Re: Expectations : Mon Sep 27, 2010 5:56 am  

DHM wrote:

I would agree with much of what you posted, but this has me baffled. What exactly have Saints accomplished that we haven't? They were not at "the top" last year, we were. They haven't won the SL title since 96 and last year they were potless, a situation that could also be the case this year.

There is a leaning towards Saints, even from our fans, that I find very strange. They seem to be forgiven failure in a way our team isn't. They are a great club, but we have edged them for quite some time now. If Saints have "continued to remaion at the top" then where have we been?

we havent won the superleague title since 96....have you been trapped in a time warp or something...

Re: Expectations : Mon Sep 27, 2010 7:16 am  

DHM wrote:

You do have expectations. You expect us to fail. You always expect us to fail.

What a totally pathetic post, from someone I would not normally associate with the pathetic posters.

Care to give previous examples where failure expectations have been expressed?........ thought not.

Just grow up, and leave the bottom kissing to the normal.

Re: Expectations : Mon Sep 27, 2010 11:49 am  

I have said for a while that Leeds do not play to a set pattern. It has been touched upon by plenty on here too. When everyone is fit it works pretty well. However you take a couple of players out through injury, and a couple more on bad form and it looks a lot shakier.

Compare that to Saints, who play a very structured game. When they lose a player, be it a forward, or a back, they have someone who can come in and fit into the game plan. Every man knows their role in the team, and knows the structure. Their players are good, but its the structure they play to that is the key to how they remain so consistent. It may be that it is also the reason they have failed for the last 3 years, in that when they have met us in the GF we have been fully fit, fully fired up, and playing to a game plan of our own, designed to nullify theirs. I think that our plan relies too much on everything being right, which can fall apart very easily.

I don;t think we need wholesale changes, and I will be interested to see what changes occur when McDermott is on-board. Will we see more structure, more young players in the team. I expect McDermott to be head coach for 2012, so he will surely have a large say in first team matters next season.

On the whole, I think a new centre (which could be watkins), and a top line front rower will improve us no end. I think we have players to come into the team that can improve it, and we should have rotated better towards the end of the year. If a top class organiser became available i'd be tempted, as Burrow has been poor this year, but he is capable of doing that role, as shown a few years ago for GB.

The likes of BJB, Watkins, Clarkson, Pitts, Ambler need to really step up so they can replace the players who will likely be leaving at the end of next year such as Senior, leuluai, Lauiti'iti, Webb.

Re: Expectations : Mon Sep 27, 2010 12:13 pm  

a game too far , a season too far especially with the injuries.

hope we can sign a few players and bring some through too next year

three in a row was amazing in salary cap era

Re: Expectations : Mon Sep 27, 2010 12:40 pm  

I agree with much of what others have pointed out on here and other threads.

Player recruitment is a difficult one though.

What has served us well in the recent past has been promoting excellent young talent from within and a sprinkle of NRL talen where required.

However from watching a lot of the U20's this year I'm not sure if the talent is there,certainly not to the same extent it was before.

The U20's have played a poor standard of Rugby this year especially. Not sure if that is down to some of the identified 'Talent' like Manning,Coady,Amor etc being loaned out due to the new age qualifications that came in this year at the level under first team or poor coaching?

Perhaps GH feels the latter and that is why Poaching has been shown the door?

I think the club may have realised they were short of talent at the next level down which is why they went into the National League market and bought Coady and Amor and immediately loaned them out along with the likes of Manning to play and hopefully develop more from playing senior rugby with a lot of hard pros in NL1 as opposed to u20 level?

However I don't think any of those named three have set the world alight at NL1 from what i've seen/read?

Pre season I had high hopes for Amor and still hope he will progress but since a reasonable debut on Boxing Day he has looked poor in the couple of 1st team chances he was given and even back out on loan/dual registration to where he was awesome in 2009 they have not seen anywhere near the same level of performance he was displaying week in week out before signing for us.

Manning also looked to have a bright future here but i'm sure the Fev fans for the most part have not rated him that highly and there were times where he was not being selected because his form was poor?

I know these NL1 signings can be risks and are nearly always a work in progress with a hope/realisation of what they might become so all is not lost yet.

The alternative then is to sign overseas or pay a transfer fee for SL players.

The first option has had some great sucess but for every success there is a Mark O'Neil and this season,although his on field performances when fit were great,Eastwood is going back home which shows the risk of going into the NRL market as you never know how the player and his family will settle,look at Eastwood and Dallas Johnson and the Wakefield Prop whose name escapes me (Tronk?) but only played about 8 matchses but even then,half way through the season he was still top of the Opta metre maker stats.

