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Bobby-WRL wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 9:47 am This is a case of your only as good as your last game on here.
We have arguably been the best team in the league this year . Our squad is very good aside from centre / hooker.
The reason we didn’t win the SL this year is due to a bad game / off day , nothing else.

How are we the best team in the league but have finished second and didn’t make the grand final?

Saints are and have been the best team in the league for the last 4 years. Hard to dispute that. But in answer to Flash the point I was trying to make is that our recruitment in the last few years has been poor. French and Field have been exceptionally this year but we got lucky with Field because we didn’t recruit him to play full back more of a 6 as we had Hardaker. I don’t put that down to good planning on KR part.

Regarding Mago and Ellis I think we could have done better. Saints for example sign Paasi has more impact than both of them put together and plays big minutes. If we are to win a grand final we need more than just Field and French that means we need to improve our recruitment.

The two games in between the semi and final we rested and took our feet off the gas.
We battered Saints for the most part 3 out of 4 games with our own injury problems etc.
we slipped up but aside from that there’s a strong argument to say we have been the best team this season.
Isn’t that the reason so many were tipping us to win it this year?

nathan_rugby wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 1:46 pm

Bobby-WRL wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 9:47 am This is a case of your only as good as your last game on here.
We have arguably been the best team in the league this year . Our squad is very good aside from centre / hooker.
The reason we didn’t win the SL this year is due to a bad game / off day , nothing else.

How are we the best team in the league but have finished second and didn’t make the grand final?

"Best" is a relative term. We weren't the best in the sense that we finished 2nd and didn't win the GF. However we were the sending off of Singleton from finishing 1st and not making the final unfortunately comes down to 1 bad game. That's the nature of the competition unfortunately.

Best could also refer to our best being better than their best in performance terms. Saints have been steady but unspectacular this season. We have been spectacular on occasion but not as consistent. You could argue that our best has been better than their best and on two (and very nearly 3) occasions this season we've bettered them.

Does that make us the best? Probably not as the competition is not decided that way but I know which team I'd rather have been watching this year.

Graham1 wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 9:31 am Totally agree with DaveO the reason saints keeping winning is in their retainment and recruitment of overseas players and coaches. The overseas players they bring in are not fringe players but ones that are normally first choice or battle hardened players. Whereas ours like Ellis, Mago and Cust for example struggle to get in their sides. Would saints have signed those 3 IMO I don’t think so.

We lost to Leeds because we totally depend on Field and French in attack and it didn’t happen. Our go forward is poor and too slow. Sorry to say it but today’s rugby you have to have a quality 9 which we lack. I know it can’t happen but would release mago and Ellis bring in a big mobile prop, half back, and hooker. Being greedy another back row forward. But 3 out the 4 would do.

Ellis played most weeks for St George, Mago was normally there or there abouts, he was 18th man in the GF for Souths

Graham1 wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 2:51 pm Saints are and have been the best team in the league for the last 4 years. Hard to dispute that. But in answer to Flash the point I was trying to make is that our recruitment in the last few years has been poor. French and Field have been exceptionally this year but we got lucky with Field because we didn’t recruit him to play full back more of a 6 as we had Hardaker. I don’t put that down to good planning on KR part.

Regarding Mago and Ellis I think we could have done better. Saints for example sign Paasi has more impact than both of them put together and plays big minutes. If we are to win a grand final we need more than just Field and French that means we need to improve our recruitment.

And, off what we've seen he would have been great at 6 too. How is that lucky? Then what about French? Was that "lucky" too?

You can't argue one way when it suits your argument and a different way when it doesn't. Otherwise it's equally valid to say we were unlucky with any poor signings.

Flash wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 3:50 pm

Graham1 wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 2:51 pm Saints are and have been the best team in the league for the last 4 years. Hard to dispute that. But in answer to Flash the point I was trying to make is that our recruitment in the last few years has been poor. French and Field have been exceptionally this year but we got lucky with Field because we didn’t recruit him to play full back more of a 6 as we had Hardaker. I don’t put that down to good planning on KR part.

Regarding Mago and Ellis I think we could have done better. Saints for example sign Paasi has more impact than both of them put together and plays big minutes. If we are to win a grand final we need more than just Field and French that means we need to improve our recruitment.

And, off what we've seen he would have been great at 6 too. How is that lucky? Then what about French? Was that "lucky" too?

You can't argue one way when it suits your argument and a different way when it doesn't. Otherwise it's equally valid to say we were unlucky with any poor signings.

There is a small group of people who will find fault in anything IL and KR related.

The fact that Saints won four GF's on the run is due surely too the fall off of the main GF rival clubs. With only four clubs having won the Grand Final we've had Bradford relegated together with Leeds' and Wigan's form falling off a cliff.

Leeds fall due to not replacing the "Golden Generation" until they'd left. Wigan's due to replacing Shaun Wane with Shaun Edwards and we all know what happened then! If Ian Lenagan cops any criticism then it's for the Edwards fiasco and sticking with Lam for far too long. For the rest of his tenure IL has done a great job and sadly had had to £ms of his own money into the club to keep it viable.

As to where we are now after one season with Matty Peet as Lam's successor. We have won the C Cup, came second in the League and scored the most tries and points. Could we have done better? Of course, the semi v Leeds was lost due to injuries and poor team selection. Finishing top of the League might have been possible if we'd had better away form and not rested players in the two games prior to the C Cup. The team has also been coached to play some of the most exciting rugby and brilliant tries we've ever seen.

After some years of watching really lack lustre rugby we now expect quality rugby and I've no doubt we'll see it. The squad is being strengthened and times look very good for the future.
IL's role in this is obvious and again he is organising yet another uplift in the club's fortunes.

I the one thing that worries me is what I’ve said on other threads

People talk about the lam dark times and we all remember them

Everyone who is in the coaching staff next year was present either in the coaching staff or team then so we will have exactly the same minds that were with us during those times obviously minus lam

However a brief glance at lams leigh tenure

Points difference of over 1000 effectively double the 2nd place - score over 300 points more than anyone in the league. Now we know he’s got the best team in a poorer league but it makes me nervous to how’s much of our attack is mr briers

Wigan_forever1985 wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 9:14 pm I the one thing that worries me is what I’ve said on other threads

People talk about the lam dark times and we all remember them

Everyone who is in the coaching staff next year was present either in the coaching staff or team then so we will have exactly the same minds that were with us during those times obviously minus lam

However a brief glance at lams leigh tenure

Points difference of over 1000 effectively double the 2nd place - score over 300 points more than anyone in the league. Now we know he’s got the best team in a poorer league but it makes me nervous to how’s much of our attack is mr briers

So are you putting every improvement down to one assistant coach?