Quote: Saddened! "Steady on soldier!
People said exactly the same about our pack, yet Amor, Walmsley, LMS, Laffranchi, Manu, Sia, Masoe, Laffranchi and Roby somehow still seem to be bullied when it mattered.
There is a lot more wrong at Saints than personnel on the field. Sure we had some stunning holes in the squad that should never have been allowed to materalise and which are slowly being closed. But until there is a massive change in culture at the club we will not win a thing. I don't think we'll ever win a trophy until the likes of McManus, Rush and even (Although it's not nice to say it) Cunningham and Wellens leave the club. To win in professional sport you have to be clinical and ruthless, qualities we simply do not have on any level.
I could also dissect your assertion about those players in comparison with other clubs too. Is anyone convinced by Lomax? Looked bright as a kid, flourished at full back for a brief period, then spent 12 months looking jaded during which his performances were nothing to get excited about. Hopefully his op will fix this, but he's not kicked on for me and there are quite a few that could claim to be better fullbacks in SL.
Burns would be good at 6, adding some of the grunt we need. Is Walsh going to be here next year? Is he going to be healthy enough? Is he going to be the same player he was? All massive question marks. Even Roby at 9 is debatable. Clarke is out and out better than Roby now and he'll be playing for Warrington next year.'"
A decent dose of reality rather than a common blanket grumble.
Its true that there's more than individual players that make the quality of the squad. We keep signing improved quality, but still find it hard to achieve on the pitch, whereas them buggers o'er the hill seem to lose quality every year but actually improve. This I agree on.
I too think its seemed all to easy for Cunningham to find himself in the assistants role and expect Wellens to do the same. Wane spent years earning his stripes as a coach with juniors before he got the assistant's role at Wigan.
IMO there's a discrepancy between what our club expects the individuals to contribute, to what we expect to acheive as a club, as if sooner or later its bound to come good because we're Saints. Even if we signed the best 17 players in SL, there's still going to be teams out there with decent players who are going to fight tooth and nail and train the house down all week to get that Superleague trophy.
Players like Burns are very important as not only are they quality in their role, but they lead and inspire other around them with confidence.
I've been of the opinion that we've only got a few holes to plug, but they're massive ones.
Standoff is one, the other is an aggressive pack leader - a westwood, a peacock, a McIlorum/Flower/O'Loughlin. LMS threatened this last year when he was belting frogs about, but he went right back into his shell. We seem to walk a tightrope when playing well that once we deviate a little, it all goes to pot.
I don't doubt our stars' qualities. I still think Lomax is a gem, although he has looked semi fit a lot AND was probably stifled in his wide pivot role by our problem at 6 for large parts of the early season.
Roby is a great all round hooker. He's not got the zip that he used to (or Clarke has now), but he's a much more rounded player. The problem is he looks absolutely flogged.
Amor and Walmsley will continue to improve, Masoe even starting to look very good.
For me, filling the stand off role with someone who can cope if Walsh is out is the most important. After that, the back row is looking a bit wet.
If Swift could get back in gear and Turner could keep form, then I'd be happy with the back line.
I am going to reserve total judgement for when the season is over. Brown noticeably changed gear going into last year's playoffs. Perhaps something similar will happen this year. I can't see us doing too much given our key injuries, but the manner of the performances will be interesting.
