With Mick entering the final year of his 2 year deal are we facing an unsettling year of speculation?

DA was the first coach of Saints I can remember leaving of his own accord and the process was relatively smooth.

I was surprised we only offered/ took on a coach for a two year period in the midst of rebuilding the team.

The noises at the time were that Potter would want to return to OZ at the end of 2 years but I cant see him returning to a head coach job.

For me, I think Mick got a good result out of the squad presented to him, but the style of play hasn't excited me.

Unless we have someone in Mind, I would offer a 1 year extention early.

There are hundreds of people who could do the job Potter did last season.

There is no doubt he had the second best team available so finishing behind Leeds was rather inevitable no matter who was coaching us. However the limping out of the cup against a feable one-trick-pony Huddersfield side was ridiculous. There was no belief in the side at all during the season, no one seemed to be sure what was going on.

When an international scrum half who is one of the most decorated and experienced players in the world comes out and admits he had no clue what was going on tactically just before the play offs you have to question what was going on behind the scenes. I fear for Kyle Eastmond's development if it's Potter he spends the next few years under.

Then you take into account the manner with which Saints approached the game and you have to conclude Potter's performance was disappointing. I felt truly bored many a time at KR last season, which I've never done in 20 years, even when we weren't in with a chance of winning anything.

I personally hope the club don't consider his contract unless something pretty miraculous happens next season. When he signed you could tell he was doing it for the money, he never made one positive statement about the job. The players don't seem to like him, they never praise him in interviews or mention his coaching like they did under Millward and DA all the time, despite their failings at times.

He got no results so far as I can see except losing stuff we had previously won. We couldn't even manage to add to our new bathroom collection. Second best isn't a good result, especially when in the process he extracted every last glimmer of flair from the team. Well, not every last. Kyle managed to score all our points at the Grand Final so there was one team member who managed to keep hold of his flair until the end.


I would not offer Mick Potter an extension at any time based upon last year's performance.

Its a strange feeling when you agree with Saddened

.The first half of the season is crucial to him, if kyle rips it up and we have a good run, then i can see him getting an extension. If we play like we did for about a third of last season with no direction or flair, its goodbye, i hope

Ive gone through many seasons In the past were we havent won a thing or even close to It. So comeing up empty handed albeit dissapointing isnt the main issue for me. The mind numbingly boring style of play Is though.
If that doesnt change next season Id turf him out long before the season ends.
Id give Purtill ago and see how he goes if it does come to that.
One things for sure I aint going to blindly go to every match this season if we play that one out crap again. For the first time In a long,long time I havent renewed my season ticket.

Although i did blindlt buy my season ticket

I agree about the style of play, the attendances will drop off quickly if we dont introduce some flair. Kyle showed at the 4 nations he is capable, but will he be allowed under potter? I really hope so

I think potter did a ok job with the players he had. The was a lot of players injured last year which forced potter to play some young lads in important games.

If I'm being honest I don't like potter or his boring style of play which has bored me to tears this year. I even had my 8 year old son who is saints mad asking can we go because I'm bored! I've even had to drag him kicking and screaming to some games!

However I'm not sure DA would have done much better in terms of winning anything. I can't recall DA having to play so many kids in our 17 every week like potter has done this year. DA even left vinnie Anderson and fozz out of 2 cup final squads!

I'm not sure how this season will pan out as I still think we got huge problems in attack but i'd like to see saints to bring in a young coach like justin Morgan.

I have mixed views. I think we did OK results-wise bearing in mind the squad/injuries, no team can win all the trophies all the time, but some of the performances were boring.

Apart from Leeds, Warrington and perhaps Huddersfield all the other clubs would swap places with us on a results base. (CC semi final, 2nd in league and Grand Finalists)

One game I ended up talking to the man behind me at half time and didn't realise the 2nd half had started. When I looked at the clock 10 minutes had gone, I watch for about 5 minutes then went home.

People on here have said various things about happenings in the dressing room/training ground but I have no knowledge of anything so cannot comment on those being true/false/misunderstood.

The final decison will be swayed by who else is available and if MP wants to go back to Aussie

A lot will depend on the how fast the PTB is too. If it's the same mess as last year, then Potter will and the players will have to work hard to adapt their game. Players like Roby, Pryce and some of the lower impact second rowers will have to find out how they can be more effective against a defence that is organised and coming forward.

