Re: Saints (a) : Fri Jun 09, 2023 9:09 pm  

Didn't someone here say before the game, we might as well accept we're not going to get any of the 50/50s from the ref tonight? Well, that in spades! And the ruck was so slow, from both sides. Why do refs put up with this? Rugby league would be a much better spectacle if they called "Held!" quicker. But that defence, just awful. And when we got the ball, we had no shape to threaten them. I left a record-breaking 20 mins before the end. Never done that before, but I always take my bike there, and they keep you there until all the pedestrians have left the stadium (can be half an hour or so after the end of the match), so I thought sod it, why not make an early getaway? Plus muppets started throwing beer bottles on the pitch (smart move not selling draught beer, Saints! ) and the atmosphere was getting a little unpleasant, and getting home in the warm for a beer and a smoke seemed quite appealing!

Re: Saints (a) : Fri Jun 09, 2023 9:14 pm  

Yea agree. Didn’t want to sound like a broken record but forwards we are struggling on. At full strength our forwards are a little on the light side. I think Mago goes the end of this year. I thought he’d turned a corner but isn’t doing what we brought him in for. Really need to replace him with an experienced prop who’s going to skittle teams. Not going to happen but Jared Waerea-Hargreaves would be that player, no backwards step in him. I’m trying to see the lighter side of a defeat as it’s depressing to think we’re on a spiral but Saints we’re in the same spot as we were on Good Friday (we weren’t full strength I’ll add) I think Peet can Turn this round we’re 6th. Get Isa, Kpp and Havard back and I think we’ll be a different side

Re: Saints (a) : Fri Jun 09, 2023 9:14 pm  

We need to get back to what worked Field to full back French on the wing and Cust/Shorocks at stand off.No disrepect to Miski hes done a good job to fill in but not good enough for Wigan taking up a overseas.

Re: Saints (a) : Fri Jun 09, 2023 9:15 pm  

We’ve been waiting for the warm weather to play our ‘free-flowing’ rugby but we are just getting shown up in every area of the game now. The mitigation is the pack is all over the place but when I hear Wilkin say ‘this is a good learning game for Smithies’ I'm just left shaking my head in disbelief, he’s got 13 on his back, our absolutely iconic jersey at the club and he’s got nothing to his game that warrants that honour.

Re: Saints (a) : Fri Jun 09, 2023 9:20 pm  

DannyT wrote:

We’ve been waiting for the warm weather to play our ‘free-flowing’ rugby but we are just getting shown up in every area of the game now. The mitigation is the pack is all over the place but when I hear Wilkin say ‘this is a good learning game for Smithies’ I'm just left shaking my head in disbelief, he’s got 13 on his back, our absolutely iconic jersey at the club and he’s got nothing to his game that warrants that honour.

That shirt was Batemans. I think it was a panic to give it to Smithies. Don’t get me wrong I rate Smithies but he’s only 22 he’s still learning. I think he can be that player in time. I still think they can target this year however going in to next year we need to be more ruthless in signing and droppings. We have a good reputation in supporting players but if it’s not working the club need to realise we need to move on

Re: Saints (a) : Fri Jun 09, 2023 9:21 pm  

Saints were sensational - threats all over the pitch. Bringing Walmsley off to put Paasi on is unfair. Heavy favourites for everything still.

As for us Jesus were to start.

Was slightly optimistic at half time, after their second try we started to get agreesive and matched their physicality. Second half was just men against boys.

Mago is a complete waste of time and we should just blood Hill/Nsemba over him.

Team wise I don’t know how to sort it but Harry Smith needs a settled partner.

I know Powell splits opinion but how on earth is Cust getting a game over him, he’s an absolute turnstile and must have missed at least 5 tackles.

Thornley had a shocker and King should return next week IMO.

Hopefully we can sneak a result next week then try to work out our best team before a potential semi final. Can’t see it unfortunately.

Re: Saints (a) : Fri Jun 09, 2023 9:23 pm  

People can say about injuries, or referee decisions going against us, but they're a sideshow for me.

Look I don't see every match but if people were being honest then you'd say that from the first game this season we've been worse than last year in every aspect. Structured attack. Structured defence. Set completion. Handling errors. Meeting the physical/mental/intensity challenge. Discipline. Goal kicking. And so on, you name it and we were better at it last year.

Of course there are still times where talented players have done talented things. Or we've had a mini blitz in games. Or toughed it out/dug deep... This team still has a lot of good things about them... but I've read too many times already this season where getting a result despite being pretty crap for the vast majority of the game has been spun into a positive. For me you get found eventually and can't keep winning "despite".... and there's been too much glossing over and leniency for very underwhelming performances so far this year.

Yeah adversity has been thrown in our path... but people need to earn their corn, we have numerous things that need improvement ASAP.

Re: Saints (a) : Fri Jun 09, 2023 9:26 pm  

WWste wrote:

That shirt was Batemans. I think it was a panic to give it to Smithies. Don’t get me wrong I rate Smithies but he’s only 22 he’s still learning. I think he can be that player in time. I still think they can target this year however going in to next year we need to be more ruthless in signing and droppings. We have a good reputation in supporting players but if it’s not working the club need to realise we need to move on

The club doesn’t really have a history of ruthlessness under Radlinski. Look at the whole Mossop/Bateman incident from way back. There’s favouritism and jobs for the boys aplenty across huge swathes of the club. We all want the same thing, for us to be the best we can possibly be and actually try to be that way. We seem to be getting a lot right off the field because of what’s going on with the Latics e.g. Robin Park development and Radlinski sends whiskey to players left, right and centre but
I fell like we are years off turning the squad into legitimate challengers for the Grand Final because of the major surgery needed in the squad. I never thought I’d say this season that we are missing Isa but here we are. Maybe try Smith out of the side and give someone else a go at taking the team around the field too but we are stuck in one sense because of who we have left in the halves, again comes back to salary cap mismanagement.

Re: Saints (a) : Fri Jun 09, 2023 9:30 pm  

Well at least they finally mentioned our injuries, although apparently we can't count Cooper.

I don't recall all of this negativity when we won 3 in a row at Easter.

Weve got players playing that should be nowhere near a shirt (Mago) and those that wouldn't be if we weren't carrying the injuries that we are (Hill)

We can point fingers at recruitment, and the signing of Mago is definitely a bad piece of recruitment, but in a salary cap sport we can't have 15 props sat in the stands.

We've shown what we CAN do this season and if we get close to having that side out towards the end then we'll be in with a shout.

Re: Saints (a) : Fri Jun 09, 2023 9:40 pm  

It was probably a bit better than I feared. It’s a tough spell for sure but there are reasons for it and we just need to make sure we start getting a run together on the other side. I think we will and I’m not ruling us out of anything yet.