Fair enough - I don't think we're disagreeing a great deal in terms of them being on the slide. Just maybe about the degree of their drop off. You're right about 18 months having the potential to be a long time in sport too. It has to be given the amount of ground we had to make up to go past them - which we obviously have.
My view is simply that we shouldn't overdo their decline too early, especially when they're missing half a team. Injuries will probably stop them finishing in the top two, but with a few key players back they are still a force to be reckoned with, and I'd make them decent favourites against both Hull KR and Wire away because of what they've done in the past, and their ability to win big games. Even this season we can look to Good Friday as an example for how their defence and intensity can cause anyone problems.
I suppose this is a long winded way of saying that if I were a Saints fan, I'd feel pretty gloomy about their prospects for the next couple of years but actually feel pretty optimistic about doing something this campaign.
No problems with that synopsis mate. As NK says above, it's a game of opinions.
I will just add as a final word that I said they were in decline last year too and that proved to be correct and I think they're worse this season than last....or at least I haven't yet seen anything to convince me otherwise. They were decent Good Friday but it was on home soil and we were down to 12 for more than a third of the game. Worse still the sending off/yellow card were at the ends of each half which I think compounded the problem. Yet we were winning until the final minutes of the game. I haven't seen anything from them approaching that intensity since and their away form in particular has been poor against top sides.
The game coming up will tell us more. If they win, or even put in a good performance, then I'll perhaps see it differently but, as things stand, I don't see a top 2 placing for them and I don't think they'll win it from outside the top 2.
Statistics: Posted by Phuzzy — Mon Jun 24, 2024 10:37 pm
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