And be replaced by who? Bearing in mind that they would need to be English and coming out of contract now as we can't pay transfer fees? Name a suitable realistic replacement for each that would be vaguely an upgrade I dare you...

Give Makinson the No.1 spot next season, Royce, please.

Personally I would like to see:

Makinson
Foster
Shenton
Wheeler
Gardner (Brotherton if ready, Ashe maybe if not?)
Gaskell
Lomax
Perry
Roby
Clough
Puletua
Wilkin
Laffranchi

Flanagan
Hohaia
LMS
Soliola

If you are seriously suggesting there isn't a single (affordable) player - old, young or foreign who could not do a better job playing in a top side than Meli, Gardner and Flannery then the game of Rugby League has officially come to a dead end.

Name some?

We areall gutted we lost last night but you seem more bitter than disappointed. We are a young team who did the club proud last night. We can't just bin all our players because we lost the final.

Meli is being made the scapegoat again but the was others on that side also

Instead of calling everything the club has done this year, just stop and think what this team has gone thru and maybe you'll see that we've done a hell of a lot better than expected.

I'd drop Meli and Moore without a moment's hesitation.

Flannery doesn't come cheap.

Ive said all year, saints made massive mistake in keeping meli. The fact we play him centre just to keep him off the wing is a total joke!

Anyone with half a brain can see we need a real centre, not just someone who can play ok there but someone who knows how to beat a man, someone who knows when to give to his winger, someone who knows when to go himself, a proper centre!

Scott Moore gets me nervous everytime he's on the pitch. Everytime he makes a tackle I think penalty, everytime he gets the ball I expect him to drop it.

The OP seams a bit lets say off his nut. All that would result from following that would be multi million pounds of law suits from four players for breach of contract.

I would agree with letting Meli go but it would be down to him to ask for the move. Basically we need a fit Wheeler otherwise its going to be 2013 before we can get a new centre.

If Wheeler can get fit the centre spot is their for him to make his own. Makinson on the wing next year for mine. Wello did nothing wrong last night but get injured. However if he has been playing injured we cant do this next year.We have lomax and lance who can play here. Playing a half fit wellens is not better than a fully fit lance or lomax.

Give over. We could have signed Hoffman. We could have signed Ratchford (who can easily play at centre). We could have signed Waterhouse or Westerman. We could have signed any number of promising kids from other academies, the lower leagues or Australia/NZ. Let's get something straight - Meli, Gardner and Flannery are NOT great players. "Solid" (another word for modestly gifted) is the best description most fans can come up with. Aside from Flannery (who admittedly makes few mistakes) I'd be guarded about using that word alongside Meli and Gardner who are demonstrably NOT solid. Meli should NEVER have been given his original contract extension. He did nothing to warrant it and all subsequent ones beggar belief. Leaving aside 18 months of good form (which is so long ago I can barely recall it) Gardner has been living off the backs of other more talented players. If all three had been playing for Widnes or Hull I doubt we would EVER consider signing any of them. Most fans would consider such a proposal a joke.



Another straw man argument. NO ONE has suggested binning all our players. We have a very talented core group of youngsters who will undoubtedly go on to achieve much in the game. But fans have been (rightly) calling for the heads of Gardner and Meli for years.



ANOTHER straw man argument. Didn't I see you peddling a pushbike and trailer in Worzel Gummidge? Meli is not THE scapegoat. He is unquestionably A scapegoat. What makes things worse is he has now been directly responsible for costing Saints THREE Grand Finals. No wonder the Australians laugh at our game. They figured out Meli the best part of a decade ago. Which is why NO NRL club is in a hurry to offer him a route back into the NRL.



Let's get back to reality here. Saints were hardly also rans going into this season. Most people had them as third/fourth favourites behind Wigan, Warrington and possibly Huddersfield. Now, how many Grand Finals have been contested by teams outside the top two? Quite a few now. So Saints were always in with a chance of getting to the Grand Final. What's worse is we WEREN'T beaten by any of the pre-season favourites. We went down to a Leeds side which finished BELOW us in the table. Indeed, Saints went into the match as hot favourites. So quit with the "heroic achievement" nonsense. Had we been Hull or Salford I might agree.

Utter crap

Urgent warning to anyone who knows mugwump, hide all razor bladesx and rope as this guys on the edge!

Hey, I'm sorry you can't deal with the truth but, you know, the game is tough and there is no place in it for sentiment. You think Meli, Gardner and Flannery are the best possible players we could ever hope for at this time. If that is true the game has officially reached a dead end in terms of player development. We might as well call for the vet now and painlessly put it out of its misery.

No mate your missing my point. I wouldn't have give any of them new deals as I've said all along.

I've been very critical of our recruitment policy over the last few years but we don't know the ins and outs of it.

Ratchford IS a player I think we should have gone for, he's English, skilful and looks very good in the centre but ibtjink the club had wheeler down for that centre spot. They can't predict which players will get injured. We also don't know what money he wanted.

I've banged on about this all year abs I'll say it again. Until we get a proper centre, experienced halfback and another prop I think we will keep our nearly men tag.

Just out of interest, I checked the bookies odds for Saints to win the Grand Final at the start of the season.

2/1 Wigan
10/3 St Helens
10/3 Warrington
9/2 Leeds
10/1 Huddersfield