Yep, Hanley's master plan was Tommy and KC out, Holroyd and Pachniuk in.

Tommy Martyn was the only Saints signiture that I have sought for myself and that's after meeting Captain fantastic Joynty face to face and getting him to sign my sisters shirt for her birthday.

Martyn had that unexplainable quality. I say inexplicable because it is just one of those things you cannot coach. Maybe it's in the genes who knows. But also he made playing look fun. An interesting revelation to me, was that even though Hanley wanted to sell Tommy and Milward saved him, Tommy seamed to have better words for Hanley than Milward. He did not expand on his thoughts for why he thought he was removed by Milward but that the injury was used as an excuse.

I'm sure I've also heard before now that even though Milward brought success not all players where enamoured with him as he had his favourites and the rest where well lets say a 2nd thought.

When we got rid of Tommy for me that was the start of where we ended up reducing our creative talent pool.

At that point we had 3 talented ball players. Scully at loose, Tommy and Long. We got rid of Tommy and replaced with Hooper - occasionally playing with Scully at half back. This eventually gave way to Scully retiring and leaving us with just Long as the creative and organising player at half back.

Yes we signed leon but he was not an organiser or a kicker when we signed him, that was something he was developing alongside long.

We had gone from Scully/Martyn/Long to Long/Pryce/Flannery.

I'm hoping this year will be the start of a return to having 3 creative players in the 6 7 and 13 positions all of which have a kicking, passing and running game.

I did enjoy the interview on SKY, I would love to see the story come full circle and Tommy regain a passion for RL. Most people I know rate him, and I've yet to here a Saints fan I know have a bad words about the guy. I'm not saying a future Saints coach (I'm not against the idea, but I think people would want a little more experience) but he could certainly bring alot to the game and who knows maybe on day we'll see him directing a team from the stands.

To me it sounded like we got rid of him at the right time, if 12 months in the Championship (or whatever it was called back then) was too much for him, then 12 months in SL would probably have been so to, although I do accept that the drop down a level may well have effected his attitude/confidence which may not have happened if he'd been given a new contract.

What does gall me a touch is that he missed out on a well deserved testimonial when someone far less influential and who still has a probable 3-4 years involved in the game is awarded one.

Having started this thread I'm embarrassed to say I missed it, having been out. I did set the recorder but even worse I'd forgotten to move the clock on it forward at the weekend and recorded some crappy Union show instead

Mind you, even had I got the timer right it wouldn't have been right - I had left the TV Guide bit on screen instead of the main tv channel

Something tells me Tommy wouldn't make a good coach. He wasn't out of the win-at-all-costs mould like, say, an Edwards or a Sculthorpe. This is not to say he gave less than other players on the field. But his motivation was to have fun. I doubt this ethos would translate into the kind of obsessive attention to detail all good coaches need. And I have my doubts whether he'd be able to handle the politics and occasional "Big Time Charlies" that crop up.

The above said, I certainly wouldn't rule him out as some kind of skills mentor to the younger players. If they picked up a fraction of Tommy's talent we'd be much the richer.

I think he would be PERFECTLY suited to the role of physio if he could check off the right exams.