I have now calmed down and sobered up and I now need somewhere to put down my thoughts that may turn into a rant...who knows
So where better than here.
I haven't read any more comments and more than happy for you to ignore this, but I have to get it off my chest as I am fed up with the rubbish being spouted on Facebook, twitter and other social media blaming individuals.
First things first, congratulations to Warrington, they beat us with a better attitude
and a better game plan, they were prepared to do whatever it takes to beat us and so many times
Saints were almost through and the 1% ers from Warrington meant that they just managed to hold on to the player. they deserve the win.
The following should be seen as observations and not excuses I am accepting the defeat no matter how much it hurts and I never realised London was so far away till this last coach ride home. Even further than the last ride home that took a similar time after the 27 - 0 defeat
The referee team made some bewildering calls.
The Morgan Knowles try - what could Hicks have seen that made him so certain - when after replays it clearly shows that he got the ball down
The Percival try - the call was that Tiai had no control of the ball yet he took 2 steps with the ball clearly held in his hand before Murdoch-Masilla ripped it from him.
Even given that he did lose control the first knock on came from a Warrington player into Tiai's hands, I do despair that a professional referee cannot see this when he is just looking at a video screen. On the field it is much harder, but really come on Thaler - how can you get it so wrong.
The Regan Grace knock on to wipe the tackle count down - it clearly comes of Kings shoulder first so that is the knock-on. Again its a live call but I am expecting refs to get this right.
But for me the next part is crucial - it didn't come across on the TV and I don't know if it was noticeable sat on the ends, but where I was sat - 3rd tier just behind the royal seats, between the 40 and half way - it was very clear that:
Firstly the ref changed the way he kept the teams back, for St Helens it was always 12m for Warrington it was somewhere between 10 and 12 m depending on where in the set he was, the first 2 or 3 play the balls were always 10m.
But secondly the way that both teams treated where they went, Saints were pretty much always with the ref, forming a great line (not always but mostly) but Warrington were not bothered where the ref was they were up to 3 m offside no matter if the ref was at 10 or 12m.
The ref should have penalised this to stop it happening, but him and his touch-judges just ignored it, which meant that Saints never had time and space to work in.
But this brings me to the main point of this part
Saints seem incapable of overcoming this type of scenario, each time over the last few years when faced with a defence that isn't kept back 10 there is nobody who takes control of the situation and starts to make them think with chips, kicks through - lets come up with a strategy to deal with this Saints. It happens far too often to ignore it.
I have seen that Saints have lost 17 finals and semi finals in the last 12 years (we have also won 7 in that time) but why is this?
The problem I can see is that in that time we have mainly gone with rookie type coaches, who are just learning their trade, this is really working at the week to week level where it is all about the process, squad rotation and making sure we win way more than we lose.
But when it comes to finals they don't have the experience to see how they need to change how they work in the weeks coming up to it.
This is clearly shown in Justin Holbrook's time here he is fantastic at getting the team working through the season, but is naïve in his approach to finals, last year the enthusiasm of both Catalan and Warrington, combined with bad games by Saints meant we didn't reach a final.
This year in the CC Semi we were very lucky to meet a team who were a whole division below us, even then their enthusiasm and willingness to play for each other made it hard for us.
Yesterday we saw exactly the same scenario, he will learn what do, but he only has 4 games or 6 weeks now to get this right at Saints - can he do it?
Resting players for the sake of it is great throughout the season, but RL is a game of tough men who need to be at their physical and mental peak in the big games, he should never have rested players in the weeks before the final, they should have been playing to maintain both their game fitness and the combinations with the other players. That is a tough lesson for us all to take, the fact we were 14 and 16 points clear meant we could rest and not worry about the result. But what it did mean is that (unless the player was genuinely hurt - in that case he shouldn't have played at Wembley) we had the opportunity to take risks such as making sure the 4 players were back up to speed in the preceding games by playing them for 40 or 29 mins and asking other players to play longer minutes.
We do not need to rest anyone who can play - hopefully they will get 2 weeks rest before the Grand Final
So how do we break this cycle, well it may be too late now, but we have the players, the structure, the ability, what we now need is a proven coach who can take us to that next level. The only other alternative is making sure that any new coach is tied up to 4 years (but that is a gamble in itself) so he can learn here and get us to change - even if it is the hard way by loosing another Final (God I hope not)
If you are still here then thanks for reading - lets get to Old Trafford and have a different mental attitude,
that at the end of the day separates winners from losers.