Long was not fit in 2007 which also had a major impact on the game. In 2008 and 2009 the same pattern eventually emerged, the lack of pace was not rectified.



The 2002 team was a better team.

Some of us are grey. I'm a grey Saints fan

In fact you can now pick your avatar according your Saints perspective.



White Saint



The Saints can do no wrong type.



Black Saint



There's always something wrong type.



Grey Saint



The modern rugby league type

Just awesome!

Greatest post ever

My own view re coaches is that you can tell what they bring to the team by the attitude of the players in DEFENCE.



As such i rate Anderson highly as he made us into a very tough nut to crack.



Similarly if you look at what Mcguire has done at Wigan and what Tony Smith has done with the teams he has coached you always get the BIG D.



When you have players of the quality that Saints do possess then its pretty easy for them to play attacking RL.



Where the coaching comes in is building the iron mentality of fighting for every inch.



I have not seen this from either Potter or Simmons teams.

Simmons teams in particular have been cruely exposed against the superior organisation of Wigan and Wire.

As a result we have found ourselves smashed off the park, before coming back from a late rally, as the opposition takes the foot off the pedal due to knowing they have our number.

Some Saints fans then have fallen for this thinking it shows we are in the games, but the reality is that its no different than when we play lower standard teams, get up a big lead and then end up winning a match 40-20 with most of our points being scored in the first half.

i dont think anyone on here would have dropped Gardner and put Lomax in at centre - a position he has never played before or since in his career - when it was obvious that Meli should be centre, with Gardner on the wing.

I presume you mean the grand final team, which was very odd, and it was difficult to understand just were lomax played in that game, despite being named on the wing outside meli. Which I agree was bizarre. Going through the heritage site, he did play Gardner pre playoffs, so I can't recall if he got injured or not?



What did happen though was when foster came into the team he took Gardner's right wing spot, Gardner came back in, with meli in the centre

I 've enjoyed debating it with you and I'm happy to agree to disagree. Save ourselves going around in circles.

Lol, ok.

It was going to be extremely hard to increase the defensive intensity after Anderson though, I don't think Wigan now are more intensive than we were then, they just use different tactics. Smith and McGuire came into teams that didn't defend as well and the improvement is easy to see with those two teams. Our intensity has been slowly dropping ever since Anderson left though, his failings for me were elsewhere.



Fully agree with this.

ok I'llake this one on.



Smashed off the park. Really? We have played wigan four times this year and Wigan blew us off the park in one game. The other three where more competitve than you give us credit for. DW we were even leading.



Warrington we have played twice and been shashed once. In terms of the last game against wire they hit the lead but our come back was way beofre half time and which can hardly be put down to the foot being taken off the pedal. There was some good attacking play to score those tries.



I would not argue we are as consistently good as either wire or wigan. but neither do i subscribe to us being light years behind them. We are there or there abouts and I see no reason why we will not improve next year. Judging coaches seams to have got more and more short term.



Milward was a spent force after five years. Anderson had peaked after three. Potter after two and simmons is being replaced before his first season is over.



For me that way lies the way off wigan and there years of merry go round coaches and not being a force as a team. Simmons may not be the next great coach but he should at least be able to have a run in the playoffs.