There are lots of factors in pretty much every facet of sport, but the teams who do the best are those who stack the odds in their favour. We were lucky at Leeds to have the golden generation come through together, but that's because the club made huge moves to sign the best youngsters and have the best system in place. Then we had more hits than misses with our recruitment. Barba was a gamble for Saints given the circumstances he arrived in, but so was Ali for us.

There are plenty of Sliding Doors moments in sport. But right now, Saints have stacked the odds in their favour. Great recruitment at home and from the NRL, brilliant academy a clear way of playing and a structure to for players to transition to the first team. We fell off with our academy and its coaching, seemed to have had more misses than hits with overseas recruitment and had a number of promising youngsters fail to spark. Could call that unlucky but ultimately as a club, we haven't helped ourselves

Made his comeback for the reserves last night and scored a try. Hopefully he can kick on.

That’s encouraging, hope so. Can’t just buy a quality 9 at minute too , so we really need him to kick on. Am sure Leeming will be released and if this year too, so big opportunity

Corey has excellent hands for a hooker, can pass equally on either side, and delivers accurate fast ball from dummy half. This is his strongest point. His weaknesses are a little bit of a lack of pace (but not too bad) and his defence needs work (like most kids who haven’t played so much against men).

It’s a big year for him, if he applies himself he can go past both Leeming and O’Connor.

The key thing is that he gets a run playing at hooker whether it is the reserves, the championship, or even in the first team. He's often been played at scrum half just because he can pass and kick, which is pretty pointless in terms of his development. I would hate to see us move him on without truly finding out about him.

As long as great distribution, lack of pace not that bad. Can’t all be young Roby’s or Daz Clarkes. Is he tough enough to become defensively strong ? as this is imperative for a quality 9. Diskin was a brilliant defender….and what an advantage.

Correct. The good thing about defence is that it improves with strength, size, and experience. All things that come with time. However, the ability to pass a ball accurately and under pressure is a skill that is hard to get better at in the hurly burly of competitive RL. That's we should be patient with him, in my opinion.

Diskin 2004 before the bad injury was also rapid.

Never saw that personally. Looked solid runner, but no more. Are you talking about in Junior ranks?

Leemings misfortune could be Johnson's big chance.

If Johnson can stay fit I would personally be happy running with him and O’Connor for next year from what I’ve seen. Leeming is a lovely guy but personally I find him frustrating at times. We need a first class passer from DH if we are going to play the fast expansive stuff.