Quote: sally cinnamon "Winning 4 Challenge Cups in 10 years is a level of success well ahead of anything I expected us to achieve going in to 2009 so I don't take that for granted, nor the fact that we made several other major finals and lost. There are no guarantees, but we have at least been up there competing.
I share the frustration of a lot of fans though that we have hit a plateau and been there for some time. The recruitment has not been good for some time, and when people say "with our squad we should be champions" they overrate our squad. There are a lot of players who are regulars in our first team that Saints, Wigan would not be interested in as starters. Since the break up of the last great team (Leeds), there has been a power vacuum in Super League and none of the squads - including Saints and Wigan - are really that great in a historical context. If the team of the early TS years had come together eight years or so later, it would have completely dominated the Super League of today, so it was unlucky timing that when it was at its peak Leeds still had all of their greats, and despite that Leeds team being seen as an ageing side, their core players were still playing after ours had gone.
After going through some dips themselves, Saints, Wigan (and now Leeds) have managed to rejuvenate themselves quite quickly to that top echelon, because no team is so strong anymore that climbing to the top is the formidable obstacle that it was when Cullen or TS took over. It does feel like an opportunity missed, and although I think Steve Price is fundamentally a decent coach who can put together a credible team, I don't get the sense that Price is the type of coach who will separate us from the pack at the top and I don't think our management and recruitment generally is good enough to separate us from the pack at the top.
So I think it's a cop out when people just want to take the approach of resting on our laurels, yes we won 4 Challenge Cups in the past 10 years, but three of those were with a set up much better than we have now. If we really want to take the jump we do need to make changes. But that means bringing in the right people, and if that means waiting a bit till the right person comes available I'm ok with that, rather than just playing lucky dip and bringing in someone who could take us backwards.'"
As always Sally is bang on the money.
