He certainly is a tall lad, however he will have to fill out quite a bit to take on the rigours of Superleague.

Potentially in a couple of years Saints will have an absolute monster pack, if Joe Greenwood also comes through fully as he is also about 6ft 5inches tall.

Regard both as players for the future eg 2 years down the track rather than next year.

Ignore me - just read it again and that's exactly what it says. Must try harder - been a long week

Batley's season is over now, isn't it?
He'll be ith us through a full preseaon and has probably already been lined up for a new conditioning regeime. If he goes back to playing for Batley next year, he's be running in a differnet gear than now, and don't forget that if Batley are part timers, he'll still have a lot of time to spend here learning.

If he's the talented lad people are saying he is, then I don't see him spending the full year at Batley, given the above. If we are to recall him, we could send someone like Forster, Hand or Walker the opposite way to help their development.

Happy with this, although I was told it was going to be four!

Can he play Fullback or Stand Off

Big Bugger though

We could end up looking like the circa '90 circus freak team when we had Jones, Harrison and Kay all in the same side.

he is a monster, and full time training will make him huge. He is a human wrecking ball !!
I watched him at halifax a couple of weeks ago and he was just running over the defence.
the fans wear chanting Beast, Beast, Beast !!! he is better than Chris Hill and far more aggressive
he will be a huge hit at st helens. I doubt he will be back at Batley for long as he will be better
than Perry and Lafranki....mark my words.
Leeds were trying to get him but clearly thought they could do it on the cheap.

The strange thing re that is today, only Harrison would stand out as being tall. Kay and Jones would just be run of the mill sized.

Tony Kay was a real cult figure of mine. Loved his awkward swivel hips style of play.

Dead Ball was rubbish

Harrison was a decent journeyman pro.

I agree with that - no way is Boof a front rower and TP does a much better job for us there because of his sheer size. Laffranchi was a really effective back rower in the NRL and could really shine there alongside the others you mention.

Thats how I'd play it too.

Obviously you would not play the same guys each week, we need to give Forester etc a go and not just for injuries.

A pack of TP Roby Perry Sia Manu Wilkin

sub LMS, Clough, Flanaghan, Forester

is still a good enough pack when playing teams lower down the division and gives Laffranchi or whoever more rest time for the end of season and the youngsters time to develop alongside a strong pack.

I dunno about that - all 3 were 6' 5" and over as I recall. Tony Kay was one of my favourite players ever actually - I've never seen another player who clearly loved every second he had playing in a Saints shirt as much as he did. He couldn't either make or break a tackle to save his life but I loved watching him anyway. Harrison was a great meat and potatoes player - if Walmsley ends up as good we'll be doing OK. Jones was quite posssibly the worst player I've ever seen in a Saints shirt...

Who was Jones?

So, is the considered opinion of the posters that this is a good signing, and well done Mr McManus?

I think we should file it for later use, when he fails to win 10 consecutive man of the match awards, and people start to say that our recruitment is appalling. Am sure that people were equally pleased at the signing of great young prospects and current internationals like Shenton and LMS, but time seems to dim some memories.