Re: SL RD 26 | St Helens (H) : Fri Aug 16, 2019 12:38 pm  

ST's didnt get out of 2nd gear & dismantled us in 20 2nd half minutes.
They had 7 players missing who would walk into ANY SL teams starting 17.
Last night was a reality check irrespective of their pts diff wins or form.
Coaches Players & intergrating our best jnrs are still way off where it NEEDS TO BUT ALSO SHOULD BE.
This Club has been mismanaged & taken too much for granted for the last 2 years at 1st Team level & it shouldnt have been the warnings were all there.
Yes success may well be cyclical but challenging shouldnt be nor should the drop in standards be so huge either.

Re: SL RD 26 | St Helens (H) : Fri Aug 16, 2019 1:10 pm  

The most galling thing about this game is that a Championship club not so long ago devised better tactics than us, against a full strength Saints team. You'd have thought that putting a similar game plan into effect with our better players (no disrespect to Scott Murrell and colleagues) could have had a decent chance of turning them over... Much better than the low percentage touch and pass rubbish that was served up on the day.

Re: SL RD 26 | St Helens (H) : Fri Aug 16, 2019 1:24 pm  

I'm a Saints fan, for what its worth I thought Leeds were competative in the first half, Saints hit a purple patch in the first 20 minutes of the 2nd half and you never really recovered from that. I am not one who wants to see Leeds relegated, as our sport cannot afford to lose a team like yourselves. After our Cunningham experience in which we were truly awful and I had stopped watching, we got a new Coach, the current Saints team is largely the same one that was available to Cunningham.
On a side note I was impressed by your teams sportsmanship, re the Guard of Honour and the way you played the game, fast open Rugby without resorting to grubby play.

Re: SL RD 26 | St Helens (H) : Fri Aug 16, 2019 1:55 pm  

BrisbaneRhino wrote:

I'm not expecting us to be better than sts now. I'm expecting us to want to be at that level, and heaven forbid have a plan to get there.

If sts can get to that standard there's no reason any of the other sides capable of paying the full cap can't as well.

You have a good point about high standards and ambition. For too long the club has gone with the “trier with potential” model and expected the player to magically transform in our wonderful environment into a swan.

Sometimes that works but more often than not it doesn’t. Other top clubs also have good staff and facilities. The NRL clubs we sign players from have better.

In any case, it is clear that we lack top quality players. I think we aren’t far off being competitive again now; but to win silverware we need the academy prospects to mature over a number of years.

Re: SL RD 26 | St Helens (H) : Fri Aug 16, 2019 3:52 pm  

BrisbaneRhino wrote:

That was very nearly our strongest side. Ward and another prop aside we have nothing else. Sts had half a team out.

That sort of flow was exactly what we used to do to poor teams in the past - they'd hold us for a while then we'd blow them apart.

I do think we could do better with a better coach but the squad is full of average players who are simply not good enough. I've no interest in benchmarking ourselves against hudds or London or a disinterested Catalans - we need to want to be as good as or better than sts.

Bit of an arrogant statement that about the benchmark. That is why supporters of other clubs dislike the Rhinos, thinking they are far superior to most clubs.

Re: SL RD 26 | St Helens (H) : Fri Aug 16, 2019 3:59 pm  

Giantscorpio wrote:

Bit of an arrogant statement that about the benchmark. That is why supporters of other clubs dislike the Rhinos, thinking they are far superior to most clubs.

Okay, but who would you want to set as a benchmark?

Re: SL RD 26 | St Helens (H) : Fri Aug 16, 2019 4:13 pm  

saints were top draw, very impressive and enjoyable to watch.
but.
it was like American football the number of times Lomax ran around the back of blockers in the Leeds line. not penalised once

Re: SL RD 26 | St Helens (H) : Fri Aug 16, 2019 4:42 pm  

Ava was a big loss Thursday night, but the biggest loss was when lunt was taken off. The score was 10-6 to Leeds we then went completely to pieces, Dwyer for all his enthusiasm is a complete disaster to the defensive structure and must be a nightmare to play with when defending. Leeds need a great all round hooker and should move heaven and earth to bring in Cameron Smith for next season and kill too birds by getting Bellamy too.

Re: SL RD 26 | St Helens (H) : Fri Aug 16, 2019 5:38 pm  

If they are speaking to prospective coaches it's being kept very quiet . No leaks at all. I hope at present Agar is not the only option

Re: SL RD 26 | St Helens (H) : Fri Aug 16, 2019 5:46 pm  

People are acting as if saints are a great side. They are very good no doubt but no better than our side of a few years back or the bulls, Saints, Warrington, Wigan sides that have had long spells going well at the top of SL in the last 20 odd years. Sadly the level below saints is a long way back and they are miles ahead. Those sides had a few others around them creating a contest; this year has been an absolute procession.

That said they still have to get over the line and it wouldn't surprise me if they again ended up with just the hub cap.