Topical Titbits - No.1 - No Faith in St. Helens MP
No Faith in St Helens MP
21st August 2009 and a youthful and naïve Huddersfield side are thwarted inside the last 15 minutes by their vastly more experienced and more recognised opponents. Giants reserve coach, Paul Anderson watches proud as the team expected to be ‘the fall guys’ have delivered an exhibition of free flowing rugby to the St. Helens public.
The myth that new coach Mick Potter’s room to play an expansive game of Rugby is stifled by inheriting an imbalanced squad of old names living on yesterday's glory and young players needing development is expounded. The paradigm shift is laid bare. Our rugby will be played down the middle; the tactics simple.
The suspicion that the coach belongs to an era of those who coached Featherstone Rovers infamous ‘pit pack’ is looking ominously true. The optimism that there is a creative type, frustrated by circumstance looks fanciful. This is the time that faith in MP’s is being eroded by the expenses scandal out of Westminster. On this August evening my faith in our rugby MP was finally evaporated.
Fast forward to our Super League opener on a cold February evening and little has changed. The temperature may have been warmer in August, but the issues remain the same. One dimensional rugby breeding boredom and restlessness on the terraces. The Saints crowd are frustrated, anger boiling into dissent. Excitement of the first game of the season has turned into recognition that under Mick Potter, it will be more like watching Barnsley than Brazil.
It always looked a dysfunctional relationship. Saints fans have always enjoyed entertainment. When a former marketing manager promoted the Red Vee he knew what he was tapping into. The power of that symbol as a brand for enterprising rugby. As the Nike swoosh has positioned itself as an embodiment of sporting aspiration and challenge, the Red Vee has always been about entertainment, the chevron being iconic throughout teams that have always sought to throw the ball about, if not always successfully.
As Hull FC raid the fort, it seems they were giving a harbinger for what is to come. There were times last season when the Saints relied upon a combination of moments of individual brilliance and the weaknesses of their opponents to escape to victory. Times are changing. Hull are one of the many who have strengthened in the off season – relying on individual skill alone will not suffice this time.
Jon Wilkin stands under the posts as Craig Fitzgibbon’s conversion of the last try of the match gives the score a truer reflection of the game. He looks like a man who has just discovered the family silver has been stolen. One of a long line of players whose form under Mick Potter appears to have crashed faster than the global recession, he looks like a figure devoid of a solution to the team’s ills.
There are those in the crowd who believe it will get better. Time will take its course and Potter has been here little over a year. The side is in transition. Patience is the key.
More and more these voices are becoming a minority.
When the form of senior players has dipped so considerably and the landscape of Super League looks more challenging, is there really hope that things will turn around and that the players of the future will develop? Add in that poisonous mixture of a loss of support from the majority of the Saints fans and the outlook is grim.
When Brian Clough took over ramshackle Nottingham Forest F.C in the 1970’s he took a quick look around and saw who could play and who couldn’t. Under his stewardship, the development of individuals such as the then transfer listed John Robertson and those brought in with ‘previous’ such as Larry Lloyd and Kenny Burns were the foundations of his success. Developing the skill set and bringing the best in your players, whatever the sport, is always crucial – just as it was when Cloughy, like Potter, had to make do with few resources. But there is an interesting twist in this tale,
‘You know, I’d love us to play football the way Frank Sinatra sings… all that richness of sound and every word perfect. How gorgeous would that be? People queue up for hours to look at the Mona Lisa. Why? Because it is an attractive piece of work. It moves them.’
Clough knew the importance of establishing a team noted for its aesthetic quality. It is a subject Mick Potter may need to learn fast before the curtain is brought down on an ugly piece of work.
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