Re: Mick Potter re-writes the alphabet : Sat May 16, 2009 8:44 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

ABCEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Lucky to win today me thinks.

Nowt lucky about I all. Deserved it with that second half display.
Ill agree about the missing letter though.

: Sat May 16, 2009 8:48 pm  

Good job we had a solid wall in the second half...

: Sun May 17, 2009 8:20 am  

No matter how it came, a win is a win and 2 points. Catalan is a difficult place to go to and we've come away with the win, it's a great win for us.

: Sun May 17, 2009 8:28 am  

It is strange how our D is so bad this year.

Any ideas why?

IMO it's coz we keep shifting our 2nd rows about each week. Our outside defence on longs, gidley, Gardner and who ever the 2nd row out there that week is very poor.

: Sun May 17, 2009 8:34 am  

St pete wrote:

Any ideas why?

Coach?

: Sun May 17, 2009 8:56 am  

SaintsFan wrote:

Coach?

To be fair I think DA might ave had same problem.

A little squad and a oldish squad a year older.

Long was a rock in defence over recent season outwide but know is also weak in defence.

Potter can't be doing to bad, we top of league and in Q/final of challenge cup

: Sun May 17, 2009 9:41 am  

Longy had an absolute stinker in defence. Lost count of the number of tackles he missed. That and a couple of Meli brainfarts. Put ourselves under too much pressure. But sure was an exciting last five minutes.

: Sun May 17, 2009 10:11 am  

St pete wrote:

To be fair I think DA might ave had same problem.

Nah, I don't think so. He didn't for three years anyway, except the occasional match (I don't expect a team to be on form every week!). Potter came with the reputation from Catalans of being not exactly defensively sound and of not being the best at discipline (the two are probably connected). Sure enough, our defenses have slipped and we are around the middle of the bathroom table when it comes to discipline. Under Anderson we had the best defence in the league and we won some taps last year. That was only last season; I can't see even Longy and KC ageing to such a degree in less than 12 months that they can't achieve the same degree of discipline!

: Sun May 17, 2009 10:15 am  

Unfortunately the issues described in the posts above have been inherited by MP which is worrying as one of the first steps in management is to address the weaknesses. Something we have failed to do for the past two years and have continued that into this season.

At times his season we have been far more inventive under MP than DA, however DA seemed to be a taskmaster at defence which was the cornerstone of his CC success for three years running and for our 2006 title winning season.

I don't think our discipline is as bad as it appears (which may seem like a daft statement to make). We are not a particularly dirty side and have been wrongly penalised many times (as do all teams).

I still feel that both this and next season are ones of transition as we phase out Long, KC, and Gidley and replace the likes of Cayless for new players (whether they be brought through the youth system or signed from elsewhere) and hopefully our coaching and executive teams get the recruitment right.

I can't help feeling though that our squad looks tired and at times disinterested (the Bradford, Wigan and yesterdays first half games being the cases in point).
I think Graham needs a rest as for the past few games he has looked fatigued and has lacked his usual drive, but again this is a coaching decision that must be made at the correct time.

Personally though I have enjoyed the start of this season more than the previous two, as we now have a more competitive league where wins are not guaranteed for any team, which only adds to the excitement.

: Sun May 17, 2009 10:23 am  

SaintsFan wrote:

Nah, I don't think so. He didn't for three years anyway, except the occasional match (I don't expect a team to be on form every week!). Potter came with the reputation from Catalans of being not exactly defensively sound and of not being the best at discipline (the two are probably connected). Sure enough, our defenses have slipped and we are around the middle of the bathroom table when it comes to discipline. Under Anderson we had the best defence in the league and we won some taps last year. That was only last season; I can't see even Longy and KC ageing to such a degree in less than 12 months that they can't achieve the same degree of discipline!

KC defence this season is very very poor. I've never seen him miss tackles like he has this year.

Longy used to get little credit for his defence out wide but for years It was top draw. In games I've seen him mark the likes if Faz and seinor out of big games with great defence.

Both are in rapid decline and are not 30% of what they was last season.