Plenty respect for Ade from me , I appreciate the effort he's put in for the club over the years but it's time to go. He has benefited from playing outside some fine centre's but for me has never been anything but average. I think he will be surpassed in the records by Swift who looks like a real prospect and possibly even Makinson who has the thing Ade sadly lacks.. pace

Ade has done well over the years, always like the way he ran the ball back (done that more than some of the forwards). I can't see him getting back in the team though.

I think there's some unwarranted criticism & revisionism going on about Gardner. He's a player who, though never a world beater and had a frustrating reluctance to take on a player on the outside, never given less than 100% for the club. I'm never comfortable when players like that get the sort of sneering criticism some have expressed in this thread.

As already mentioned, everyone respects what players like Ade have done. But there is no room for such sentimentality in sport. Gardner would only ever be backup to the kids in the team, and would probably fall behind kids coming through from the academy like Percival (I know I'd pick him over Ade on the wing).

Think the time has come for him to leave but its interesting that one poster says his one on one tackling is good, another says his finishing close to the line is good, another says he will run through a brick wall.....all good traits for today's wingers. His speed isn't what it was or should be though.

In his defence, its remarkable he's received so much stick for relying on his centres or not being that good......I think he was great in February 2007....just ask the Brisbane wingers.

I've always stuck up for Ade, however I don't think we can justify offering him a new contract. With Swift, Tommy Mak, Percival and now Dawson - he's no longer a shoe-in for a start. And I would imagine he earns a lot more than the players who are ahead of him.

Thanks for over a decade of service Ade - but I think a move away is best for both parties.

Our contract situation at saints does confuse me.

Why do we persist with the likes of Wellens and Laffranchi (when they probably will be here next season) but then get rid of Gardner? I don't understand the difference between those two situations and the opposite outcomes.

I'm not overstating Gardner's ability here, I just think he's as useful in his position as the two players referred to above are to their positions.

Why do we seem to have a different policy for different players? If anything, we have far more cover at prop/second row (laffranchi) and have more options at FB (Wellens) than we do have on the wing.

I'd guess at 2 things. At their peak, both players where a class above Gardner and now can cover a number of positions, Gardner can play wing.

Also, Boof (captain at the Titans when we signed him) and Wello have leadership qualities which Ade probably doesn't. Ade does tend to be injured for half of each season, as well.

I see the leadership point re: Wellens but not Laffranchi. From an objective POV he does not come across as a talker or someone who would take the lead.

I agree. Obviously I can't comment on what he like in the changing room/on the training field but on a match day he certainly doesn't come across like a leader and he doesn't set good examples to the younger players. He acts like a petulant child when things aren't going his way and it has gone worse as he has got older.

Wello?

Teaching them aeroplane impressions?