I do agree with this, he’s learning but I personally like what I see, I like people who look at things differently.

Why are we a training centre for someone learning their trade? I'm sure during the search last year, GH said it was his biggest ever appointment and was a job that required someone with experience.



Now, suddenly, we have someone inexperienced and learning their trade whilst the squad still needs a major rebuild.



The whole set-up is a dog's dinner.

I’ve just watched the second half again because I’m a sadist.

At half time Cas had made 181 tackles and we made 133, we also made 6 handling error in 1st half, sky stats.



I made some notes myself on 2nd half, these won’t be perfect because I spent some time shouting at the telly.

I think we had 6 PTB in their 25 at 65 minute mark.

42 mins - penalty MacDonald high tackle, soft

48 mins - penalty Martin strip, soft

51 mins - Martin , knock on

54 mins - MacDonald PTB error

56 mins - Sezer, knock ball down on Miller

56 m - Fusitua jams in, Cas try

58 m - penalty Austin kick off out on full

61 m - Fusitua PTB error

67m - Sangare - lost ball in offload

68m - penalty, Roberts offside

69m - penalty, Smith strip, soft

70m - short restart, Cas get ball back

74m - Olpherts, dropped ball, try blown

77m - Austin dropped ball, last tackle.





Think only 15 PTBs in their 25 in whole second half

Think we had approx 50 plays where we passed twice or less or kicked, bulk were 1 man runs

Think approx 13 plays where we passed three times or more

I’m including a pass from dummy half as a pass in above.



It was dire and error riddled and Cas played at a higher level of intensity because it was v Leeds.

We still only lost by 6. They are fairly poor and will

Lose plenty this season. We may lose plenty as well.



As Rohan said we gave ourselves no chance to win, very poor and showed almost nothing with the ball

He might well have said that during his search but the experience requirement clearly went out of the window. Dogs dinner or work in progress? We'll know soon enough. Personally I'm happy to run with Smith for a while yet.

Thanks for the recap Sir Greg P. Saved me some pain there. Maybe you can tell me: were my eyes playing tricks or was Lisone looking in even worse shape than when he first rolled up at HQ?

Thanks for taking that bullet for me. It's been nagging at me all day. In short, through our own errors, we made impossible to win. Lot's to learn.

INOUT

Completely agree, he is no guru and is def learning. There are aspects I really disagree with (Can Smith should be made Captain, short kick offs just look plain amateur.)

But he’s young, hungry and seemingly on it for long run. If he did too well too soon he’d might attract NRL interest. Best to let him set the systems up and recruitment over next 2-3 yrs imho…..

Not sure he’s worse but it’s not great having another overseas signing looking unfit.



I’ll give him a bit more time.

Full game up on a popular video streaming site for anyone who missed and is a saddist!

A poor performance for sure, and a poor start to the season. We all knew this season was going to be a transition season and that to 4 was the aim. Disruption in the camp staff of kick off won't have helped. Cakes for Smith to go are madness. He is clearly a long term appointment and will take time to get things right. What he's not afraid to do is make hard decisions, something that has been leaking at the club for almost a decade. We are seeing poor players identified and moved on. We will come right, we have big players to come in, and we have players yet to peak.

Saints sailed very close to 3 in a row against a side beaten by 60 last week who turned up with a similar intensity to cas. I really like Smith but I think he needs to find some balance to his philosophies on the game as he seems to want to contradict all fundamental principles, some of which will always be true due to the nature of the sport.



Im not sure on his philosophy of every game is its unique entity because momentum that comes from learning and progression is true of any skill or activity.

Dosnt help when in form players like Walters lose there place while out of shape puddings like Lisone keep theres.