odd shaped balls wrote:yes we have id say,,this is his 1st season with "his" team aftr a covid and mikey taking players debut season,,change doesnt happen overnight..look at sts with holbrook and they was worse than a few teams....see this site hasnt got better for armchair wayne bennetts
Holbrook is likely a bad example for you as it did change pretty much over night.
Before Holbrook; Warrington 40-16 Saints
After Holbrook; Hull 0 - 45 Saints
And I’m still utterly convinced if a) Percival could kick a goal in Castleford or b) Morgan could not give away the worlds stupidest penalty or c) Castleford weren’t allowed American football style blockers for their drop goal taking out two of our chasers, then we would have gone on and won it in 2017.
Unfortunately for Holbrook, it massively played into the psychology at the club at the time, that we had forgotten how to play in big games, which was subsequently compounded by Barba-gate seeing us out at the first opportunity the following year, and Hicks-gate in the cup the year after (annoyingly both to Warrington) after struggling to see off Halifax in the semi. In a lot of ways we were incredibly lucky in 2019 GF to be playing someone as overawed by the occasion as we were, as it helped reset the narrative.
How much of the transformation was down to Holbrooks ability and how much was him simply not being Cunningham who had created such a toxic atmosphere players were actively frightened to play is obviously up for debate but the effects were pretty instantaneous.
Of course Woolf has been able to come in and build on this legacy, finally seeing us win the cup last year, and the Catalans game this week is the most assured I have seen Saints in a knock out game in a very long time.