5 Talking Points From Saints 38 Hull FC 12

Does The League Leaders Shield Matter?

Someone tweeted me last night to ask why I thought the presentation of the League Leaders Shield following this 38-12 win over Hull FC was such a muted affair. He commented that the players looked more like they were at a funeral than at their home stadium picking up a reward for being the most consistent side in 2018. It is hard to argue with that assessment and since Twitter leaves you a bit Steve Coogan (short of characters) I thought I'd try to address the question of why that might be here.

The low crowd didn't help in terms of creating a joyous atmosphere of celebration. Just 9,348 fans managed to attend with the FC contingent in particular well below its usual numbers. Given the way their second half of the season has gone that's understandable. Lee Radford's side have not won since the end of June, a run of nine straight losses which has seen them fall out of the race for the top four really before the Super 8s even began. It has also included embarrassments in defeats to Wakefield and Warrington when the black and whites conceded 72 and a blood curdling 80 points respectively. Injuries persist, and with stars like Carlos Tuimavave, Danny Houghton and Jamie Shaul named in the squad but left out of the 17 by matchday it is hard to find an incentive for FC fans to travel west following a full day's work.

Not that the low turnout was all of the visitors doing. The prospect of sealing the deal on the League Leaders Shield didn't entice Saints fans to come out in any great numbers. Since the inception of the Grand Final in 1998 it has become accepted wisdom that winning the league is very much secondary to winning at Old Trafford in October. This is an idea pushed first by the broadcasters but then taken on by the fans and the players. It's reached something of a nadir now. Saints players looked visibly reluctant to make a song and dance about their achievement following the scorn poured on Castleford's fans and players for their reaction to winning it last year. Champagne corks were popped and Queen songs played at the Mend-A-Hose a year ago to the bitter amusement of fans of clubs more used to winning silverware. It looked very much like the Saints players including captain James Roby were unwilling to milk it too much knowing that should they fail to win or even reach the Grand Final they will not be regarded as a champion side.

But is that right? Unfortunately it is the world we live in. If you want a playoff system and a Grand Final it's almost impossible to expect equal gravitas for winning the league. Conversely if you award the title to the side that tops the table your playoffs and Grand Final become far less celebrated. Notable but not historic, much like the old top 8 Premiersip Trophy played for after the league finished in years gone by. Since Sky call the tune they are always going to prefer the one-off game at a massive stadium to decide the champions because its a ratings winner. It also attracts media attention generally which is much needed, so its a simple decision for the RFL even if they were not swayed by TV demands. The truth is they are swayed by little else as the decision to rearrange fixtures at Warrington and Huddersfield next week shows.

The Grand Final isn't going anywhere, which you may lament or you may celebrate. But since it is here to stay the League Leaders Shield is always going to be nothing more than a token reward for consistency in a race nobody feels they have to win. Most fans have accepted this to a nauseating level. The same fans wandering around today talking about why this achievement is so undervalued are the ones who disparagingly but routinely refer to the League Leaders Shield as the 'hub cap'. If fans mock it, broadcasters gloss over it and players try to play it down then it will never get the juices flowing.

Is There An Injury Crisis?

We'll go on to the impact that Saints young stars made once again later. This being September there has to be a slight concern about how many players are currently out injured and allowing the younger guys to stake their claim. I think it was an FC fan who claimed on Twitter earlier this year that Saints, who at the time were about 10 points clear at the top of the table and flying, were not the best team in Super League but simply the least injured. Yet here Saints were facing Hull without at least eight regular first team players.

Though Ben Barba returned after missing the win in Perpignan against Catalans Dragons last week all of Adam Swift, Ryan Morgan, Theo Fages, Alex Walmsley, Roby, Dominique Peyroux, Zeb Taia and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook were sidelined. The cynic in me can't shake the feeling that had this been the Grand Final five of those eight would have played. Not to say that they do not have injuries but I'd like to think that they are injuries that are not serious and that the opportunity to rest them afforded by the format and the situation of the team within that format was just too good for Justin Holbrook to resist. Why wouldn't he take the chance to rest them up to make sure they are fit and firing for the knockout games to come?

Holbrook has said consistently this year that he will not rest players for no reason. If they're fully fit they play. In Barba's case he has led us to believe that if they can still walk they play. If we take him at his word for that then these are worrying times. The injuries are genuine and sufficient to keep hard men off the field. We're not talking about Jordan Henderson here. That suggests a race against time to get them fit for when the whips really start cracking in the first week of October. Holbrook's selection for the visit to Warrington on Saturday could be instructive, but is further clouded by the rising likelihood of the two teams meeting in a semi-final.

