Having a conversation in my local last night the opinion from the wiganers is that we will struggle like mad this season. Personally I do have a slight concern about the size of our squad and it lacks strength in depth compared to previous years dating back to around 2005. Having said all off this I take heart that over the past few years we have produced stars like Roby, Graham and Clough who have really stepped up to the plate and in Grahams and Roby's case have become top International players which I am convinced Clough will join them as future England Second Rower. I have great hope that Wheeler, Eastmond and Frodsham will develop to fine 1st team players over the next couple of years and become the new stars at Saints and keep up the fine work that we are doing at youth level and promoting young players which has to be celebrated.

I believe the next couple of seasons are going to be hard to maintain the level of success we have had due to the possible retirements of Cunningham and Long and the end of the year not to mention if Gidley decides to fly back to Oz and retire. Having seen the way Scott Moore has played at Huddersfield this season the retirement of Cunningham maybe not be as fearful as first feared. Dont get me wrong Cunningham has been a world class player for the last 15 or so years and his direction and leadership from hooker will be sorely missed but Moore does have alot of potential to step into the hooking role and alternating with Roby could be as devasting as the current partnership.

Mick Potter has a job that IMO not many coaches would have had the guts to take on. The are going to be wholesale changes in the most important positions in the side over the next year or two and given time I do believe from 2010/2011 onwards we still will have a succesful St Helens side that will be challenging for top honours every season.

Dont worry, we jsut signed up a load of yougn guns, all have speed galore and will be superb for us. www.saintsrlfc.com/i/uploaded/DSC02025.JPG

Dont worry, we jsut signed up a load of yougn guns, all have speed galore and will be superb for us. www.saintsrlfc.com/i/uploaded/DSC02025.JPG

When you think about it, Potter had to build a team at Catalan, and built a side that went from bottom to 3rd in the league in just a few seasons. I think that is a reason Saints have brought him, and i think it could be a shrewd move. Saints are going to have to do some re-building and Potter has proved he can do that, so hopefully he proves it once again at Saints.

That said, i think we will be fine. We are still comfortably in the top 2 sides in England, IMO. We just lack some strength in depth, but it will be well worth it if in a few years time we have 5/6 youngsters that have all become top players for Saints/England.

Move KR to France to and we be even harder to beat.

Strange how the Goons get their first win of the season against another lacklustre side, and all of a sudden they are world beaters, and can come out from under their rocks and pass their opinions on how Saints will struggle this season. We may struggle, but our side is still streets ahead of theirs, even with the new found superstars like Sam and Ainscough. We may struggle to top the table this year, but the goons will struggle to get into the top 6.

What I thought was laughable during the conversation was they believe our forwards are no where near the standard of the wigan forwards. I couldnt stop laughing! They genuinley believe that they are better and where flabagasted i didnt agree!

As a Leeds fan the only team that I am worried about is Saint Helens. In my view there is little to choose between the two teams and they have served up some cracking contests. The playoff game from a couple of seasons ago is one of the most physical encounters I have ever seen in SL and I think that Saints broke the record for most tackles made in a SL game. I believed at the time and still do now that only Leeds and Saints can play at that intensity.

I honestly think that the trophies could be split again this year, with the team that loses in the challenge cup game going on to win the GF.

I would always expect Saints or Leeds to beat any of the other SL teams when it really matters i.e. final eliminators. On that basis I cant see past the same two being at the top and therefore contesting the final again.

Saints are still a top side when everyone fit but I feel Leeds may be pulling away from us.

As long as we are in the play offs we will be there or there about.

I just hope potter has a huge rebuilding job on his hands with long, gidley, Cunningham all nearing the end of playing and with the likes of scully gone he don't have the same class squad as previous coaches.

He should be giving time to build the next super saints team that will win trophys for the next 10 years.

that is why i always say to play foster....etc. angainst not so competive teams such solford and celtic....etc, i know we only just beat celtic but i think it was a bit of luck nothing against celtic.

I can guarantee that there's one team we wont be struggling against and thats Wigan.

There even worse than I expected.

Replaced mediocrity with mediocrity and are blooding youngsters into a poor side.

The wins have kept them from getting tony smith and keeping the worlds greatest playoff coach.

He`ll be gone this year and replaced by another saviour.

As long as Saints put Cunningham, Long, Pryce and Graham on the field then we will beat most sides.

The only time I will start to listen to anyone telling us how we'll struggle is when Cunningham retires, that man is a genuine great, probably the only one running around anymore and is irreplaceable. Whilst he's around Saints will continue being fine.

Christ even the HKR fans were trying to tell me they'll replace us this season at the top. There is only Leeds on the same level as Saints and even that is fairly close.

What was the year when wigan had a team full of youths and beat us at knowsley Rd, they were back on the up then...was that 2003??

It's the same now, a truer reflection on wigan will be tomorrow night's game...

We started off fairly flat in 2006 IIRC and some people were still critical of us halfway through that season for being poor in atack because we weren't racking up length of the field tries every week. Strangely that side turned out to the best to ever grace the British game in the professional era.

In my opinion one of the main reasons we have been so succesful since the inception of super league has been our ability to both retain key members of our squad for very long periods and to succesfully replace them when needed.

The ability to retain key players like Newlove, Joynt, Martyn, Long, Scully, Wellens and KC and even Lee Gilmour, has undoubtably meant we have been fortunate to maintain a consistant core and this consistancy is as big a factor as any other in any successful team as Leeds will fans will surely testify to.

However it is important to remember that many of these players were replacements for equally as important key players before them and that others have already been replaced successfully.

The hard work and sensible, well considered thoughts and actions of people behind the scenes at Saints saw Sean Long succeed Bobby Goulding at scrum half and Paul Wellens ultimately succeed Steve Prescott at full back, Willie Talau succeed Newlove in one centre role and Kevin Iro replaced by Martin Gleeson, Jamie Lyon and then Matt Gidley as the other and has also seen Leon Pryce succesfully follow Jason Hooper as Tommy Martyn's replacement at stand off.

I've a strong belief that those same people at the club who have brought through and bought players like Roby, Graham, Lyon and Gidley over the past few years will succesfully see us through a period of a year or two that will see us lose KC and Long as they did in 2003 and 2004 when we lost Newlove, Martyn and then Joynt but managed to maintain the pursuit for silverwear.

The big difference this season being how much faith the coaching staff are willing to put in such a large number of academy products. Yes this will be partially due to the financial aspect but i'm sure equally as much due to having one eye on the future rule changes that come with the franchise system and also due to the quality and performance and potential of these players.

Bookmarked.