IT IS VERY CLEAR

[Wormburner]

Bibby
Miski
Singleton
Powell
Isa
Partington

All need replacing

[stevo38]

when sts lose players for whatever reason they replace with quality like for like ,and blood youngsters over time keeping enough experienced heads around them to learn from and not feel overpowered

[DaveO]

We are kidding ourselves if we think we are close to them - they cruised through the last 30 minutes of that game.

Over the last 25 years, Saints have been better than in us in probably 17/18 of them, and for many of those years much better. It is has been 25 years since the end of our glory years. If we weren’t neighbours we wouldn’t even feature on their radar as a rival.

Why have they been so much better for so long?

1. Management? I would argue that McManus seems a smarter business man than IL. ACTION: there is nothing we can do about that. We still spend to the cap, so he is upholding that side of the bargain;
2. Recruitment/retention: theirs has clearly been better - they hardly ever seem to lose players they want to keep, and don’t re-sign players who under perform. ACTION: some of our recent NRL recruitment seems to be pretty good, but I fail to see how we can expect KR to know what he’s doing when he has exactly no experience in the role of CEO. Maybe Peet/Briers will work out a style of play, and have more of a say;
3. Coaching: we have had 2 coaches who are better (or consistently more successful) than their Saints’ equivalents in 25 years. I have been very impressed by Peet, and am genuinely not convinced by Woolf - I would also be surprised if Woolf renewed his contract, so they might choose badly. ACTION: stick with Peet, who has already fixed a lot;
4. Conditioning: Saints are fitter than us, and for many years have been fitter than us. Top level league requires repetition of difficult skills when fatigued. There is no magic to the Aussies always beating us in the last 10 minutes. They are fit enough to sustain their performance longer than GB. The only time we have obviously been fitter than Saints was under Maguire. ACTION: get fitter, and get better fitness coaching, spending whatever it takes.

It all leads back to 1. No. 2 IL employs KR and thinks the sun shines out of his arse when it clearly doesn’t.

Number 4 requires IL to sanction it. We have not replaced Bitcon with an equivalent.

My personal view is IL leaves a lot of the running of the club to KR and KR is not up to it.

[DaveO]

Bibby
Miski
Singleton
Powell
Isa
Partington

All need replacing

You can add Thornley to that list as well and given age is an issue what’s the plan to replace Faz?

[moto748]

We are some way off Saints, but have improved massively from last season, and this year has a long way to go!

[moto748]

Do you ever see anything but downsides, Dave?

[nathan_rugby]

Bibby
Miski
Singleton
Powell
Isa
Partington

All need replacing

You can add Thornley to that list as well and given age is an issue what’s the plan to replace Faz?

Why do we need to talk about replacing Faz when he is playing as well as ever ?

[Charriots Offiah]

I don't see what the Edwards fiasco has to do with it. No one forced IL to employ Lam for longer than the original plan of one season.

As to Man City recruiting the best players, yes they do but that option is open to other wealthy clubs who also are not constrained by a salary cap.

In RL we operate under the same constraints as Saints so the cap is no excuse for assembling an inferior squad.

I agree about the best coaches not being able to work with poor players. Pep G at Man City could not make his tactics work with poor players.

That's the problem Peer has got. Too many players who simply aren't good enough and never will be. Saints would not be playing as they do with our squad and Peet is lumbered with too many players where there is no improvement possible.

It's not about some of our players under performing, its about the fact that is as good as it gets with too many of them.

I agree with you far to many of the youngsters lads aren't good enough or too similar and that's what Peet has to sort now,the club need to back him and back him to the hilt it has been a improvement on the last 3 years of Lams nonsense but a rebuild that should have begun the second Wane said I'm off instead resulted in the Edwards/Lam fiasco saints have just pulled further away in those years talk about shooting yourself in the foot and that's down to Lenegan

Young lads! Some of our experienced pros were our worst performers. Batty and Faz saved their worse performances for today. Isa is past his sell by date. Added to that French was poor, Bibby and Miski were worse.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. Hardaker, Thornley, Marshall, KPP and Ellis will make a big difference to our team. I am hoping Tommy’s injury is not too bad. I see a far closer game at Elland Road.

[Charriots Offiah]

Our recruitment/retention seems off with players that are too small or too slow or both.

We are too accepting of "good" players in key positions when we need great players there to be a great team.

There’s not a great player in SL.

[Charriots Offiah]

Bibby
Miski
Singleton
Powell
Isa
Partington

All need replacing

You can add Thornley to that list as well and given age is an issue what’s the plan to replace Faz?

We have good forwards coming through the ranks. Our forwards were not dominated today but our three quarters were very poor.

What annoys me is that we continually try and fit round pegs into square holes, which weakens our team.