He needs to continue the re-build. Something that's been ongoing through the season.

Some of the performances have been woeful this season, I don't think anyone would dispute that, but you have got to see the bigger picture. The squad he has inherited has been extremely imbalanced. If you expected glorious RL all season with it, then you need a reality check.

The guy has had no HBs in the team (Gaskell not being good enough, Lomax pushed to his best position), virtually no prop forwards (Perry missing etc) with all the injuries etc....yet he has guided us to a 5th placed finish (realistically the place this squad deserved to finish) with a defeat on friday by a single point vs the current champions in the play-offs.



What does this even mean?

Saying he only has a plan A or can't coach shows a massive lack of aweness of what is going on, on the field of play.

My only issue this year was the Gaskell position, although I'm not entirely sure who called the shots on that one.

Gaskell may not have been the future at Saints, he may have been a lazy so and so, he may have been a nightmare. But he was the last half standing and we shipped him out.

To me that was cutting our nose to spite our face. Had GOB come in, or another half then fair enough, but we brought in Howarth. Who apart from 10 -20 minutes in one or 2 games was for me behind Lance as a 9.

I will never fathom that, as a club we should have been able to let Gaskell play out the season next to Wilkin. It would have balanced us better for most of 2013, when GOB came in, sure drop Gaskell to the reserves.

I can only think the other players or a higher power could not stand playing along side him as there seemed no rational reason for getting rid of your only half remaining.

That aside. The rest of the moves by Brown have been pretty good.

FB: Lomax
Wing: Makinson
Wing: Swift
Centre: Turner (brough in by Brown)
Centre: Meli & Percival ( Royce can take the credit for Meli at centre, but brown caught on quicker than most coaches at SAints) Percival was a nice touch. Managed him well too.
HB: Wilkin/GOB a very good move
HB: Gaskell (insane move)
LMS: has become the player we thought we had bought under Brown and has never shown this form before
Walmsley: another great spot from Brown
Manu: a great steal from Hull
Hooker: I'm glad we are now spelling Roby, although I would question the need to move the halves around to do it, just have lance on the bench
Laffranchi: has been taken out as a starting prop he gets found out less coming on after TP.
Walsh/Masoe: look like great buys
Beaumount is an unknown but not vital

Then we have a plether of pack players who have SL experience due to our injuries and whilst not ground movers can now be relied on to fill any holes or rotation mid- year.

The last question is 6????

For me that is the only question left. Our style of play is improved for me on last year.

As a mainly away fan, I've not had to suffer the numerous losses at LP. As an away fan, my year I've seen some real progress with the style of play even without any halves, for me it started to come together away at Bradford, but was quickly disrupted the following week with Wheeler getting yet another knock.

I'd be hoping for a final or 2 next year. I'm not going to say win a final as in all sport there is the element of chance.

Who ever bought Masoe has done right by your club.

He is without a doubt one of the best impact forwards going around this year.

When Mose played the Warriors in Penrith he tore us a new one.

Fast forward to the End of our season and a last chance to make the playoffs coming off a miracle come back winning streak the NZWarriors were buried again by Masoe.

That game was a tragic , we were up and well on top of them and then Masoe gets rolled out and swings the momentum of the contest.

Terrific Buy , If you trawled through the NZwarriors dot com site before Saints got Masoe he was one of the NRL players most Warriors fans wanted recruited.

Luke Walsh is a good player. Not a Great player but a good player ( you know that already I'm sure ) tactically he's the half you want next to the Xfactor guy and yes he can run just fine himself.

A lot of Warriors fans were stunned the Huntly hobbit Lancey was played in the halves by St's we tried that in the first two years then discovered off the bench he was the most dynamic bench impact hooker you'd ever hope for....big game player from that position, ah well you can't blame the management there for wanting to put a new player where the club needs.

Any way well done on an NRL package of signings that collectively adds up to some very astute buying.

Brown's got things going in the right direction.
His major signings for next season look great ( Amor, Masoe & Walsh)

I'm a little worried that we'll be deceived by our end of season form, though. We were rank for large periods of last season. I hope the improvement was down to us getting our game head on and not just random. Hopefully, now Brown has had his experimental phase, we'll start next season well.

We still need a 6. If we can't buy an established top level 6 like, say, Holdsworth, I'd have like us to have gone for a Walmsley equivalent from the lower division. We can't rely on Wheeler and Lance is just crap.

We could do with a centre until Percy matures, but he may stack on quite a bit this offseason. I'd try and poach Collis or Lynn from Wakey, perhaps.

ptty much exactly as i see it too

Thanks for the post Mr Smart. Always nice to get an impartial opinion from somebody who is in a position to give one.

No problem.
You are going to enjoy his trade mark twenty meter runs on attack , We've got some effective tacklebot forwards in our squad ( too many lean tackling secound rowers ) and our Four prop Rotation was the best in the NRL two seasons ago ( they've gone off the boil ) when we play Masoe , honestly it's Like Watching a Man playing little kids.

I didn't realise you were picking up Walsh as well , either player arriving on their own would be limited in their impact.....someone in your organisation had the foresight to look at how Walsh and Masoe Link off each other.

Put Mose one on one in the red zone the way Penrith have used him , very few players can stop him. You really want a nippy fast Hooker/ Half / Fullback ....who evers quickest over 40mtrs at dummy half behind that mac truck.

Support runners off a Masoe hit up. It wouldn't be a stretch to suggest that he kept a very average Penrith Roster in play off contention this season.

Mose is coming up there after peaking this season.

I reckon there'll be some decent, undiscovered centres at the World Cup. It's whether we'll put our hands in our pockets and make a deal happen. Saying that, I was surprised that we paid a fee for and beat other teams to Amor.

I'd also like to thank Mt Smart for my new nickname for Hohaia 'The huntly Hobbit'

Mose was in a good frame of mind tonight.
He hasn't lost any of it.
NZ were killing Samoa before they Rolled the Monster out and played off the back of it.

I really respect that guy , forced to tip my kiwi hat to you Mr Masoe sir.......sigh ....again.

If that didn't impress you.......you're a tough crowd.

I'm impressed. It has made me more excited next season than I was already. He could scatter defences over here.

The New Zealand forwards were rightfully backing themselves to walk over the Samoan's they have the core of the NRL Winners powering their pack.
Not the first time , and certainly won't be the last that players struggle with Masoe. He made the world champs look pretty average.

He's an absolute monster, very impressive.

However, I hope we get him on a good conditioning regime. He's nothing like Feka though, fairly mobile for such a big guy.

I thought Mose went well tonight. He's got that aggression we've lacked for a long time. He runs good and hard and will walk some teams next year. His defence is hard and solid.

However, he needs to lose few lbs and work on his fitness. At times tonight he struggled to get back into the line and was stood in the kiwi defensive line.

I'm sure a good pre-season will whip him into better shape and will be great asset next year. I'm really looking forward to seeing play.

Samoa had few decent players. The number 10, 16 and number 4 all impressed me.

Really enjoyed the game at Warrington tonight.

Mose was looking a stone over his NRL playing weight. The Penrith Panthers didn't feature in the finals.
So Bare in mind Masoe has been out of footy for six weeks and was unfit.