Are The Kids Ready?

Whether there are worries about the side during the 2018 run-in or not the long term future looks good for Saints. Despite the loss of last week's debutant Aaron Smith to injury there were still 11 players in the Saints 17 that have come through the club's academy. There were debuts for back rower James Bentley, brought in from Bradford Bulls at the end of last season, and 17-year-old Jack Welsby. Matty Lees and Jack Ashworth continued their development alongside more established home produced talent. Six of Saints seven starting backs were club products, the only exception being Barba while up front Luke Thompson, Morgan Knowles and Jake Spedding all featured alongside Lees and Ashworth. Spedding's inclusion was a particular surprise given that it was announced on Monday that he would be joining Barrow Raiders on a two-year deal from 2019.

All of Saints 38 points came from that group of home grown players. I haven't even mentioned Danny Richardson who landed a perfect seven goals out of seven while continuing to develop his halfback partnership with Jonny Lomax. Regan Grace and Mark Percival grabbed two scores apiece and there were first half meat pies for Thompson and Knowles. Meanwhile Bentley went the full 80 picking up 84 metres on 11 carries and making an impressive 46 tackles. The only disappointment was that we only saw Welsby for the last 10 minutes but, like the rest of this group of local products, his time will no doubt come.

Show Me The Money

It would almost be unsettling by now if a week went by without a controversy involving Barba. This week's offering is footage of the Australian fullback 'bantering' with the Hull fans as he waits behind his own sticks for the conversion of a try to be taken. As they serenade him with the desperately original 'Barba's Going Home' (to the tune of a similarly titled big hit for the Lightning Seeds with David Baddiel and Frank Skinner that you might remember) Barba turns to them, flashes them a big smile and begins miming the counting of his money. Ah...Ben.

And so the debate starts. Is this reasonable use of humour to deflect the abuse from fans? After all he is going home (probably) where he can make three times as much money. And who wouldn't, right? Or, is it disrespectful to Saints and the fans? There is an argument that Barba's recent form doesn't really entitle him to be playing to the crowd, gloating about how much money he can make by leaving. At the most it looks like he has four games left in the red vee before returning to the NRL. The same NRL that weren't that interested in his freakish abilities when he had a 12-game ban hanging over him. Is it too much to ask that Barba give his full effort and respect to what remains of our cause this year? I'll settle for two good games as long as they are the semi-final and the Grand Final. Maybe he's revving himself up for those playoff matches and is merely amusing himself until then. If so barely anyone will remember his barren spell and his legacy will be assured. Yet that legacy has to be considered well and truly on the line for now.

Loop-y Fixtures

This was the last ever Super 8s fixture between these two sides and given the weakened sides fielded by both and the general apathy around the place few will be sorry to see the format go. The EGM has been covered in more detail elsewhere on these pages but one particular consequence of the decision to go to a more conventional one-up, one-down system merits further explanation. Loop fixtures.

The abolition of the 8s will not rid us of dead rubbers or even of the yawnsome need to play against the same opposition more than twice before the playoffs. The chairmen and owners of the Super League clubs are adamant that they need more than the 23 games currently generated by 12 teams before the Super 8s for financial reasons. And so we get loop fixtures. Six extra games, three at home and three away, added on to the schedule so that some clubs will meet for a third time to make up 29 games including Magic. We will be having the same discussions next year about why crowds are low late in the season as we head towards the playoffs. Fans have already expressed their lack of appetite for a third or fourth game against the same opposition. Too much of a good thing and all that.

If the repetition argument doesn't sway you think of the integrity of the competition. Already distorted by Magic we will be skewing it further. How are we going to decide who plays who in the loop fixtures? How can this be reasonable and fair in a league that now intends to relegate one club for certain instead of the current set up which allows everyone involved a chance to save their own skin in the Qualifiers? All they have to do is beat the teams from the league below and they're safe. Doable for everyone except Widnes. The current system is far from perfect but it does offer the carrot of promotion without guaranteeing a relegation. It forces Championship sides to prove themselves at Super League level in a way that the new proposal will not. If one club is sure to go down it will be highly controversial if they do so thanks to results in unfavourable loop fixtures while others survive thanks to a kinder schedule.

Don't forget if you have enjoyed these ramblings you can hear me verbally jousting every Monday on the WA12 Rugby League Show from 6-8pm at www.wa12radio.net