m.saintsrlfc.com/news/page/5030 www.sthelensstar.co.uk/sport/133 ... ref=twtrec

m.saintsrlfc.com/news/page/5030 www.sthelensstar.co.uk/sport/133 ... ref=twtrec

shame. Think people forget how young he is, he's got bags of potential and will probably do well in RU.

That's a pity, I've always liked Jones, not every player can be a superstar.

Good luck to Josh, always gives of his best and a good player to boot.

Strange one. Is the disparity in cap room so big now that we couldn't have kept Josh? Was he particularly looking to move to Union or is this a purely financial move?

It's a big loss to us and one we'll no doubt not even attempt to replace again.

I think we shouldn't underestimate just how much more Union pays "squad players". Jones isn't a superstar, but he is a solid squad player - Cunningham describes him pretty well in that article. In League, such players are often on pretty average wages - £20-40k. In Union, you can add another £20k to that.

The only reason we don't have a mass exodus of our League squad players to Union is because they are, after all, squad players. Union has a significantly larger player base, and plenty of blokes who fit in the "good-but-not-great" category, so they don't really need to come shopping to us, whereas real stars like Burgess will always be in demand across both codes.

Obviously Exeter have seen something in Jones which they like, and they think he'll fit a specific hole in their squad. Good luck to him. I'm not going to begrudge a 22 year-old picking up a huge salary increase to play an easier game. I do wonder whether he's looked at the likes of Lomax and Wheeler, two of his close contemporaries, and decided that his earning career is likely to be significantly extended when he only has to make five tackles a match and carry the ball in once or twice.

Jones saints salary x3 + house + car = Exeter offer

No brainer

Good luck to him. He certainly didn't look like a want away player last week. Let's send him off with some (more) medals in his kit bag.

Matty Dawson has also signed a new deal according to Saints Twitter.

What the????

What an utter waste of money. He doesn't offer anything Fleming couldn't do for less money. It does seem McManus is back to having his feet up and letting us rot because we won the GF last season.

Let's not start denouncing players as a "waste of money" who have yet to have a decent run in the first team as a regular.

Personally I think Dawson has made plenty of improvements in the (very) limited opportunities he's had. For a start he's much bigger than last season.

Hope it works out well for Jonesy, for me he has come up with a mixed bag of performances and lately he has been very good. Thought he might have kicked on and developed to another level in a a similar way to Percival last year but he didn,t. Don,t know if that was down to lack of selection opportunities, attitude, confidence etc.
I assume Dawson has got the 2 year deal because of the Jonesy exit, we don,t want too may Utility players in the squad, we,ve got a bit of youth playing through but too develop they need to be in there dedicated positions, maybe Jonesy was a victim of this not happening.

Dawson isn't going to develop into anything he isn't now. He's a reasonably solid player, who at his natural level would be starting for a top end Championship or lower end SL side. He's not the kind of player we should be keeping ahead of a player from the academy. He's presumably being kept to cover centre and wing, but if KC finally gets his 'big strong winger', where would that leave Dawson? I just don't see what he offers to get in front of Fleming now. If we did sign another back, we'd probably never see Dawson again.

Dawson to bulk up and take Jones position as utility back/2nd row then?

I hope we don't resign Flanagan after letting Jones go. That would be a terrible move IMHO.