Just one game in to the season and nothing seems to have changed from the 2nd half of last season.

The big question is where did it all go wrong? Is it potter......The players......to old.....to young......no pace?

All of those to a varying degree. Anderson knew when to get out.

That saints squad is still good enough to win super league as the aint many with a better starting 17.

You do talk bollox sometimes Rogues. Anderson was always going when he went. It was known pretty much almost from the outset exactly when he was leaving.

Although it was only one performance and injuries screwed up your bench rotation, your team is leaderless and lacks organisation, clueless in attack - forget challenging the likes of Leeds this season...

Pish, we have plenty of leaders out there, and the organisation will come. I'd also suggest that the majority never anticipated challenging Leeds anyway this season, as is evidenced in many a pre-season thread here.

Now clueless in attack, there you have something of a point. Although we saw glimpses tonight from young Kyle, players like Pryce (drop the shoulder and come back inside), Flannery (the pale Scully imitation), and Gardner (pretend to be ready to catch) need to develop a few more dimensions to their games rather than the one move/action they continually attempt.

the problem pryce faasavalu gardner poor now for two years and flannery along with wilkin go missing

I think the problems last night were many!!
Fitness- cant believe how tired we all looked. Quite a few players carrying a little belly. I know its the first match of the season but it was for Hull too. They looked far fitter and stronger.
Attack- Embarrassing!!!!!! one up rugby or pass to half back then inside drop ball. I just cant understand why so many really good players have been playing so poorly for so long.

We were beaten in every facit of last nights game. Hulls desire was there for all to see. Well done Hull, i enjoyed watching them last night. The amount of injuries we sustained and the fact we were beaten up for 70mins suggests our pre-season was very wrong.

Our brand of, 5 drives and a kick, rugby along with a lack of pace in backline is the main problem.

Thought your 5th tackle options were shocking last night as you had us pinned in our 10 plenty of times but the little kick to force a dropout never came.

We don't have a 5th tackle option under potter. We just drive it in until the ref shouts handover.

One word for me - Potter!

If Anderson came back tomorrow you would look a better side, yes there are problems in other areas but I just don't rate Potter.

I agree, potter seems to be the problem as he's getting nothing out of the team.

I also think some of the blame needs to be put on the so called sir mac. No recruitment for 3yrs, wrong choice of coach are what started this very poor form.

I and few others on here seen this coming 2yrs ago. Teams can't lose top class players and not replace them.

The gamble on younsters will back fire big time. Only eastmond and wheeler are good enough for super league from our so called great yougsters.

Oh, I think Lomax has potential at this level too, assuming he improves his ball retention. He's nippy as well and tackles like a demon. For a guy with three plates in his head that is mighty brave. Scot Moore also has potential but he will have to settle into the team again first before we can really see what he is made of.

I agree lomax has shown he may be good enough for super league but the jury is still out on moore for me. I don't think having cunningham, roby and moore all in the 17 is going to work.

I watched moore last year and he makes a hell of a lot of mistakes and very often don't even notice he's on the pitch.

The way certain people on here was talking last year we had the worlds best youngsters that will be the saints team for next 10 years. No way on earth that was going to happen.

Don`t you think we have the same problem over Agar with some of our fans Paul?We all know Saints are a great side,but they have no divine right to win every time.I thought Hull played outstanding,compared to what we have had to endure the last two seasons.I think they deserve credit for the way they took on,and beat a good side.

It's a mixture of both the coach and the players. We have a reaosnable pack who graft hard, although we lack a bit of impact from the bench. The problem comes in the backs where we have the slowest set of backs in the league. Wellens, as good as he was, is past his best. He'sm never been the quickest, but it has become noticeable in the last year or so and he's becoming error prone now. He's still good enough for the team, but it may be worth thinking about moving him. Our wingers are slow. Gardner bulked up too much but doesn't break tackles like Meli does and unless Gidley puts a try on a plate for him, he offers little. Gidley is a classy player, but doesn't see enough of the ball. He's never been quick. Soliola is more a back rower who can play there. Meli is a classy player, but his errors are well documented. Pryce hasn't played well for a year. Eastmond is our shining light in the backs and he;s a young kid still learning.

