Re: Real coaching test : Mon Apr 06, 2015 11:17 pm  

BackrowSaint wrote:

There was a couple of tests for Keiron today which I think he failed on.

First of all we should not have ran with Turner and Lance in the halves, its obvious that combination doesn't work. If it meant bringing Hewitt in then so be it, we needed someone to direct play.

The second was starting Bailey on the wing. I felt so sorry for the kid. I hate the trend of giving players debuts on the wing, it's a specialised position and should be treated as such. Making your debut is hard enough as it is without being thrown into an unfamiliar position. If you're gonna play him, put him at Full Back with Tommy back where he should be, on the wing.

The third was going for the two 10 minutes from the end. In a 10 minute scramble for points, a team with halves always has the advantage, the writing was on the wall from that point forward.

It doesn't look like Hewitt is going to get a chance for some reason. Saints were missing 5 players who can all play in the halves...and they still wouldn't pick him. Brown didn't fancy him and neither does Cunningham. I don't know anything about him, but i imagine it's one of two things...the lads talented but is deemed to not be mentally (attitude?) up to it...or he's not got the required skill set, and therefore it doesn't matter what his attitude is like.

My point is, he's not getting picked for a reason so we're probably best just trying to make the best of what we have left.

What I do know is that once we've got a few lads back, we're going to be very difficult to beat.

Re: Real coaching test : Tue Apr 07, 2015 12:48 am  

To be fair to KC on the halves front you've got a lot of injuries in that position and if you went with Turner & Hohaia for the Wigan game then youve pretty much got to go same again for the 2nd game as Id be very suprised if Saints (same as other teams) got in any match training in between the 2 games, it'll have all been rehab work.

So introducing a new halfback partnership for the 2nd game would be virtually impossible.

Re: Real coaching test : Tue Apr 07, 2015 6:25 am  

Twentyman wrote:

It doesn't look like Hewitt is going to get a chance for some reason. Saints were missing 5 players who can all play in the halves...and they still wouldn't pick him. Brown didn't fancy him and neither does Cunningham. I don't know anything about him, but i imagine it's one of two things...the lads talented but is deemed to not be mentally (attitude?) up to it...or he's not got the required skill set, and therefore it doesn't matter what his attitude is like.

My point is, he's not getting picked for a reason so we're probably best just trying to make the best of what we have left.

What I do know is that once we've got a few lads back, we're going to be very difficult to beat.

I don't think Hewitt will be here much longer. His agent putting his name out there and Hes not happy which I totally understand.

The min I read the txt with the team, I knew Bailey was in for a rough time. It invited pressure on us on kicks.

I personally would have put flash second row and jones centre with Dawson on the wing. All first team players and in a game we needed the two points.

Re: Real coaching test : Tue Apr 07, 2015 6:54 am  

St pete wrote:

The min I read the txt with the team, I knew Bailey was in for a rough time. It invited pressure on us on kicks.

We couldn't understand once he was picked that he was shifted from his familiar full back position to one on the wing, big error on KC's part, you can do it with a centre to wing, Bailey looked very isolated and undecisive.

Makinson at full back struggled as well with the infamilarity of Ashworth and Baily in the backs, it just shows how the experience of Wellens can organise a back line.

KC hasn,t got many options to work on though, hopefully the return of Walsh, Wilkin and Percival will change all that. I see the media has jumped onto KC's comments, the fans need to give KC a bit of slack under the present circumstances, its his rookie year as head coach and mistakes will be made along the way.

Re: Real coaching test : Tue Apr 07, 2015 6:57 am  

SecondRowSaint wrote:

How long has Bailey trained with the first team?

As I understand it, Bailey hadn't trained with the first team prior to the game.

Re: Real coaching test : Tue Apr 07, 2015 7:15 am  

What,s the situation with Charnock is he injured or out of favour, I thought him or Hewitt would have been better suited to the less intensive Hull game.

Re: Real coaching test : Tue Apr 07, 2015 12:15 pm  

The important point is that in three defeats we haven't thrown the towel in.

I'm not particularly bothered with the losses against Wigan and Wind Tunnell KR because both have decent backs who can pile up points quickly. The Hull performance was very disappointing because they are undoubtedly the worst side I've seen in Super League.

Thankfully, we've got a lot of points on the board early. I expected this trough. It happened last season. It's just not possible for any side to go through the entire season at top form. And we certainly don't want to be anywhere close to that at this precise point in the campaign.

Re: Real coaching test : Tue Apr 07, 2015 12:50 pm  

If I do have one relatively minor criticism - it is that we haven't promoted as many young backs from the juniors as we have young forwards both at the end of last season and the beginning of this.

You really don't want to be picking kids completely out of the blue to prop up an injury ravaged first team. It's bad for their development. Perhaps we should have thought more about turning a sub slot over to a young back one in two or three games.

Of course, you can never predict injury crises in advance. But as "fast tracks" go ours looks decidedly two-speed with an autobahn turned over to props and back-row forwards and a measly dirt track for anything numbered one through seven.

It could be that KC & Long aren't particularly confident about this cohort of juniors.

Re: Real coaching test : Tue Apr 07, 2015 1:30 pm  

Twentyman wrote:

It doesn't look like Hewitt is going to get a chance for some reason. Saints were missing 5 players who can all play in the halves...and they still wouldn't pick him. Brown didn't fancy him and neither does Cunningham. I don't know anything about him, but i imagine it's one of two things...the lads talented but is deemed to not be mentally (attitude?) up to it...or he's not got the required skill set, and therefore it doesn't matter what his attitude is like.

My point is, he's not getting picked for a reason so we're probably best just trying to make the best of what we have left.

What I do know is that once we've got a few lads back, we're going to be very difficult to beat.

I thought Brown said about Hewitt that he'd get chances this year, but with KC in charge this has changed.

Re: Real coaching test : Tue Apr 07, 2015 1:46 pm  

The Chief wrote:

As I understand it, Bailey hadn't trained with the first team prior to the game.

Few weeks I've been told