I understand.

However these days fringe players have a very short shelf life.

They are youngsters on the way up or someone looking
for a second chance but with real potential.

Look at Clough his time has come and gone therefore he needs to step down
to continue. The next crop of forwards are overtaking him.

At his best O'Brien is solid.

The real problem is that while the youth production line has been churning
out plenty of forwards and enough backs, there have been no HBs or hookers for a while.

Saints are on to the next crop of 16 year olds who may be ready in 2-3 years.

It is further complicated by hot & cold Hohaia and AWOL Wheeler neither of which
has been a nailed on 6 upto now.

When one or both goes the way is clear to buy
a proper 6 and a 3rd halfback/hooker with the change.

Top of the shopping list has to be Snyed.

If were living in fantasy dream world, and punting on a relative youngster from another club, I'd rather we went for sutcliffe at Leeds - the problem with going for Sneyd would be koukash - the more enquiries made, the more he'll want to keep him.

We've produced more than enough halfbacks to have left us set (grand final winners, international caps etc have come from saints academy), unfortunately for whatever reason, it's not worked out

I agree about cover for roby.
A good quality hooker to spell Roby would be great.
Higham would be nice or someone of that calibre.
Good thing in right games you can push roby into the forwards.
You could put roby anywhere on the field and in pretty sure he would be outstanding.

Tight games*

back on topic, this move is good for everyone. Signing Dawson signalled Ade's time was up, Dawson is a reserve winger/ centre which puts Ade right out of the picture.
All the best Ade, always gave his best for the V

The only reason Ade gone on loan for the season as he's got no future at saints. It's as simple as that.

If were talking about a reserve hooker then daryl Clarke from Castleford is a class act reminds me so much of a young james roby. Gob isn't a bad player and we looked a lot better last year with him.

Lots has been made about Clarke, he'll demand a high price to begin with (since he has 4 years to run on his deal) and it may end up as a bidding war between Salford, Warrington and potentially a few others - I don't think we'd be interested in getting involved with that. As nice a signing as it would be, we paid our first transfer fee in a good number of years, and don't expect to see huge sums thrown around any time soon (though we may see another Amor style signing)

It wouldn't surprise me if were looking for a new hooker (especially if lance goes) but I don't expect it to be his profile necessarily.

With Adey the best at hkr though - hopefully he can play himself into a contract (if that's what he wants)