Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Sun Oct 09, 2016 12:00 pm  

morrisseyisawire wrote:

It is harsh on Russell, I admit, and I do admire his qualities. The problem is, he is clearly an out-and-out FB. If we play him on the wing we are shoehorning him into the team, and that is where a lot of our problems lie. If we keep Russell, and I'm sure we will, then he needs to play FB, and I'm not sure he is good enough for that. That means moving Ratchford around, which in turn means moving Gidley.

As for Sandow and Gidley, they were the competition's best half-back combination in the first part of the season by a mile. Sandow's injury disrupted them both and Gidley himself was never really 100% fit for the last few months but they'd still be my first choice next year.

Our priorities lie elsewhere. A flyer on the wing, a centre and another prop. Yes, we've come up short (just) in the big games again so some need to be moved on but we have the core.

Ten years ago maybe he could have been an out and out fullback. However, nowadays you can't really be a top fullback if you can't pass - it's too easy for the defence to shoot in on you out the back of a second man play. As a Saints fan I'd much rather Russell played fullback than Ratchford (and I think Ratchford has got some fairly large deficiencies), because Russell may have more attacking involvement playing fullback but the rest of your backline will have less.

Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Sun Oct 09, 2016 12:17 pm  

Ron wrote:

I think it is harsh to say we need to get rid of Russell, he is the best ball runner in our team, nobody else gets consistently quick ptb like him, that is so important in modern game.

I agree with the rest, but Gidley needs to go as well. He is another year older, and he shown in the final that he doesn't have the passing or kicking game close to the opposition line to unlock good defences, he was comfortably outplayed by Williams. He also missed the tackle for their try.

He isn't much better than Patton but takes up a huge chunk of our salary cap... we could get a real quality centre/forward if he wasn't here.

I wouldn't mind keeping Sandow because he does offer that creative and kicking game we sorely miss at times, but whether he is consistent enough to justify being our marquee signing I don't know.

I cannot disagree with this. Gidley simply does not offer the value for money.

If we are short of cap space then we need to lose the likes of Bailey, Cox, Penny, R Evans, Dodds (too much risk) and either get a quality strike centre, or move Ratchford to centre and get a quality full back such as Hardaker. Gidley can spell Clarke. Sandow and Patton in the halves.

Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Sun Oct 09, 2016 12:30 pm  

I might be wrong here but our win ratio with Russell at FB is high? I think we are at our best with him in that position.

Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Sun Oct 09, 2016 12:57 pm  

On reflection I think our season has been pretty good
We have fallen short on two from three occasions but look at it this way
Won the LLS
Runners up CCF
Runners up GF
Best defence
Best attack
And with those stats we should have the treble but we Dont
Let's move on, praise the whole club and support I think next season will be a good one and we've made the WCC in the process
Come on everyone we're all hurting but let's get some positive thinking for next year

Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Sun Oct 09, 2016 1:10 pm  

silvertail-wolf wrote:

On reflection I think our season has been pretty good
We have fallen short on two from three occasions but look at it this way
Won the LLS
Runners up CCF
Runners up GF
Best defence
Best attack
And with those stats we should have the treble but we Dont
Let's move on, praise the whole club and support I think next season will be a good one and we've made the WCC in the process
Come on everyone we're all hurting but let's get some positive thinking for next year

I disagree. For the hight this club has set itself with investment in players, facilities and staff, that represents a failure.
Exclude LLS as a trophy, is not, it's a sub reward of the GF that carries no merit.
In football you would see a manager sacked at the elite level for a season like ours.

Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Sun Oct 09, 2016 1:21 pm  

mark_m wrote:

I might be wrong here but our win ratio with Russell at FB is high? I think we are at our best with him in that position.

Me too

Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Sun Oct 09, 2016 1:32 pm  

silvertail-wolf wrote:

On reflection I think our season has been pretty good
We have fallen short on two from three occasions but look at it this way
Won the LLS
Runners up CCF
Runners up GF
Best defence
Best attack
And with those stats we should have the treble but we Dont
Let's move on, praise the whole club and support I think next season will be a good one and we've made the WCC in the process
Come on everyone we're all hurting but let's get some positive thinking for next year

Totally agree. Nobody complained in 2011. We have done better than 2011

Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Sun Oct 09, 2016 1:33 pm  

But we could also then say...out win ratio is higher with Penny on the wing instead of Russell...?

Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Sun Oct 09, 2016 1:34 pm  

rubber duckie wrote:

I disagree. For the hight this club has set itself with investment in players, facilities and staff, that represents a failure.
Exclude LLS as a trophy, is not, it's a sub reward of the GF that carries no merit.
In football you would see a manager sacked at the elite level for a season like ours.

Spot on.

Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Sun Oct 09, 2016 1:36 pm  

Builth Wells Wire wrote:

Totally agree. Nobody complained in 2011. We have done better than 2011

In 2011 we didn't have the effort in personal and facilities we have now.
In 2011 we were satisfied, as you improve expectations soulful become higher.