Quote: Richie "But you are make an erroneous assumption that other "skill" elements of the sport have been neglected, but still not given any reasoning for that belief.'"
How hard can this be? I'm talking specifically about skills that are bound to rules of the game which have changed and consequent specialised skills. Listen to someone like Alex Murphy talking about the techniques he used in combination with Vince Karalius around the scrum base. Few of those skills would be of use today as they were necessitated by contested scrums. Consider tackling techniques such as the Cumberland Throw. You cannot deny it is a skill and one that is very difficult to execute properly.
Quote: Richie "Was it? Didn't players work hard on size, strength fitness etc back then? Could it just be that as we have got better at training strength stamina and speed, we have also got better at training skill?'"
Coaches worked within the rule structures of the day to deliver players best suited to gain a competitive advantage. Just as is the case today. Some coaches concentrated more on specialist skills. Others concentrated more on fitness. At Saints there is all manner of history relating to coaches who did one or the other at different periods.
It's not surprising that we have got better at strength, stamina and speed given that a) we're fully pro and b) we prize such attributes highly.
It's arrogant beyond belief to claim that we are now better at training given that your evidence is improvement to attributes we prize and thus concentrate on. A championship-winning coach back then could just as easily claim he is the best at delivering players that excel in the prized attributes of his day. He might also point out that his players go out and beat Australia - in Australia - whereas ours don't.
It's like saying Alexander the Great can't hold a candle to Wellington because the latter has cannons.
Quote: Richie "Yet you claim that today's players are entirely lacking in specialist skills.
Despite all the skills Keiron Cunningham had, the only element you refer to of his game is his physical ability.'"
I said Keiron Cunningham is entirely lacking the specialist skills hookers back in the sixties were expected to possess in contested scrums. If you're stupid enough to think this means I consider him unable to pass the ball out of the dummy half I can't help you.
It is perfectly reasonable to emphasise Cunningham's physical attributes because without size, strength and speed he would be what?
Quote: Richie "No intuition at all. Simply observation.'"
Really? How much old rugby league do you watch?
Quote: Richie "That's it? One single player at one single team? And you want to compare him to all of history? That's your case? '"
Not one player at all. Prior to last season Saints' attitude to kicking (out of hand, goal kicking, 40/20 etc.) has, on the whole, varied between abysmal and average since the retirement of Tommy Martyn. Saints won two titles with some of the worst goal-kicking ever seen at the club. Hardly an advert for superior training.
Quote: Richie "How does the kicking out of hand at Warrington games compare to yesteryear?'"
Briers is a better kicker than Long. But Warrington have had plenty of good kicking halves over the years - including Murphy, whose kicking was a major factor in Warrington's success when he was player-coach.
Quote: Richie "Your previous reference to hooking in the scrum was not a skill that we no longer concentrate on, it was a skill that is entirely obselete and irrelevant.
It's like lambasting modern taxi drivers for a lack of skill because they can't handle a team of horses pulling a carriage.'"
I'm not lambasting anyone. It's you who can't cope with the possibility that older players might be just as skilful albeit in different aspects of the game. If someone points out this fact you hide behind the nonsense argument "THOSE skills are obsolete". Which contradicts your position by first agreeing that players were skilled in different aspects of the game but then attempts to squirm out of it by judging the past in today's context. Which is nonsensical because players from the past have equal right to judge today's RL by yesteryear's standards. Or are they obsolete, too?
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