Its got less to do with your coach and more to do with your side getting old.

Yes, we know you have Eastmond (we think!) but who's going to replace the rest of your old guard?

To be honest I didn't really start the thread as a judgment of Potters reign, of which there have been many threads, more as to the effect on the team with regards to the coaching position.

Saints made noises at the time of his appointment about rebuilding, bringing the youth through etc.

But surely 2 years isn't enough time to do this properly. I would have thought 3 years minimum.

If you are worried about giving a coach too long a deal , surely you negotiate into the contract a settlement figure.

With this in mind and considering the amount of time Saints had to replace DA, to hire any coach on a 2 Year deal seem to indicate to me that there is a another appointment in mind who wasnt available at the time.

Meninga?

If there isn't it seems to me a surprisingly short term view and more likely to disrupt the team, especially some of the players motivation.

No its not,thats bull.

Potter was looking for job back in Oz primarily prior to taking
the Saints job.

I think he is just marking time until an NRL job
becomes vacant.

I can see a departure prior to the end of the season
(if results go badly) and certainly no extension.

If he does go in season, Rush / Purtill would fill in
ala Huddersfield did before Brown.

Seems a nice bloke with technical insight into the game.
However he will never deliver an attacking flair
saints style , that many fans still crave.

If he doesn't win anything, he's got little chance of getting a job in the NRL.

FWIW though, last years disjointed performances weren't all down to him and his tactics. We rarely had a settled halfback partnership and when we did Long was generally poor, add to that a much weakened front row and the necessary use of youngsters for large parts of the season and we were never going to be setting the world alight.

Certainly that was bandied around before his appointment but surely the Saints job is not a "marking time" appointment, unless it suited our board to make a short term appointment.

He could have easily stayed with a relatively successful Catalan team to mark time and we weren't desperate for his services.

Our Chairman has shown himself to be a shrewd operator throughout his reign and Potter`s appointment on the face of it doesn't seem to fit the pattern (unless he was cheap).

The thing with Mick is that you just don't see the little bits that make you think he'll make it work in the long run. If we were playing really badly but there were signs of his masterplan coming together you could understand it and put up with it.

But last season I didn't see anything to suggest there was any future upturn in performances on the horizon.

Care to back your comment up?

You're very good at, provierbially, throwing punches and then running and hiding before you get some back.

Oh Im sorry I wasnt permenantly logged on untill you made an appearance.

Age has nothing to do with one man rugby and everything to do with tactics.
Also,would you like to back up your comment and compare the average age of our squad with the rest of the league seeing as you made the point.

I noticed last season that the sense of expectation was missing. At times it was very much a case of trying to keep awake and hoping we'd win. The semi agains Shudds being a case in point.
Potter seems to lack inspiration and motivation or rather he doesn't show evidence of it. Everything seemed "not quite right".
I watched him arrive for one match wearing a suit jacket that was obviously too large for him. Not that it's a crime to be in such a jacket or that it is reflective of his coaching abilities but it rather summed up the suitation......everything there but somehow not quite fitting.
It left a sense of uneasiness.
At the Hull KR away game... it seemed as if some-one had run over the team puppy...again that sense of tiredness and lack of coaching inspiration.
I would rather watch us lose after playing an inspired and exhilarating game than win after I'd been reduced to reading the programme whilst waiting for some exciting play.
Give us a coach with flair, someone who shows his desire to win, who jumps up and down when we score, who claps the fans, who rolls his eyes at the camera, who turns his cap backwards, who looks as if he really wants to be there.
Anything other than some-one who sits and waits for the mothership to take him back to the southern hemisphere.

Great way of putting it. I agree.

Not someone like Daniel Anderson then? Who did none of the things you say that you want in a coach?

Or someone like John Monie was at Wigan. On match day he looked more like a solicitor than a jump up and down coach.

I suspect he (26boots) preferred the Alex Murphy style of coaching.



I know which style I would have.

Rubbish. When we beat Leeds at Headingley, we were playing excellent, patient and not unexpansive rugby. Potter might not have given us a perfect season, lack of tacticalvariety is probably his mainproblem, but statements like that are ridiculous.
Get Millward in! 70 - nil here we come!

Couldn`t agree more.

He most certainly did!!