As Bluey said after the game Leeds refuse to speculate on transfers and there is hardly ever any gossip in the RL press about who we are in for,certainly nothing like with other teams but i'm also left wondering sometimes whether we end up getting our first choice or making do? The club will obviously always say they got their number one choice.

I know for a fact we were in discussions with Ryan Atkins but we pulled out at his wage demands so he went to Wire and we then signed Delaney.

Delaney has got some stick on here but I like him. ''Does what it says on the tin''. People who watched the NRL told us he was a steady eddy no nonsence hard working player not a Gasnier or Inglis and that is exactly what we got.

If people wanted speed and more of a gutting edge then maybe most would have preferred Atkins although at the time i'm sure many on here were saying we shouldn't touch Atkins with a barge pole?

I bet some of those posters are the same berating Delaney now?

It also seemed to be te concensus that our number one forward target was Frank Pritchard and then we announce Eastwood instead. With hindsight we'd have probably been better with Pritchard (assuming he'd have settled) given that we've seen too little of Eastwood before his early departure,although i'm sure had he stayed he would/could have become a legend over here for us.

The other option of paying transfer fees or signing out of contract SL players seems to have served us well but doesn't seem to have been over used in recent times? The ones I remember are Peacock,Ellis,Poaching ,Dunneman and they all proved successful

Definitely interesting times ahead. The club have got most things right over a long period of time so we'll have to trust they have it all sussed out again and will talk up a 'big' signing just before the season ticket early bird deadline

Re: Expectations : Mon Sep 27, 2010 12:47 pm  

The times I've seen Manning on Sky at the business end of the season he's looked one of Featherstone's better players. Not sure how that's reflected over the course of the season mind, not seen enough of him to judge.

Re: Expectations : Mon Sep 27, 2010 1:07 pm  

Andy Gilder wrote:

The times I've seen Manning on Sky at the business end of the season he's looked one of Featherstone's better players. Not sure how that's reflected over the course of the season mind, not seen enough of him to judge.

I think he's had a decent year tbh and i'm sure he was on a years loan but the last couple of sky games they've reffered to him as a "former" Leeds acadamy player!

Re: Expectations : Mon Sep 27, 2010 1:13 pm  

Over the last 3 yrs we have won the tiltle, had to start the season early to accommodate the WCC game, had varied runs in the CC cup & also had to contend with key players playing for England at the end of a long difficult season.

To me all these things could contribute to where we are now. Coulpled with bad injuries/form & player recruitment.

Hopefully the squad can have a well deserved break. I would imagine maybe only Hall & Sinfiled will be selected for England. Therefore a majority of the squad can have a good break & then get stuck into a decent pre-season which they haven't had for a couple of years. Bluey & Brian Mac can then look forward to a refreshed squad. Hopefully they can add 1 or 2 new players to the squad & welcome back BJB from a successfull loan spell & Watkins from a tough injury. I would like to see a quality replacement for Eastwood but don't believe there's any decent options in the market so I fear we'll end up with a 30+ Aussie/Kolpak stiff.

I look at Saints/Wigan/Wire & see that this season they had good juniors out in the championship who came back into there squads when needed & performed well. Could this be the case for us? We have Worrall, Amour, Coady & Manning all to come back from long term loans & push for a place next year. We also have Pitts & Ambler on the fringes.

Re: Expectations : Mon Sep 27, 2010 1:58 pm  

Gotcha wrote:

What a totally pathetic post, from someone I would not normally associate with the pathetic posters.

Care to give previous examples where failure expectations have been expressed?........ thought not.

Just grow up, and leave the bottom kissing to the normal.

I won't resort to the kind of silly abuse you're directed at DHM but suffice to say my recollection is at various stages you've written the team off at each stage of the previous three title winning seasons.

What is the old saying about giving a thousand monkeys a thousand typewriters?

Re: Expectations : Mon Sep 27, 2010 2:00 pm  

DHM wrote:

They haven't won the SL title since 96

The rest of SL wish. Of course you meant 2006 so we'll let you off.

Juan Cornetto wrote:

in the 14 years of SL Saints have been Grand Finalists 8 times and Champions 5 times against our 6 times finalists and 4 times champions.

Just on this specific point you appear to be including Saints' first past the post Championship of 1996 as a Grand Final appearance and win which of course it wasn't.