Re: What now? : Wed Sep 15, 2021 10:27 am  

Dave K. wrote:

Saints are the bench mark, they have won two grand finals, the cup this year and have a great chance of winning the GF again this year.

But they dont sit on this and keep the same squad, they freshen it up, release older players on big contracts and bring in new overseas players and trust their youth players to fill other positions and their squad.

Totally agree. They’d rather release a player a year too early rather a year too late
We got Sean Long because we offered two years and Saints would only offer one. Same as Coote this year.

They also play to systems, so that if they they have both halfbacks missing, two young players can step in seamlessly.

Re: What now? : Wed Sep 15, 2021 10:30 am  

..... much easier when you're a successful club winning most competitions on offer.

Re: What now? : Wed Sep 15, 2021 10:37 am  

You can see Hodgson put emphasis on doing all the little 1%ers when he arrived, he's touched on it after a few defeats, the players only have themselves to blame for not performing them consistently, unfortunately didn't take many excuses for some players to revert to type as seen under Radford.

Hoping this is the new ruthless FC and we finally clear the garden of weeds.

Re: What now? : Wed Sep 15, 2021 10:43 am  

Rocknrolla69er wrote:

You can see Hodgson put emphasis on doing all the little 1%ers when he arrived, he's touched on it after a few defeats, the players only have themselves to blame for not performing them consistently, unfortunately didn't take many excuses for some players to revert to type as seen under Radford.

Hoping this is the new ruthless FC and we finally clear the garden of weeds.

As soon as the pressure was on, you can see them reverting to type. Think it must be in their muscle memory.
Don’t think we can afford another overhaul, but they can’t afford not to do anything either.

Re: What now? : Wed Sep 15, 2021 11:13 am  

Irregular Hoops wrote:

As soon as the pressure was on, you can see them reverting to type. Think it must be in their muscle memory.
Don’t think we can afford another overhaul, but they can’t afford not to do anything either.

Yeah I'd put alot down to lack of mental strength and maybe some lack of professionalism, maybe both go hand in hand.

Character checks needed for the next batch of signings please......

Re: What now? : Wed Sep 15, 2021 11:25 am  

Ash Taylor and Peachey been released by Gold Coast. Would be very good pick ups for a SL team.

Re: What now? : Wed Sep 15, 2021 11:29 am  

Rocknrolla69er wrote:

Yeah I'd put alot down to lack of mental strength and maybe some lack of professionalism, maybe both go hand in hand.

Character checks needed for the next batch of signings please......

Certainly need some leaders, or players with character.

Squad is so unbalanced, and has been for years.
Fonua was a vanity buy. Andy Last told Radford he didn’t need him. Radford was worried he’d come back for another club and rip it up.

Re: What now? : Wed Sep 15, 2021 11:54 am  

Not sure Ash Taylor is the answer but Peachey would be a great signing, he can cover all the pivot roles and is aggressive too, with a great skillset, like Shane McMenemy but with more pace.
The frustration for me is that we had all the ingredients required to be successful, as shown in our cup wins , but Radford's brand of rugby became obsolete with the COVID rule changes and we failed to cover the loss of Watts, which was hugely detrimental to our pack and chances thereafter. It has all the echoes of 2006, when we should have pushed on to consistent success, but failed miserably and lost our star player, Cooke, who we then tried to replace with players like Head and even Sam Obst!!
I applaud Adam saying what he has, but I am afraid some of us have heard ducks fart in water before. Too often.

Re: What now? : Wed Sep 15, 2021 12:05 pm  

The thing that worries me is, somebodys decisions got us in this pickle in the first place, Pearson has to take some responsibility, if we can't get recruitment decisions correct, what's to say were not just going to sign the next batch of crap?

We don't know how shrewd Hodgson is with recruitment yet, or even if he has final say on the signings, theres no real transparency from the club on how the recruitment process works, so all still a bit of a lottery to me.

Confounded by the probable announcement of a Manu Ma'u renewal (what wage is he on?) when you have players like Peachey available who would bring alot more to our team that'd benefit us.

No good building a house, if the building firms poop so to speak.

Re: What now? : Wed Sep 15, 2021 12:08 pm  

Saints again showing the way, they see a pivotal player in Roby coming to the end of his career and sign someone to replace him long term. Also allows them to play two hookers so Roby isnt flogged to death like Houghton has been.

Top, top signing for Saints.