Burns also has a kicking game and seems capable of carrying the load if Walsh got injured.

Yup

I think his goalkicking is as good if not better than Walsh too.

Percival has not got a bad foot on him.

Really all youth players should be practicing their goal kicking as it increases their value and chances of getting picked.

I don't think Burns is anything special skills-wise. Walsh has the skill. But what Burns does offer is a kicking game and some fire in the side, both of which we very much need.

I'd settle for a halfback who can play for more than two weeks without getting crocked. Walsh is genuine class, but counts for nothing when he is is on the sidelines. Obviously anyone can break their leg, but even before that he was missing too many games or playing with injuries

I think that's very unfair on Walsh - yes he's had 2 serious injuries, but he also played through a hyper extension and played more than Wheelers best year. I think Walsh is talked about being injured more than he is, which gives the impression he's out more than he is ...

Yet he missed only two games in his final season with Penrith so maybe the problem isn't Walsh but Saints? Kyle Amor said he had never had a long term injury before the one he suffered during his first season at Saints. The club appear to have written our repeated injury problems off as repeated bad luck but I don't buy that anymore.

I think we have fielded as close as dammit to a full team just twice this season, and the first time was the first game (though we were missing Mosoe on that occasion).

I,ve always questioned our conditioning of players these past 3 or 4 years, year on year we seem to have an injury crisis more so than other clubs.
Did someone break a mirror in the dressing room in 2008 giving us all the bad luck until 2015, if Burns comes to Saints will he fall to the injury curse.

Walsh looked OK at the beginning of the season then gradually he seemed to be more fragile during our conditioning regime, similar to Mose he took quite a while to get to match fitness, would this have happened if they were still in the NRL.

In my opinion they should be looking at this, we can have the best team in the comp but thats no good if half of them are watching in the stands especially if Walsh and Burns could be part of them.

On the conditioning theme, guess who i saw on a jog on knowesley rd last week? the one and only Apollo! Come back to us big man!

He was down brook. He works in Dubai and his lad is a monster!

It's stupid to blame conditioning on players injury's this season?

Walsh Broken leg how is that the clubs fault
Lomax Knee ligaments no fault of the club
Amour twisted his knee in a tackle just unlucky?? etc
Wilkin Dislocated Shoulder not clubs fault
Apart from Wheeler who gets every injury going they are all differant

If everyone had pulled muscles then you'd have to question something?

Stop looking for someone to blame and realise thats sport?

Conditioning to me is the whole skeletal, bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments to make them resistant to impacts directional forces etc. If its not balanced in the correct way the nature of the sport will find a weakness. There is aso conditioned recovery phases from weekly knocks and bruises to consider as well to carry over to the next game.
Some of it is also technique how to apply leverage and stop momentum.
For me we don,t look effecient and conditionally fit in this department that might explain sometimes why we can't play for 80 mins because the players becomes over stressed then "the head" starts to go out of focus.

(Walsh's injury aside) I think you have to accept that proper training can strengthen your joints as well as your muscles. Weight training even increases your bone density to a degree.
I'm not blaming the conditioning staff for any of the above, but neither should we dismiss the thought that our guys could be possibly be more robust.
It does seem like we've suffered much more from injuries since Apollo has left, but I'm pretty sure there are fans from other teams who'll quote a similar sized injury record from their squad.

Another way to look at it is this -
Do we look like the fittest, strongest squad in the league?
Do we have one of, if not the lowest instance of player injury?

If the answer to the above is no, then chances are we don't have the BEST conditioning set up in the league. If we want to be the best team, then everything in place has to be as high quality as possible.