He wasn't expected to feature in his first season and was injured for most of his second season. At the start of this year he was probably next man up after McGilvary & Murphy, so ahead of Luke George in the pecking order, however after he signed for Saints mid season Baloo went with Blackmore as back up winger, giving experience to the lad who was staying.

Matty is a physical winger, runs the ball back strongly and takes a lot of carries to relieve the forwards. a solid squad man not a superstar, but all teams need a few of them.

The fact the announcement was basically a footnote after announcing the new contracts for the academy lads shows what role this player will have at Saints.

Difficult to judge a player who none of us have really seen much of.

If he's come in as a cheap back up for injuries I don't think it's that bad a signing. If he's 1st choice I'd be more concerned. I'd let Gardner go now and keep a lookout for a potential half back from the world cup.

I called this a good few month back as well as the Beaumont signing.

A younger version of Ade Gardner then, bye bye Ade

He's an ok player, wasn't gonna nudge Jerry or Murph out of our team and was competing with Luke George and Ben Blackmore as the next back-up. Hasn't really let us down when he has been picked and i think his lack of appearances is simply down to the fact there hasn't been sufficent chances for him rather than an ability issue...hope he turns out ok cos he seems a nice kid !

So it's your fault then?

You can't have a team with 22 superstars in it. You need back up and in Dawson and Beaumont we have players as back up who have (albeit limited in Dawson's case) SL experience.

I don't think they managed 20 games between them.

If they are just average squad players, why not just promote some of our own?

We have in Makinson and Swift, the problem is the gap they left - Galbraith who is probably next in line after those 2 is only 18 and not physically ready to fill in if required - hence signing Dawson - it gives Galbraith time to develop, fills the role left by Makinson and swift and makes sure we have some depth in the squad

If he's not a world beater, I'd imagine in 2 years he'll be let go so Galbraith can be promoted into that role

I'll wager he's quicker than Ade.

Correct, it is a squad game and rotation/resting and covering for injuries is required. However, this academy U19's has made it very difficult for fringe players to get a game. I'm not sure the dual reg aspect has been thought out properly.

A younger and quicker version of Ade, bye bye Ade