Gelling had a very good night aside from a silly offload to Isa (which Isa dealt with but was mysteriously adjudged to have knocked on). He set up our second try and made a great break for our winner which got us in the position. I'd guess he also made the most meters out of all our players by a distance so I wouldn't be all doom and gloom on him.

I'd have him just behind Bateman as our man of the match.

You should never post after a few beers but last night I couldn't help it because I was so angry after a truely awful display.
Well I've sobered up and I still feel the same.
Last season we were rank bad but had a couple of strike players who got us out of trouble on numerous occasions namely Bowen and Burgess. Now they are gone we have got absolutely nothing to offer.
Powell and Smith together is partnership made up in a Saints fans head as joke on the Wigan team unfortunately Wane thinks this is partnership that can "do damage". Useless is being kind to them in terms of their ability. In terms of tactics neither can even start to explain the meaning of the word.
Gelling and Sarginson or Can't pass Won't pass think that kicking on the 2nd or 3rd tackle when they run into a dead end are good tactics. Neither can kick and both are inept at best in terms of basic skills required for a centre. I like a bet and will happily take any bets that neither Manfredi or Charnley will score 20 tries this season. For tactics why don't we put a couple of more middles on the wings and just accept we don't actually need any wingers?
Let's think about tactics in our forwards. Well let's use our smallest forward to make the most yards mainly from first receiver. The rest of the forwards can come in as second and third tackler do sod all with the ball and we can sub them every 20 minutes or to keep them fresh. If it wasn't serious it would be a good joke.
Williams is the only footballer we have at the club.SOL was a footballer but now he has joined the growing ranks of middles so on that point I unfortunately exclude him. IL KR and SW are to blame for this. Our recruitment since KR has arrived has been truely appalling. You can exclude the Tomkins from the recruitment because effectively they were not new blood. What are the tactics they use in deciding upon new recruits? We have a squad full of middles of whom only 2 seem capable of playing for 80 minutes. What are the tactics behind this?
The tactics of the club will now be to big up the Brisbane game because IL knows he needs the cash from the game because season ticket sales are down and you can guarantee that attendances will fall this season because of the dross we will be playing.
God only knows what tactics are discussed in training. It's probably on how to wrestle and 3 man tackles it can't involve any use of a rugby ball.
I think some of the other posters on here have been exceptionally lenient in their views on last night and historically I would also have defended the team irrespective of the performance but last night was a nadir in terms of lack of quality throughout the squad.
My tactics are to bet against Wigan on the handicap until the bookies wise that we are actually crap. Next week Brisbane giving 2 points is like printing money.

Good post Itchy, when Saints fans and Wigan fans are in unison about the Rugby being served up in the game today it is not Rugby League as we know it, middles ....on the edge..etc .good god what is that all about,

And this. Plenty here don't like Gelling, but objectively it was hard to find too much fault with his showing last night, he was certainly one of our best performers. Time and again it was him and Bateman putting in those hard yards and getting us on the front foot.

Yeah, that was a curious refereeing decision. Also, was it my imagination or wasn't there also a moment when Wigan got penalised for a cock-up in the Huddersfield attack when they all ran into each other with scarcely a Cherry and White shirt in sight?

With refereeing decisions like that and the clarion calls for the Giants from the commentary box, you can't help wondering ...

Just because we're paranoid that doesn't mean they aren't out to get us.

Haha same every year, see you at Old Trafford in October.

Well I like a bet. I wil offer you an additional point to whatever Paddy Power is offering right now I.e if 3/1 I will give you 4/1

I did do Bateman a disservice looking at the stats on the superleague site. I thought Gelling had made the most ground (he made 135m or thereabouts) but Bateman made 189 metres to add to his 44 tackles.

He's a special talent.

I personall thoughy Tautai put in a good shift last night.

Hopefully he can build from here

The quality is horrendous in the entire league.
All coaches are like clockwork and do the same thing.
The last international series was a disaster. England were clueless and NZ looked and played like a bunch of amateurs.
Im big believer in good players don't need a coach to tell them what to do nowadays players can't even decide if they should take 2 points or a tap when they get a penalty close to an opponents line for gods sake.
Coaches have taken away any semblance of individuality from players to the point that they are totally clueless when things don't go to plan or what they have practiced.
As we have done the last 40 years we follow the Aussie way even when a blind man can see that the current style is horrible to watch.

The game I have loved since I was a kid is virtually extinct and the clubs seem oblivious to the fact that as a spectacle the game is dying on its Harris.

fwiw, i thought you were very poor last night and as the game went on, was confident we could get a result!
i thought you were more intent on trying to bully our inexperienced guys rather than playing quality RL,
i just didn't think you were a threat at all, and despite us playing a left edge which had never seen each other until tuesday, i was surprised you didn't attack more down that side.

but you got the win despite not playing at all well, so i don't suppose it will bother many wigan fans, well done on the win.

I'm not a stats man NK but at a guess I bet that Bateman took the ball in and made more yards than Isa, Sutton, MM, Burke and Clubb combined.
Without him last night we would have lost without a shadow of a doubt.
If I were him I would be looking for a serious increase in my pay even though I believe he has just signed up for a new deal.

If he were a stone heavier he would be sensational and be playing in the NRL

Funny how people look from different perspectives... Though the overall quality was poor, second game of season, i was never in any doubt we would win.. Hudds looked like they were playing as well as they could, we didn't.

He was one of the few that tried something different. The rest would rather just cart it up every time. How many offloads did we do in total? Probably about 5, in dry conditions.

Quote: Wigg'n "He was one of the few that tried something different. The rest would rather just cart it up every time. How many offloads did we do in total? Probably about 5, in dry conditions.'" 7. Match stats here. Individual stats are at the bottom of the page. www.rugby-league.com/superleague ... port/12206

Quote: Wigg'n "He was one of the few that tried something different. The rest would rather just cart it up every time. How many offloads did we do in total? Probably about 5, in dry conditions.'" 7. Match stats here. Individual stats are at the bottom of the page. www.rugby-league.com/superleague ... port/12206