lefty goldblatt wrote:
I'm of the opinion that Price's blind spot, is the same as the latter half of Smith's tenure.... recruitment.
Sure, there are plus points, e.g. Austin, and Widdop to come, but he's had two seasons to get this side to win pots (yes, this season's not over, yet), but his signings have left me cold.
Jason Clark is indeed hard working, but so was a Vauxhall Cavalier (I know we need steadie Eddie's, but that's it, and at a presumably decent wage).
Don't get me started on Tasi.
Akuala (sp) and BMM have been COLLOSSAL let downs as impact players. Yes, they can scatter opposition players, but at most, its twice a game, and they don't result in too many tries, and they play a PATHETIC amount of minutes. Counter this, to that Pauli Pauli geezer at Wakefield, last week. He "tore us a new one", last week, despite being on a side that was thrashed on the scoreboard, and he played a big amount of minutes.
Unless we win something by mid October, or have a MEGA season next year, Price will have NO legacy. Moran and Middleton have given him big funds. Remember, Saints (and last season's Wigan) aren't That special
This post is a premonition of what I think the prevailing view on this board will be, in this off season. At the moment it is difficult to see that we are progressing. Last season there was a definite sense of progress - poor start, following on from a disastrous 2017, but you could see a better defensive structure, and then we started to improve and you could see the team improving in organisation and also having more resilience than they did in 2017. Several individuals who had had poor 2017s significantly improved in 2018. Yes there were downsides (Roberts, losing two finals) but on the whole you could see the club was going in the right direction. This year - I'm not sure. Is the Wire of 2019 better than the Wire of 2018? On paper they should be better, with Austin in for Roberts, but I'm not sure I have more confidence in us now than I did a year ago.
I don't think recruitment is just a coach issue. Surely this is part of Karl Fitzpatrick and others' jobs too? Is it a coincidence that a major criticism that was levelled against TS over the last few years of his time here, is now an issue for Price as well....? Charnley has been a good signing (although he had a track record which suggested he would be a safe bet so hardly unearthing a diamond) but the others have been so-so. Several players who have occasional good moments, occasional good games, but aren't consistent top players and who we wouldn't miss if they left at the end of the season.
The best signing is Austin, but the jury is still out on him too, given what was said about him in Aus before he joined: tends to start off well at clubs then fade away when teams work him out; good player at ripping weaker sides but doesn't do it against top sides. There are signs that he is following that pattern.
I fear now that we are going to have a very Wire-like end to the season. We'll lose the Challenge Cup semi, or in the final against Saints. The 'bottling it in big games' theory will resurface again. We'll tell ourselves that it could be a 'blessing in disguise'...cup win will distract Saints...Grand Final is the one we want etc etc, rubber duckie will predict that we will go the rest of the season unbeaten. We will start playing well and winning games for a bit and have our hopes raised, then we'll have a painful defeat in the playoffs or final, and all that stuff about bottling in big games will start all over again with even more angst given the number of times it has happened. We won't make any big signings because our salary cap is already committed, and then we'll get 'the Widdop news', either that he isn't coming, or he's injured and will miss the first 4 months of next season or something. We'll hear positive stories from the club about how 'Patton can step up and be the main man' in 2020 etc.
At this point a lot of the goodwill that was built up in 2018 will have gone away and Price will start 2020 facing the kind of angry pent up frustration that TS faced at the start of 2017, or Cullen back in 2008.
