Totally agree. Get Soliola in the second row and Puletua in the front row. Then put Gary Wheeler or Francis Meli in that centre spot.

Totally agree mate. I told you tony p was a better prop

Im not sure on meli in the centre to be honest, he got caught out big time against the wolves early doors when they was ripping us to shreds on meli's side.

He also got caught out big time in the grand final. It's not he can't tackle but his defensive postion at times is shocking.

Clever teams will suck him in like the pie's did at old trafford.

Maybe in time he can learn as he is pretty new to the centre spot which IMO the hardest and most important spot to tackle but he's getting on and i think it's to late to teach a old dog new tricks.

As i said last year, whoever has the a healthy and fit squad going into the play-offs between saints, wigan, leeds and warrington will win the grand final.

The depth of squad is very very important in super league these dats with the speed and how tough super league has become.

Last year saints took a huge risk by going with young kids. Although we ended up empty handed i think the 2010 season was a great year for us as we blood alot of kids that was awesome for us and will benifit from this in 2011 and add perry, LMS and a fit sia to that.

I just think it's a shame the young lad jake emmitt left the club as i think he could have been a very good prop for us and could have been a good player to replace jammer with if he goes to the NRL.

Keep Meli away from the centres. Sooner or later, he's going to start making a right hash of it.

He already has. He cost us two tries in play-offs against wolves and was all over the place in the grand final.

To be fair to meli, defending in the centre is not as easy as it looks and is tough to get the defensive postion right if your not used to it.

I was stand-off/losse forward but moved to the centres and it took me along time to get my defensive postion correct.

Meli would do a job in the backrow but i don't think he's fit enough to play there fulltime. IMO we should have let meli go but now he's here he should stick on the wing as thats his postion.

Flannery has played his best rugby the centre for us IMO but he also lacks that defensive know how in the centre, he tends to get drawn in pretty easy which is ok against most centres but the good ones will leave him.

Meli and flannery will never make good fulltime centres but will do a job. With a bit of luck wheeler will show us just how good he can be.

When was the last time we had two out and out centres playing together at saints?

I'd be happy to see it tried, although I don't think he's slowed down all that much myself. I'd definitely pick Wheeler in the centres before Flannery though.


Indeed. It's a shame, as he does offer a lot going forward. He's just one of those players that makes you wince when the action goes his way.


Yep, it's quite a fearsome set of props, that. Emmit looks like a good prop to me too, but with the salary cap I don't think we could justify keeping him, to be fair. He'll do well at Cas.

Offt the top of my head I would have to go with Gidders and Talau, can't think of anybody else.

Your prob correct. was that about 3yr ago ?

It's strange how we only ever seem to play with one centre and have anyone filling in the other centre spot.

He went to salford for the start of 2009, so 2 years now.

I agree, we only seem to want one centre, i don't know if there's some long term plan for our centres or its just being neglected. I think it's silly leaving us with only one centre though as it is a key position.

I think what we wanted from Tony skewed our veiw of him.
We were used to having a strong front row with a lighter back row. Leeds had Ali Lau running round out wide causing havoc. We wanted that and Tony was the man to provide it.
However, in the past 2 years his ability to play prop (very well) has proved more valuable to the squad than his ability to play back row.

Now, we may have a bit more back up in the prop dept now, but Tony's 2 years older, so he may find prop a bit more natural.

Re Meli - I echo Dux's sentiment that Wheeler's the guy for centre if he's fit. To be honest, I'd think about using Meli as an impact 2nd rower on the bench, who can then cover wing or centre.