If saints had been on the ball recruitment wise then both ade and Meli (when he was winger) should have been replaced two years ago.

How Meli got a two year deal last year in the form he was in was unreal!

to be fair meli got something like 21 trys last year, with no recognised centre. letting a player like that go would have been dumb!

His form the year before didn't warrant a two year deal. Lucky enough he's played pretty well.

He should never play wing again as he's a liability.

.. Must say I think a year would have been right but he definately deserves something.

Ade was doing excellent work. He was doing a brilliant job clearing our line. He would more often than not take the first run after we had fielded a kick. He was hitting the ball up hard and with pace followed by a very quick play the ball. What this resulted in was a defence on the back foot which was then exploited by James Roby running into acres of space from dummy . Ade has also without doubt ironed out his vulnerability under kicks and was pretty solid in that respect.

Since he has been out we have been much less effective working away from our own line.
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two years is i think right for both Ade and Saints.

Ade still has something to offer Saints and i would expect a fully fit Ade to be one of our starting wingers over the next two years.

As for Makinson and Foster, they are both young kids learning their trade. Going with two inexperienced wingers is a recipe for disaster in big games.

I am a big fan of Makinson in particular. For a 19 year old he is outstanding. Think how good he may be in two years.
I see his future at centre or alternatively at fullback. His pace in both of those positions is better utilised than on the wing. In the modern game its more important for a winger to be 6ft 2, a good catcher and finisher than to be necessarily fast. Its a brucie bonus if you end up with someone like Josh Morris on the wing who also possesses good pace. If you doubt this just look at Australia were most of the real quick men play either at fullback or centre.

It's a strange one. We need all the squad depth we can, but the one position we achieve it in is the wing, which is possibly the easiest position to cover.

Unless Makinson is playing fullback next season, this doesn't sound like a very ambitious use of the salary cap.

OK here is my 2 penith worth.

For years and years I defended Gardner thinking he would just open his legs one day and leave all for dust. It never happened and so I bowed to the majority posistion that he was more of a liability than an asset. Then he comes good. So long as its not stupid money I have no problem keeping Gardner. Some have said that in recent weeks Foster has been a bit slack on keeping hold of the ball. If we did not have Gardner there would be a lack of competition for places on the wing. Competition brings the best out of people and should keep foster and makinson aiming high. It also helps as also some have said that foster wants to negotiate upwards. Ive no problem with this but the club needs to negotiate down so a wing replacement and lomax kicking is a viable alternative.

Kickinbg wise I do hope we are not sitting back and just saying foster is great. We need 2 or 3 kickers regularly practising incvase of injury or if foster gets a better offer.

Lomax would be one but also the other back should see what value a kicking ability adds to your nal.

Makinson and Wheeler are both good goal kickers

Not a patch on jamie foster.

I think Jamie has been little slack on the playing side of things over the last month. Maybe he needs bringing down a peg or two.

Oh without a doubt Jamie is leagues above, I'd happily argue he is the best kicker in the league. I was just pointing out that if Jamie was missing for some reason we have options.

Maybe ade was given another contract because Royce don't get on with a certain winger

If its true that Ade has taken a pay cut then its a reasonable signing,he can provide cover if we need it and pass on his experience to the younger players,its a squad based game and we need to use what we have well.

One of the benefits of having a kicker as good as Foster in the side is that he turns pretty much every 4 points into 6. Is this a good enough reason to keep him in the team if his all round game isn't that great? It's a tricky call. Ade may offer us more in terms of a better all round team performance, but we'll miss those collective points as well if he's not out there to kick.

Really? Well I didn't know this.

Joey Hayes.

Two years is a little generous, imo, although I don't know what he's getting paid.
Having competition on the wing is good, not least in order to keep pressure on Foster to perform with thinking he's guarenteed a spot 'cause of his kicking.

I assume Tom Armstrong will be leaving now.

The reserve reports, combined with seeing the size of him, had me quite excited about brotherton. He's a big unit who's good under the high ball in both offence and attack (a bit like Pat Richaaaards, or whatever they call him), but i guess they still think he's a way off 1st team.

It may let us get makinson out on loan to give him some time in the centre?