with a game plan which was clearly not working shows what a poor coach Potter is.The Saints ship is badly holed and is sinking

I don't think today is "end of an era". I said to my son at OT last year. "Take a good look round because I don't think we will be here for a while".

Our run of success over the last 3-4 years was not going to last forever, with the likes of KC, Longy, Wello getting older and other retirements. We cannot replace players instantly. If we had money to burn and went to Aus it would not guarantee success.

I will have a moan about today and say how we could have done better, and blame the coach and various players etc just like everyone else, because I am dissappointed and hate to lose.

Thats the nature of the game

But you're missing the point. We didn't have two fit props plus Jammer and we haven't had for a few games now, so why the feck did we play as if we had all the match long? Either that's a dim coaching decision or our players are ignoring Potter's brilliance. Either way, you don't play Huddersfield, who have the biggest pack outside France, up the middle when you don't have two fit props plus Jammer! You swing it out wide, you kick behind their players. We are still capable of doing such things because our first try in the second half was brilliant. But we are not doing it anywhere near often enough. In fact, we're failing to do it for about 80% of our matches and that's just naff.

And we always look knackered and defeated towards the end of matches. We've lost our vitality. We just don't look anything like we did even at the start of this season.

Not sure I'm missing the point?

The topic is about an end of an era, which i think is quite simply an over reaction to a defeat. My post simply gives my opinion of how the game would have been won if we'd have had a fit pack.

We'd have won the ruck and had Monster come on as impact prop to smash holes in them. Pryce and Eastmond would have had a platform to play off and we'd have taken more advantage of the errors hudds made.

the prop situation ain't going to be any better next year either. We will have jammer, bryn and maurie.

I've said all along if we don't sign 2 forwards next year we are in the $hit.

Why should jammer have to put his body on the line every week and be a 1 man prop? It's not rite and we are going to ruin him as a player.

We also need a fast winger.

Think the wrist slitting is a bit OTT. You're top of the league in a transitional year, after all. Hudds are 3rd, so its far from embarrasing to lose to them.

The only concern I'd have as a Saints fan is that your (large) current batch of youngsters, while looking like the foundation for a SL team, don't, to me, look like the foundation to build a [itop[/i SL team.

McIlorum, Mossop, the 2 Tomkins, Ainscough, et al make your lot look a bit anonymous. Not that I would want some of yours coming through at HKR! But we've come to judge Saints by the highest standards, and they are the hardest to maintain.

Which to be honest is a fair point.

But we didn't. And to be honest, even with Cayless and Fas fit, we wouldn't have won that match because all the rest was missing for most of the game. We were clueless in attack for the majority and extremely predictable to watch when we did go forward. So even acknowledging the hypothetical, we still wouldn't have done it because there is too much else missing at present.