I think we read far too much into comments and press statements. Do people really want the coach to come on and lay into his players first game out?

He has to manage the squad for the season, not game to game. He has to go into training and get the best out of them. As shocking as that performance was, Brown can hardly call them a waste of space and expect to hold their respect for him for the next 3 years.

If my manager called me a waste of space no matter my performance I'd have issues with him from then on. It's a professional game and he has to act professionally. If it was 2 games from season end then he could call them what ever he felt like as he could get shut in 2 games.

Lets just see where we are come the Leeds game, before we all jump off the pier.

I know it was great, usually he cocks up so much I just blame everything on him. I think he has finally found his best position (on bondi beach working on his tan).

I was trying to think of why I was feeling a little happy at half time even though we were 22-0 down. Then it came to me, Flannery.

He is my Meli. Come to think of it what will happen when Meli retires and we lose a big game. Some people will be completely lost for a reason why.

Manu is a better player than flannery. But then we wouldn't have been anything like as leaky up front had flannery been in the side and I doubt the scoreline would have been as bad.

Just sayin!

People will always find a new Meli.

As each season progresses Saints fans far and wide will find a scapegoat to blame; for this ill or that ......early last season against the run of the mill, it was Foster.Then Meli surfaced as the arch villain once more, and so the circle is again squared. Nothing changes and its only round 1, but should anyone remember........Never write off the SAINTS

Not a game to find scapegoats.
As every Saints fans on here knows your team was outplayed from 1-17.
Widnes is the type of game to get back a bit of form. The pack have to work harder and if they do then they have a good chance of running the game for the halves and backs to exploit.
Saints should win by 12+, if they don't then you'll have more to worry about than you do now.

Think you will be favourites but you only snatched it last year in the last play of the game. We've improved a lot since then, however you have strengthened your squad with Manu and turned. Should be a good game

I hope and expect to see a fired up saints, fancy we'll win comfortably.

I agree. If he'd come out slating the players, what good would that do? What he really thinks will be said behind closed doors - as it should be.

Think we'll still be favourites, but it's one of them where we could either win by a small or large margin!

If we struggle to a 1 or 2 pt win, or lose, then you should actually be able to hear the thud the extra weight landing on Brown's shoulders causes.

I said that against Huddersfield

That display reeked of complacency and believing their own hype.

We'll be fine this week and in 2013 generally.

We seem to be victims of a good pre-season with a full squad and very few injuries.

Gaskell's distribution is better than Lomax's. I've not seen Gaskell throw the number of intercepted passes Lomax does (one game last year he threw 4 iirc) and last weekends game continued that poor passing game with easy passes being thrown badly and behind the player on a number of occasions. This is added to his running game being less and less of a threat. Lomax was hindered in a lot of respects last year being partnered with Hohaia, but it also diverted attention away from his own drop in form.

Personally, I think a move away from 7 would do him good like it did Tomkins. Play Hohaia at 7 with Gaskell at 6 for now as we aren't going to be signing anyone. I do think the skill sets of Lomax and Gaskell compliment each other, but their combined lack of experience is an issue at the moment.

There is only one Francis Meli









Come on, Flannery was a very poor player if the club had any sense he would have been cut after the 2010 grand final when half the Wigan team ran past him at some point. Because he offered nothing in attack people gave him the "solid forward" tag but he wasn't that either. He was just a very poor rugby player that seemed to keep his place in the squad by "training well" and "being a good professional".

If you intended to get me in a bad mood well done

Yet he managed 10 SOO appearances . Must say that I never saw anything from him that would justify this but 10 is no fluke.

I'm making one simple observation - flannery was a better defender than manu is. As I said, that's not to say he's a better player, but Manu's defence reeks.

I think whats needed for the Lomax/Gaskell parnership is to get a run 4 to 6 winning games where they are playing on the front foot to gain confidence and develop there control of the team.
The moment the team is under pressure, the lack of half back skill set comes to the fore. Lomax with loose passes and Gaskell drifts out of the game.
Last year with Lomax/Hohaia/Gaskell we had too many games where they were playing like "rabbits caught in headlights" with the failed plan of Wellens and Wilkin attacking the line as an alternative.
Its OK saying our forwards should lay the platform for the half backs, but it works the other way as well. This is what a lot of our half backs in the past did by doing something skillfully inspirational to change the game for our forwards.
My biggest concern is whose bossing the team and showing something inspirational, whose linking the forwards with the backs. A lot of this is got to be the half backs with also the skills to create time and space for others.
Like I,ve said before our half backs are too flat and most of the time engage in a lot of lateral play. A ball playing loose forward like Sculthorpe would help but these are rare now, relying on a prop size unit instead.
Its a pity we can't get Sean Long on board as some form of attacking assistant coach just to accelerate our half backs skillset learning curve, otherwise we have the scenario of a painfully slow process of two inexperienced half learning there trade by there mistakes at cost.
I would also agree it might be better when conditions suit to let Lomax play elsewhere at Full Back for instance, to allow him to develop some attacking skills from deep with more time and space, then bring him back into the halves, or maybe if he is more effective to the team as a whole at full back then leave him there.
Question.......did Swift start life as a potential half back (no 6) I,m not sure.

Swift is a half, yes.

I have no idea how he got 10 SOO appearances, but he has certainly lunched out on it ever since. How many good games did he have in his time at Saints? I can think of 1. Whilst I never doubted his commitment and effort, it certainly wasn't matched by any skill or ability. I have no problems with solid players in the squad. Clough springs to mind. But wasting a quota spot on a player who is nothing more than solid is ludicrous.

After the first two rounds of SL I think we could all do with a swift half.

From Browns comments, it looks like he see's the side as more of a work in progress. He knows the attack is bad, but so long as we can defend he's not overly concerned at this stage of the season.

Pretty much word for word Pete Gentles take on our early season. Doesn't bode well for a free flowing specticle though does it. Still, looking forward to my first taste of Langtree Park hospitality.