Hahaha... Using a single missing player as an excuse against a championship side then quoting how you've beaten us easily when we've had half the side missing! Your inability to put a coherent argument together goes from strength to strength, I see.

Mate, with all due respect, just read that back. You weren't playing Melbourne Storm! You were playing a championship side and not a particularly good one at that. Their "best" players (and I use the term loosely) where Scott Grix who was hardly a superstar even in his prime, let alone several years past it and Mr Creosote at 6. We're not talking Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk here! Mind you, they did have a 30 year old electrician at hooker and you only had current international and 2 time Man Of Steel, James Roby so perhaps it wasn't the mismatch we all think it was.



Come on.. I get you're defending your side but we all know that was a shi-ite performance against a mid table, rag tag of championship part timers. To dress it up as anything else is utterly ridiculous. Have a word with yourself.

And people wonder why AS108 exists when a genuine attempt at a post gets treated like this. “Have a word with yourself”.

I will break it down slowly. The game plan meant it didn’t matter who we were playing. We played the same game plan as we did against Warrington. The “rag tag part timers” played the game of their lives and held on for longer than anyone expected sure, and you can accuse Saints of having too much respect but it got us through (something people are all too eager to point out hasn’t happened in a semi final for a while).

I also contend that the performance has been massively overblown as awful because that’s what people want to see. We uncharacteristically lost the ball over the line a couple of times, were characteristically pulled back for non existent offences a couple of times, all of which kept the score lower than expected. As I said in my original post, it wasn’t the game for wide expansive rugby that piles on the points, and controlled the game to the point it was won from the first try.

There was a lot of fitting to a narrative yesterday and seems like that’s happening post match too.

Give over! You were one defensive lapse from going into the sheds at half time with real egg on your faces! Halifax repeatedly gifted you the ball, including kicking out on the full several times and still you couldn't do much with it until the part timers started to tire towards the end. Don't try and dress this up as a rugby league tactical masterclass. Everyone else, practically in the history of the game, has managed to put a cricket score on a mid table championship side when they've come up against them. That you didn't wasn't some cunning plan. It's because you were poor.

Now, that you mention that you hadn't managed to get past a semi in some time is fair comment as to why you played the way you did. I fully accept that. But why, then, question NickyKiss when he said the same thing? That's the "narrative" we get from Saints fans repeatedly on here. "Everything Saints do is wonderful and don't you dare question it unless you're a Saints fan."

A118 118 exists on here because he's a d!ck. Join him if you like, that's your choice. However, if you're coming on here to genuinely chat about and discuss rugby league then you're more than welcome but don't expect us to toe the RedVee party line. Saturday was not a rugby league masterclass against dangerous opposition. It was a relatively poor performance against part time, mid table championship opposition and to dress it up as anything else is disrespectful on a Wigan board that is quick to acknowledge when our own team has played poorly.

oh dear [urlhttps://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/the-mole-gold-coast-titans-hire-justin-holbrook-as-new-coach/77a96b84-addf-4df3-93f4-b4954648b208?ocid=Social-NRLFS[/url

Oh dear indeed...

Having said that tho - is he as good as we're all making out? If he fails to win anything again this year he's not actually done anything. Madge had already won the league and the CC in the same time period.

Hope he takes Thompson with him

What a blow that would be for them. They’ve got a good team but they’ve one man to thank for the unbelievable turnaround of some players within that squad and for their league game dominance these last two seasons. We all know how good guys like Roby and Walmsley are but it’s the improvements Holbrook has dragged from players like Peyroux, Fages, Lomax, Makinson etc that has got them on the path to potentially winning things.

I’d be sad to see him go in truth. He seems a good guy and somebody like that driving standards makes teams across the board up their game.

hes madge mk 2

Nah, as mentioned above, Madge won trophy's

He’s had that sort of impact for sure although he looks a little less ruthless (maybe that’s why they’ve struggled in big games). He’ll be a loss to the league IMO.

True but as long as it hurts Saints....
Seriously though it raises lots of interesting points. Will he leave with real silverware? Will any Saints players go with him? Who will replace him?

Had he? This is Holbrook’s second season effectively (we were already out of the cup and floundering in SL when he arrived in 2017).

Madge won the CC at the second attempt - Holbrook is in the final at the second attempt.

Madge won the LLS and SL in his first season, Holbrook won the LLS but fell short by a late try in the SL semi.

If he wins the treble this year (big if!!!!) he’ll have achieved more than Madge and done it without some of the less savoury aspects of Madge’s approach whilst at Wigan. Madge didn’t make too many friends outside of Wigan with his approach to RL, I think Holbrooks Saints are viewed a bit differently.

There is also an argument to say Madge took Wogan backwards in his second season, finishing second vs LLS and limping out of the play-offs with two losses to a Saints team boasting rookie halves. I think most would agree saints look a more complete team this season.

But you need to win things to be remembered, we’ll see how he gets on!

And if I win the lottery (which I have a ticket for) I’ll be a millionaire. You can’t judge what Holbrook might do against what Madge did do. If Holbrook again fails to win a major trophy then he can’t really be judged as a success.

I completely agree - said as much in my final line chap.

It's if he takes anyone with him that could really hurt them quickly.
Can't see Thompson going yet, he doesn't need the cash and wants to win stuff with his home town team, Knowles would be a big loss but I've no idea about his contract situation.

madge had a better team around him

Madge was told to win the CC as it was worth more money than the GF, it was a different team also a bit like saints this year.

There's more than a little Saints spin on that appraisal to be fair. In his first season and a half(ish) Holbrook won the LLS. That is a worse return (or the same return if you ignore 2017 which, at the very least allowed him to hit the ground running in 201icon_cool.gif as Shaun Wane in his first season and no one argues that that was a successful season. I can absolutely guarantee no Saints fan would argue it was! It doesn't matter how you lost in the semi. That's just ifs and buts. His 1st season was nowhere near that of Madges who inherited a struggling club and with the addition of just one player in the twilight of his career and that most considered past his best, turned them into champions.

If Holbrook adds the treble this season then his second full season will have been more successful than Madge's second but, realistically, anything less than a Grand Final win and he hasn't been as successful overall.

Who me?!



I agree entirely, that’s why it was all couched in a treble winning season with the explicit statements that o my trophies are remembered.

Haha.. I know, what was I thinking?!



I think we're pretty much on the same page here. It's all about the Grand Final really.

What's your take on him leaving? Remembering our dip in form when Wane announced he was leaving and having seen your performance on Saturday (which despite Magic Superbeetle's protestations wasn't very convincing) do you have any worries that it might derail your season?

It’s a shame he’s leaving as he’s done a terrific job but I don’t think it will mean anything this season, if anything I imagine it might help in the short term to get clarity so people can move on.

Announced in the next 24 hours that he is leaving.

He's definitely gone. Was in the Aussie press today. I'm assuming the players already knew which might account for their sub-par performance on Saturday as the same thing happened to us after Wane's similar announcement last season.

That's possible but I remember it's what we said around this time last year and quite the reverse happened. I guess a dip in form won't hurt you too much as long as it doesn't coincide with the important games at the end of the season but a tailspin isn't always easy to get out of. Interesting to see how the players respond over the next couple of weeks.