I think it is obvious that the present Saints side is not good enough to win trophy's; I may be proved wrong but I doubt it. The question is; if you had the chance to have a clean sweep who would you keep out of the present squad.

Soliola
Lomax
Perry (If he keeps his recent form up)
Roby
McCarthy-Scarsbrook
Puletua
Wilkin
Laffranchi (As a back rower only)
Clough
Magennis
Dixon
Gaskell
Makinson
Foster

There the players I would keep who play for the side regularly week in week out. Youngsters beyond this I cant comment on as I havent seen enough of them to judge.

Makinson, Jones, Lomax, Gaskell, Roby, LMS, Puletua and Soliola. The rest are average and could easily be replaced.

Just mentioned this on another thread, only Soliola and Roby would be good enough in my team.

I hate threads like this, they always pop up after a defeat.


We know we aint good enough but the standard of super league has dropped that low that I think with Manu coming in and if we signed a prop and stand off we would be real threat to Warrington and Wigan.

Also a good coach will help, we've not had a proper coach for four years now!

But we're not going to sign a prop or a stand off are we?

Who would we replace them with? I don't think we are that far behind other teams player wise, we could do with a good prop and an experienced half back, but we have the players in the squad to be better than we are with a bit of shifting around.

A coach is a bigger priority for me.

We are suppose to be bringing in two new faces so maybe they are a prop and stand off.

I know... the kneejerk mood swing-o-meter just never ceases to amuse me every single time.



Bang on. We need a good coach to bring the best out of what we've got and put an actual game-plan together (jury's out on Brown yet), sign a #7, another prop and (in an ideal world) another 3/4 to be in a position to challenge on the same level as the Ws again. We could still challenge with the 3/4s we already have if Turner clicks (doubts again), Jones and Makinson kick on or Wheeler ever emerges from the deep depths of wherever the hell he's hiding. We have big holes that need filling but it's hardly the end of the world frankly.

We're going to finish top 4 despite the most inept tactical system I've ever seen a Saints team play and despite glaring and obvious deficiencies throughout the season. The rest of the league frankly sucks. Warrington may be a class apart but most of their key players are in the last few years of their careers now. Same goes for Leeds. Just look what Wigan have done with just a few real top quality players and some top coaching. All the predictable talk of doom and gloom and mass clearouts... For the love of mercy get a grip people. Even Hohaia could be a useful member of the squad if used right FFS.

I'll believe that when i see it.

Doomed! We're all doomed!
Without throwing the baby out with the bath water, and bearing in mind we're in a salary capped sport, i'd suggest the following

For the backs-
Sign a big winger and move Meli into the centre to replace shenton.
Sign an experienced half back who can organise play from 7 and, most importantly, can kick the ball. Ship Hohaia to make room - I'm sure, given the salary cap situation in Aus, there's a club that match his wages with us. I'm sure I've heard names like Hornby and Prince banded about as available.
If we do the above and assume Ade Gardner can start playing again, then we will potentially have Lomax, Gaskell, Makinson, Wheeler and Swift to fill the #1 and #6 shirt.
Wellens to leave. Whilst he's playing ok at the moment - certainly scoring tries, he in many ways embodies our predicament; good enough to see of the mediocre competetion easily, but now inneffective against the elite.

For the forwards-
Move Laffranchi to 13 and ship out Wilkin. Whilst I have a lot of repect for his contribution and I know he has a lot of abilities, his utilty value not only dilutes his own game because of the way we use him, but it compunds the problem that we lack bite and forward direction. You may also be able to get a few quid for him.
A starting pack of Perry, Roby, Puletua, Sia, Manu and Boof is massive.
Next, sign one more forward who is HARD, someone who has big balls and likes to get amongst the oppo. Someone who, the harder you hit him, the harder he runs the next time - like Fozzy used to do for us, like westwood does for wire. Someone who comes of the bench and makes the opposition crowd/team think "Oh Bugger!" and the home crowd/team think "Here we go!"

We're not far off, assuming we get some good coaching. Players like McCarthey and Grix are far from world beaters, but they played their part in shalacking us t'other day, because the Wire squad is playing well as a whole. We get that and do the above things I suggest, then we'll be a real threat to the title.

Wigan brought in a coach and a fairly old, decent, but not earth moving half back and went from also rans to top of the league.

There are failings which have been brought about in our team, mainly through competition from outside of SL. That great prop went to the NRL, we could not compete, that decent halfback should have been Eastmond who went to union. He would have been in his 4th or 5th year by now and getting into his own stride. These things could not be prevented, we could have replaced but whether we would have ever got equal quality is debatable. The prop we missed out on last year (GRiffin) has hardly been of La Franki quality for Leeds, never mind a Graham replacement.

Halfback wise I just think from our first contract talks with Eastmond we did it all the wrong way round letting Long and Smith go, before getting Eastmond to sign, this allowed Eastmond and his agent the upper hand in contact talks, if we had not told Long so early he was not required, then when Eastmond asked for 2 years rather than 3 or 4, we could have said no thanks and let him go to union then and have brought Lomax on with Long at that point, or smith.

But we are were we are and it's not disaster, alot will depend on how brown changes players attitudes, can he get our wingers to be better under the high ball, will he mix it up a bit at FB with Lance and Wellens, will he get a new prop, will he get another halfback or can he develop Gaskell to iron out those parts of his game that are keeping him out the team.

Whats happened to Wheeler by the way, he was supposed to be our Tommy Martyn replacement by now, surely he isn,t afull time injurist.
Same for Swift looked promising, fast and elusive, whats happened to him.
Big concern is we can,t develop our young promising players in the same manner of Wigan, Warrington and Leeds.
Lomax, Gaskell and Makinson have flattened out in performance, they should be star players and a constant threat but they are not. Is this very bad coaching or have we lost that winning structure and culture in what is a poor standard of superleague.

Me too, sadly. Can hardly remember a player ever signing for Saints when everyone hasn't been talking about them for months already (Turner and Manu being the latest example.)

It's August now so if we were in for 2 more players I'd expect to have heard some names linked by now. But it's all gone quiet.

Get rid of them all...3rd in table and losing 4 games since March is not acceptable in my book whatsoever!!

Why not sign up all the Bradford players who are available as they are obviously better than what we have and see where that gets us?

Whilst I agree we could do with 1 or 2 more players, why sign people just for the sake of it. A player must be available in order for us to sign them. Instead of just saying "a prop" or "a stand off", look at players that are available and we would have a realistic chance of signing and see if they are an improvement on what we already have...I think you will find most available players are no better than our current options so until that changes why sign them??