Re: Price - I wonder what he is thinking? : Wed Feb 14, 2018 1:11 pm  

easyWire wrote:

I’d love to know how we suddenly got to this state at the start of last year. There doesn’t seem to be any one reason, just that the grand final loss started a rut that we can’t get out of. Also that we haven’t replaced players appropriately, or the replacements haven’t realised the potential shown. We weren’t great in 2016 I know, we were just good in a poor league. However, there’s no reason we should end up as bad as we currently are. It’s bewildering...

I know it’s ifs and buts, but we really should have finished Catalan off in round 1 last year, and we had a great opportunity against Cas, if memory serves Savelio had a try disallowed which could have put us in the game. Win them two with a big game against Brisbane too and it could have been different.

But that’s pressure. We didn’t react to it, player or fans. We lost a couple, ever player is a donkey and “the coach has lost the dressing room” and tension mounts.

Big thing now in my opinion is just sneaking a win. Even if it’s kicking penalties and drop goals, we just need the W.

Re: Price - I wonder what he is thinking? : Wed Feb 14, 2018 1:41 pm  

The first game of the season is so important - I remember when we narrowly beat Leeds in '16 in the first game of the year - it only takes a couple of defeats and you're into a rut. Leeds were still a good side and if they'd won that first game I'm pretty sure they'd have finished in the top 8. Same with us - if we'd beaten Leeds (which we were an Atkins brainfart away from doing) we'd all be more relaxed. Or beaten Cats first game up.

The stats about W/L/D since '15 is really interesting. Basically, '16 was all about Sandow - before and since it's been average.

I also disagree with this talk that because the league is open and most teams are competitive it means the quality is low. I think this year's SL is pretty strong with lots of good teams in it. The current Saints and Leeds sides stand up to those in the past. You have Cas and Wakefield looking very competitive. Hull and Wigan also. You used to have some teams that you knew if we played anything like we'd win. At which time everyone complained saying it was too easy, not enough competitive games etc. We then get a league with 12 competitive teams in which you can never be sure of the result and everyone complains that it's because the quality is poor etc.

Re: Price - I wonder what he is thinking? : Thu Feb 15, 2018 5:04 am  

Pricys first mistake was to allow Chris Hill to continue as team captain.
His game has imploded since the initial appointment.

Like I said in a previous post prior to the appointment, he ought to have been club captain but we should have a team field captain too.

See how Hill's performance improved at the world cup without that baggage.

Re: Price - I wonder what he is thinking? : Thu Feb 15, 2018 7:32 am  

Do we even need a captain?

Re: Price - I wonder what he is thinking? : Thu Feb 15, 2018 8:43 am  

This whole team needs time to get properly fit and time to gel. They’ve had a minimal pre-season as a squad together. Even though a number have had a full pre-season there are plenty who haven’t so they hadn’t had that time to gel with the coach’s philosophy and routines. Saints were fortunate to get their coach in part way through last season. They had the second half of the season to go through their transition and will hit the ground running this season. When a squad is already familiar with philosophy and routine, it’s easy to slot a few new cogs in here and there and the machine still runs. Whereas I always think the off-season is a difficult time for a coach to take over as he doesn’t get his clock working as a whole for a while as he’s only assembling all the cogs in one go.

Also he doesn’t get to see the team in a proper competitive game for months. You can suss out the deadwood and start planning for next season in terms of transfers during the transition period. Coming in in the Winter means Price won’t suss our who the deadwood are until around the Easter programme or even by Magic Weekend. I think the most important thing for a coach to get to know his squad is by seeing those ebbs and flows from week to week in competitive matches. We won’t be seeing the properly transitioned Price’s Wire until later in the season and we won’t be seeing the best of Price’s Wire until next year.

Just got to be patient.

In terms of what Price is thinking so far: I bet he’s surprised how poor the standard of the league is and bet he’s thinking with a good Winter next year if he can get rid of the deadwood (there’s a few in our squad) and bring in quality, we’ll have a great shout in 2019.

2018, just staying up is the priority.

Re: Price - I wonder what he is thinking? : Thu Feb 15, 2018 8:56 am  

wire-flyer wrote:

Do we even need a captain?

We need leaders. There should be a group of people who are leaders in a team. I can’t think of any who lead us around the pitch or lead us by organisation defensively.

Re: Price - I wonder what he is thinking? : Thu Feb 15, 2018 9:30 am  

Smith has left a right mess behind. You have to feel sorry for Price. There's definitely a worry that players are almost naturally reverting to type when things aren't going well this season. It's like the words of Richard Agar are still reverberating around their heads .

Joking aside it will take time for new boys to gel but perhaps more worryingly is that I think when we do it still won't be good enough. We've accumulated some real dead wood that still needs a clear out before it spreads throughout. Full back, wings, stand off, loose all in dire need of replacing.

Re: Price - I wonder what he is thinking? : Thu Feb 15, 2018 11:07 am  

https://warringtonwolves.com/steve-pric ... ip-widnes/ There you go, 3rd game in and the dreaded we have trained well as reared it’s ugly head lmao.

https://warringtonwolves.com/steve-pric ... ip-widnes/ There you go, 3rd game in and the dreaded we have trained well as reared it’s ugly head lmao.

[Fantastic Mr Catpiss]

Re: Price - I wonder what he is thinking? : Thu Feb 15, 2018 11:11 am  

The army camp did wonders compared to doing warm weather training

Re: Price - I wonder what he is thinking? : Thu Feb 15, 2018 11:16 am  

Don’t forget before being regular top three finishers we finished tenth in Smith’s first season and we had a better squad then than we do now