It's worth remembering that McDonnell was once Hull's marquee signing. They were paying him a fair wedge, IIRC. Just bad luck he picked up an injury.

If you look online there's a decent highlights reel of his from a couple of years ago. His footwork and pace were always very good - even if he did have a tendency to occasionally try to sidestep an opponent four times at once.

Actually, I think it says more about your inability to stop him.

McDonnell has never let us down, he runs great support lines and will score plenty of tries. He's absolutely worth his place in the squad, but obviously I'd love to see wee Jonny back and fully fit

Lomax is better than McDonnell in all aspects IMO. McDonnell is a bit ropey defensively from what I've seen so far and whilst Lomax's positioning isn't as good as Wellens's was in his pomp (and who really expects it to be at this stage?) it's on par with McDonnell's and his one on one tackling is better than McDonnell's.

In an attacking sense Lomax is better with ball in hand and has a more evasive running style. As long as he gets fit again he'll be number 1.

Having said that, McDonnell has done a bloody good job coming in and his playing style is what we needed after Lomax's injury.

Lomax is a better player but McDonnell is an excellent back up player and will put Lomax under pressure next season when he eventually returns from injury.

McDonnell has fitted in exceptionally well to our style of play. He reads the game well, his support play is very good (probably his biggest strength) and the timing of his passing and knowing when to run is decent too. He's weak in defence but positionally he's fairly good and I've not seen many kicks get the better of him yet. I'm glad we've got him until the end of next season as it give us that insurance in the position and allows us to time assess Lomax & our options next season.

Lomax wont get back in at number 1. Even when fully fit hes no where near as good as Saints fans say he is.

Im more than happy with McDonnell as our full back

Regards

King James

Shamefully i agree Lomax came back the shadow of the player he was and this latest set back maybe a injury to far?

I'm hoping i'm wrong but it will be very hard to get back that blistering pace he once had.

Its a bit of a worry for Johnny because his strength of change in pace and direction might be diminished. Wellens was a defensive full back with good positioning to chomp into the line on second face attacks, Johnny is an attacking full back with a weakness of reading plays in defence. So if his attacking prowness suffers then we could possibly looking at average performances, we really need him to fully recover to provide that X factor performance we know he was once capable of.

I'm happy with SMD at fullback and have more confidence in him there than when we have Lomax, let's see after a full season

Lomax is on too big a salary to be anything other than a starting player.

Ok give SMD a pay rise sorted

Lance Hohaia mrkII

I don't see the fascination wirh SMD. Don't get me wrong he's done ok since he came back. I like him and like his attitude but let's not forget that saints didn't deem him worthy of a deal for 2015.

Anyone who thinks he's better than a fully fit Lomax must have lost his/her mind. Lomax has more skill in his little toe than SMD does in his whole body.

The only area that SMD beats Lomax is the support play. SMD support play is second to none to any player in super league and that's how he scores so many tries.

I'm not bagging SMD before the usual on here wear saints tinted specs jump on me. I'm not pointing out he's not in the league as Lomax.

I agree that a fully fit Lomax is a top player, but he has been fully fit for only a fraction of his time at Saints, and I have doubts that he will ever regain the fitness to get him back to his best. That doesn't mean that he can't be a really good player again, maybe in a different position, but I would be surprised to see him playing 30 games a season for us as a full back. Given his fitness record, it is vital that we have a good back up, and SMD gives us that. Let's not forget that he isn't first choice in that position, and as a backup, he is far more than being just adequate.