Add to that, that we play a really dull brand of rugby, which is based on safety first and barely use the wings and it's no surprise our form has taken a dip. We're predictable and grind results out rather than win in style. If our defence is off it's game, we're in big, big trouble. This lies with the coach.

With ball in hand, we are very, very predictable. If you watch, all we did was pass the ball to the first receiver, and he would have a forward inside and outside of him and he would give it to one of them, and we did that all game on near enough every play. That is the reason that Hull were able to get 3 and 4 in the tackle every time. I put that down to Potters tactics, he used similar tactics at Catalan when they had a bigger pack than ours.

I think you are seriously not reading the posts on here. The vast majority are not talking about the fact that we lost. In fact, I think just one or two might have mentioned that. It is the way we are playing which is making us tear our hair out. And we played last night in the same way we did for the second half of last season whereas we were all hoping that Potter would prove skeptics like me wrong and show us that he knew how to play our players, that he had lots of attacking moves tucked up his sleeve and just needed the off season with our team to bed them in. But that hasn't happened and it is THAT which is driving us to distraction. Not that Hull won.

I was hoping (not anticipating, given our playing style last season) that last night's match would have been a real contest. That whoever won, it would have been a real treat to watch, even in the fog. Alas, it wasn't. That wasn't because Hull won but because we started this season like we finished last season: no clue on attack, players playing in inappropriate positions, umpteen missed tackles and dropped ball.

FC are always very welcome at Saints in my book. The fans are great, they made us laugh last night as well as singing their hearts out. The team, when it plays as a unit (as it did last night) are good to watch. All the makings of a fine game of rugby league. Then we come out with a load of rubbish which IMO is down to the coach: his inability to motivate, to be tactically aware, to play players in the correct position and style for them and his apparent lack of attacking moves.

Had we played well and attacked with flair Hull still may have won and that is fine by me. But it was our own play which was disappointing and sometimes embarrassing (like how many missed tackles? how many handovers?)

I do understand what you are saying mate,the point I was trying to make,maybe not too clearly,was that at Hull,we have had the same problem with our coach over the last two seasons.Things for us,at the moment seem to be looking up,although I know one game can`t guage a season.
Maybe I am still a bit overwhelmed by the fact we actually put in a good performance.

what same as noble did .you men have signed no one

It does appear Potter isnt getting the best out of any of our players.
Is it a 2 or 3 year deal Potter has?

Cunningham should be running at the defence more.
Roby should be starting games maybe at LF.
Wilkin should be given more responsibility.
Pryce needs to be dropped to give him a kick up the . or moved to a position he would be more effective
Wheres the offloads from Puletua we saw when he first came here.

Nobles contract wasn't renewed. Wigan have signed Deacon to help Sam learn his trade.
Saints have let Long, Gilmour and Cayless go and replaced them with Fozzard and Soliola(sp)

Gilmour with all his faults was the fastest forward at Saints, Fozzard was finished two seasons ago.

i agree why let gilmour go and keep flannery who done nothing since he came here

Mick Potter is the problem. He has made us so one Dimensional and predictable it is unreal. If your brave enough watch the game back on Sky. Hull's markers only need to step out once, safe in the knowledge that our forwards will take a drop off, off the hooker and go straight back into them. Hull's A defenders can come up straight next to the play the ball in a straight line without having to move because they know we will play one out.

Potter commented in mid week that Roby or Moore could cover stand off if needed. So when Gardner was injured, why not move Pryce (A guy who has played internationally on the Wing!) to cover, and play Moore or Roby at stand off. Last year I told people on here that Potter wanted all the players to gain weight and was laughed at. Now I see people commenting that they look unfit and have little bellies, Now do you believe me? The guy wants us to turn into Catalans, and that is never going to happen!