He said he couldn't close his eyelid and lost a sense of depth in his vision, that's not full fitness.



Ooh, so now you agree with myself and FTV in reserving judgement until his two years is up?



When have I said that my viewpoint is that Potter has no responsibility for anything that happens? I have not, therefore how can you have taken that as my viewpoint?



Then I ask again, why bring such an extreme example into it?

A coach is never given full credit for good times, therefore very rarely should a coach be solely blamed for bad times. This is not one of those times. There are almost always other factors that come into play in both situations.

On the interview I heard he said his vision was fine it was just that he couldn't close his eyelid and so struggled to play when the sun was shining as it dried out his eyeball.


Only insofar as his mandate to integrate the young players into the team is concerned. I haven't said anything differently on that issue.


It was a random thought. No planning behind it. I shall make sure I watch my words next time though. You a lawyer per chance?


That may be your experience; it isn't mine. All the fans I've come into contact with have been very happy to praise the coach for the good times - and the players, obviously. But the coach takes it as well. Ditto for the bad times with the criticism. Rightly so, IMO. It's part of their job that the buck stops with them where the team's performance is concerned.

No, but you are the one who has problems with what your posts imply and what can be inferred from them. It's a problem that you seem to have more than most on here.



You mean the players get praise too? That the coach doesn't get sole praise for success? You typed a lot to agree with me. Nice selective quoting by the way.

Anyway, I'm sure everyone else is as bored of reading this as I am by now.

Most of all, me.

That your last word on the matter?

I am not one to jump on the coaches back. I also remember thinking, when were beating Leeds in midseason last year that we were seeing some excellent displays of rugby, in a patient, controlled and precise manner.

However, our performances did slip and it was much harder work for us to get to the GF than in previous years. In the CC Huddersfield also showed that an agressive defence causes us all sorts of bother (in a way not too dissimilar to when Hull knocked us out in 05).

I missed the match on Sat as I was away so can't comment too much on it and I'm all for admitting that the coaches, even bad ones (even Paul Cullen, or is that too far), know more about rugby league than me. However, our play on the last tackle has been atrocious for a long time and reportedly the off season hasn't remedied a very basic problem. Dux told me this in an email the other day -

If this is true (which I presume it is) then we have a serious problem. Whether its with the coaches technical knowledge or his ability to get the players to do what he asks, there's something up.

Jeez, we'll be getting beat by Warrington at this rate.

Interesting though, who do we get to replace him? The saints board aren't rash deceison makers, so you're looking at the end of the season for a change. There must be a few coaches in SL (and even down under) who'll be eyeing up the position. Club under performing, good set of youngsters, new stadium on the way - an attractive proposition.

If we didnt go with somebody already at the club (in the short term at least) I'm assuming we'd need go look at another Aussie - who's available?

I wonder how KC would go as player/coach? with 2 other 9's here he could take his step back, and who better to inspire the lads, plus he has learned from some good coaches, would be loved by the fans and would do what is best for the club, whatever that might mean (dropping big stars etc)

Well he couldnt inspire them any less than Potter has managed too .. Watching this pie game now makes me want Potter out even more, even Wigan throw the ball around more than us

If we continue playing as we have been playing and if Wigan and HKR continue playing as they are playing, we are going to get hammered by both of them.

If we play like we did against Hull all season we better get used to being hammered

i'm watching it to, with a large sense of dread

I'm a bit torn actually - I'm enjoing the Rugby on show but not looking forward to playing either of them

i've just posted the same on redvee! great game to watch, but not looking forward to good friday!

Just face it lads your team looking old, slow and tired. It's not the coach it's the legs.

poor effort

Hull are an older side but they are playing fine and actually winning.

It isn't age that's crippling us, it's the way we're playing.

Exactly - We have a mix of youth and experience , admittedly we arnt the quckest team in the world but our tactics and coaching are the real problem

I wouldn't worry to much about wigan or hull kr just yet. Its only week 2!

Wigan looked a very well drilled team last night. They looked fit, fast, sharp, everything we wasn't last week at hull but as i said its week 2 and early days.

Last year hull won there first 5 games and didn't make play offs. I still think wigan have a lot to improve on in attack even though they put two big scores on so far.

I thought KR looked poor in large spells last night but didn't give up which kept the score down.

potter has clearly inherited an ageing first team,i lay the blame clearly at the feet of the board of directors.

should they not be in more control of our squad replacement at the relevant times?

Across the board, our team is younger than it was last year.

It's younger and look just as bad!

im not on about across the board this season!
the board have clearly allowed our squad to age,almost to an extent that a major overhaul will be neccessary very soon

imo the person managing the squad should be responsible for replacing ageing players by stagnating their contracts so that only 1 or 2 older players need replacing at any one time

long was replaced without really giving kyle a decent shot in the 7 position
we have had to bring another older player back in fozzard after he was released for obviously being past his best,and kept cayless instead?

i just think that a more professional running of our club would have made our transition easier between older and newer squads,only time will tell whether we suffer or not

IMO you're an idiot, how do you manage this if 5/6 of your stars are the same age? yeah, you let scully finish 1 year, longy the next and KC and gidley the one after! like we have done!

Cayless was contracted, fozzard wasnt

Kyle is the England international 7, the difference there is he had a good (excellent) No 6 with him, now he has a gutless waste of space.
you have just shown your complete lack of knowledge

oh i'm an idiot am i?
my point is that even after we have let long go,we still have this list of talented but ageing players on our books
wellens
meli
gidley
fozzard
cunningham
puletua
flannery
fa'asavalu
only time will tell if i'm an idiot or not,but there's far too many ageing players in that list for my liking