Re: Our 2015 Squad : Mon Nov 24, 2014 11:23 am  

oh its a serious post alright.

Re: Our 2015 Squad : Mon Nov 24, 2014 11:47 am  

It is so md.
As serious as I was last year about how a certain player could fix our s/off problem.
Was he not the best back in SL at that time? Did TS not say so himself?

Wheeler in form would lick Travis Burns for tea. A big loss whether posters want to hide it behind a mist of injuries of not.
Bring on the friendlies and get Wheeler out there.

Re: Our 2015 Squad : Mon Nov 24, 2014 12:31 pm  

rubber duckie wrote:

It is so md.
As serious as I was last year about how a certain player could fix our s/off problem.
Was he not the best back in SL at that time? Did TS not say so himself?

Wheeler in form would lick Travis Burns for tea. A big loss whether posters want to hide it behind a mist of injuries of not.
Bring on the friendlies and get Wheeler out there.

A big loss? He does have potential, you get him fit and you'll certainly have a good player on your hands. But after 8 years at Saints and never becoming a regular despite us having no halfbacks, we couldn't keep him. He never contributed as a regular player, so again it's hardly a loss.

The one aspect of it that intrigues me as a Saints fan is how successful Warrington's medical team are able with getting him in shape and playing consistently. If he does work out well, it will reflect poorly on our conditioning team.

Re: Our 2015 Squad : Mon Nov 24, 2014 1:06 pm  

Wouldn' t there be a case that over much of his career, Saints haven't really had a decent 7 since the departure of Long other than the short stint of Eastmond?

Would it be fare to say that Saints have struggled with the support hb because of this?
The no6 constantly having to do more to off the short comings at 7?

The no9 being such an important pivotal player over that period as creative hb play is wanting?
Busting your key men over and over in the likes of Wheeler and Roby and forcing players like Wilkin and Wellens to take on a hb responsibility and then end up getting busted themselves?

The answer was Walsh and Wheeler at the start of the season looking sensational. Walsh gets busted and then the wheels fall off again.

Wheeler perhaps needs a little less pressure at hb.

Re: Our 2015 Squad : Mon Nov 24, 2014 1:17 pm  

Does wheeler have a great kicking game?... can he lead a team around the park? Will he ever play enough games for us to be able to find out?

if he doesn't, then we still have the same problems as last season... infact the problem is bigger as we have lost Monaghan who did alot of good kicking from AHB

Ratchford - Some brilliant displays, poor kicking game... probably better at full back
Bridge - Fairly solid at 6, but no kicking game and not a leading HB
Myler - Support player.. we have seen he cant lead a team around the pitch.. bang average kicking game.
Obrien - probably the closest thing we have.. lets hope he kicks on.
Patton - One for the future, but probably not for this season.

Some of these players have provided some decent kicks when close to the line (they have also provided some extremely bad ones as well).. I think the issue is field position.. Last season we really suffered for not having a kicker that could get us field position... i dont see that changing next season unless Patton cements a place at 7 (who by all accounts has an excellent kicking game)...

We also lacked organisation as well i thought.. No one stood up and tried to get us going like briers used to.. there was no one directing the forwards around, shouting the odds out and calling the shots... Only M.Monaghan ever really did this.. and now he has left as well.... So again, either someone from that list is going to have to do something they haven't done before or its going to be a struggle in the big games again.

Re: Our 2015 Squad : Mon Nov 24, 2014 4:31 pm  

rubber duckie wrote:

Wouldn' t there be a case that over much of his career, Saints haven't really had a decent 7 since the departure of Long other than the short stint of Eastmond?

Would it be fare to say that Saints have struggled with the support hb because of this?
The no6 constantly having to do more to off the short comings at 7?

The no9 being such an important pivotal player over that period as creative hb play is wanting?
Busting your key men over and over in the likes of Wheeler and Roby and forcing players like Wilkin and Wellens to take on a hb responsibility and then end up getting busted themselves?

The answer was Walsh and Wheeler at the start of the season looking sensational. Walsh gets busted and then the wheels fall off again.

Wheeler perhaps needs a little less pressure at hb.

You are right, other than Sean Long, Kyle Eastmond, Matty Smith and Luke Walsh, Saints haven't had many good scrum halves in the time Wheeler has been with us.

It's fair to say we struggled a fair bit since Leon Pryce left as we only ever had one half. Wheeler never became that other half.

Saints looked sensational with Walsh and Wheeler? Wheeler played the first 2 games of Super League before getting injured. He then played 1 game in March, 1 in April, 2 in May, 1 in June, 1 in July, 2 in August and 2 in September. Wheeler was never put under any pressure, he was never relied upon. The fact he wasn't relied on despite us losing our playmakers for a huge portion of the season says it all IMO.

There is a school of thought that he has never really had a bad injury this season either. His availability during each of the months of SL suggest that is true and a lot of people think it's an attitude thing.

Re: Our 2015 Squad : Mon Nov 24, 2014 6:16 pm  

Patton's try during one of the U19's games I saw were he chipped the ball over the defence and ran on, caught it, and scored, was very promising to see. He has that air of arrogance and cockiness that a good 6 needs.

Re: Our 2015 Squad : Mon Nov 24, 2014 7:44 pm  

rubber duckie wrote:

It is so md.
As serious as I was last year about how a certain player could fix our s/off problem.
Was he not the best back in SL at that time? Did TS not say so himself?

Wheeler in form would lick Travis Burns for tea. A big loss whether posters want to hide it behind a mist of injuries of not.
Bring on the friendlies and get Wheeler out there.

Give over.
Gary Wheeler at 15 years of age looked a brilliant prospect. By the time he was 18 or 19 there had been very little progress. Forget the injuries he has never been any more than average for a long time. Gaskell was a far better player.

Re: Our 2015 Squad : Mon Nov 24, 2014 7:57 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

Give over.
Gary Wheeler at 15 years of age looked a brilliant prospect. By the time he was 18 or 19 there had been very little progress. Forget the injuries he has never been any more than average for a long time. Gaskell was a far better player.

12 months ago I was getting the same bashing for saying almost exactly the same things about Bridge.
I'll leave it up to Wheeler to shut up the knockers.
I'm done saying my thoughts about him.
I'm more disappointed that our own fans love being very anti at individuals at times.

All I've been reading is Wheeler is like a casualty from MASH and Clark will go AWOL.
Now Sims is on the end of a phone to the AA and not about his car!

Give him/them a chance then in 6 months if I'm wrong I'll hold my hands up.

If Wheeler does to Saints what he did to us in game 1 last year, I will be very happy.

Re: Our 2015 Squad : Mon Nov 24, 2014 9:02 pm  

Does no one ever give any thought that maybe all these young talented lads from saints always drop off due to the fact they get fed up of the club? Saints get so much youth talent but prefer to opt for quick fixes. Gaskell, Foster and Smith being the main stand outs. Wheeler with a fresh start with a point to prove will come leaps and bounds.