I agree squad is stronger than its been for a while and i think the quality of signings weve made is the best in years, never a guarantee they will work out of course, so we are nearly there. We need another half and a prop and we can challenge in my opinion so im disappointed we arent adding to the group.

Gale was out of contract at the end of this season and none of the youngsters are currently out of contract so its a bit of a falsehood by the club to say that releasing Gale allows them to renew Newman and co. They couldve agreed deals to start at the end of the year using Gales salary cap money anyway. But ok if they want to do it now thats fine.

Hopefully Sezer and Austin can stay fit and we dont need any cover for those positions. We can get by with Thompson, Mustapha and Donaldson covering prop forward.

Weve a good squad but its not quite there in my opinion which is a shame but we are heading in a good direction.

Which makes sense get them tied down before June to stop other clubs having a chance of signing them.Broadbent Holroyd and Newman all off contract 2022.Strangley no mention on Ganners contract which is also a must.

It's still more likely we will arrange contracts which start from the end of their current ones rather than kicking in now.

This window of having the kids paid relatively little meaning we can afford quite a lot of quality experienced players will close very quickly unfortunately and 2022 is the key season to take advantage of it.

I just worry that if Sezer gets a season ending injury the first game of the season or Tetevano gets a four match ban, Oledzki is out for 6 weeks alongside Prior that we will really struggle like we did this year.

We saw with the absences of our half backs and/or when a few props were missing how our game was massively impacted.

There's only so much cover any squad can have in a salery capped sport. If saints lost Walmsley and Lomax for long periods theyd be looking a bit off. Especially with having to let Fage and Coote go.

True but the key positions need covering.

I'd assume they will point to Myler and Leeming as cover in the halves and Thompson, muizz and Donaldson front row. Whether that's the best cover that can be achieved in the circumstances is the? For me half is barring an academy prospect being further along in their development though prop less so especially with the stage Holroyd is at also being factored in to the top 4 props and Tet being used at 13.

The problem we have and still do have but to a lesser extent this season, is a lack of quality in depth to cover a few positions well (which is very very difficult to solve in salary capped sport), Saints have mastered this imo for the last few years and to some extent Wigan did.

We're getting there but not quite there yet as we're most definitely a good prop light.

Corey Hall going to Wakefield, as in signing not on loan.

I think luck with injuries is more important than good planning on our sport. The top 4 or 5 have very stating teams with everyone fit,, but quality drops off a cliff edge once you get a free injuries. Saints have been really lucky last 3 years on injury front, but that will change, the only reason we lost our 3 peat run was because both Mcguire and Peacock did their ACL in same season!

Then it would have ended up a 6 peat

Agree they have been lucky but it isn’t just luck on injuries. They have planned the squad and developed players the best. They knew they had Welsby, Dodd etc so they could look to strengthen other areas and use Welsby and Dodd as back ups. They did get injuries and suspensions but those players fitted in and quality didn’t massively drop.

Additionally having a couple of very good back ups across a few positions let’s you rest somebody for a week. We should rest Prior or Mik occasionally but we won’t. We play them into the ground and then they are spent or pick up injuries.

Napa signing for Catalans

Catalans looking good again for next year.

We really could have done with that extra big body, but let’s see how we go.

Maybe we’ll get a chance for a Tariq Sims, JWH, Marty Taupau for next season.