All things being equal then I would agree.

But given how low we are on resourse plans need to change or we will be out of the race when he becomes useful

He played less than 20 minutes against Leeds, in fact if I remember rightly it was a 12 minute spell.

It's certainly not tosh at all. I had an extended period of injury out and it took me a good while to get back up to match fitness with intensive training, I know this for a fact as it's from experience and fitness comes much easier to me than it would to somebody the size of Savelio.

What's your first hand experience of having an extended injury and then the time taken to regain match fitness? You must have a fair bit considering you branded my post 'tosh'. Or are you just making things up from a stand point of complete ignorance with no knowledge of the situation at all?

Huddesfield at full strength 1-17 squad numbers named?

Saints in for a hammering

Indeed. So if they are wanting to build up his fitness, they introduce him for longer spells in the first team not have him playing 80 minutes against lesser opposition. How does playing against lads smaller than him build up his ability to play against bigger blokes exactly?

I have played a lot of sport, thanks for asking.

We aren't discussing his ability to play against size, we're discussing his fitness. You simply can't put him in the first team for close to 80 minutes, you can in the U19's. In terms of FITNESS, which is pretty much an obsession in my life, 80 minutes in the U19's is far, far more beneficial than 20-30 in the first team.

Also, I didn't ask how much sport you played, I'm sure you have participated in a number of sports as have I. My question was, what is your first hand experience of having a long term injury and than working back to full match fitness in a game of Rugby League. That is the point we are discussing here.

Feel free to completely avoid the exact question again though, it'll confirm to me you have no experience of it and are talking out of your backside.

Why would we want him to play 80 minutes in the first team? I didn't suggest that at all!


Aerobic fitness maybe but not strength building or endurance come to think of it. Like Masoe, the only way Savelio is going to get fitter at first team level is to have gradually increasing spells playing in the first team.


Really? Ok. If you say so!

Neither did I, I was stating that he can play much longer minutes at U19's level



You've just contradicted yourself, aerobic fitness IS endurance. His endurance will increase far more over a long spell rather than short spells of intense bursts. Playing for less than 30 minutes will increase anaerobic fitness, this isn't the area that he needs to improve. You're more than welcome to get into a debate about how to increase fitness with me but I will embarrass you, it's a field I have a lot of experience in and I plan most of my week around my fitness regime.

Once again, the debate is not about strength building, this can be done in the gym. The discussion is about fitness.

Hohaia
Makinson
Turner
Soliola
Dawson
Wheeler
Walsh
Walker
Roby
LMS
Flanagan
Wilkin
Wellens

Masoe
Wellens
Richards
Greenwood

after the weekend performance and all the media statements we need a 110% performance against Hudds. Anything less and there will be uproar! If we lose but lose fighting I won’t be to bothered but we lose on a whimper.... ARHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

It is a very sory state of affairs at saints when a young lad cant get up to full fitness in 5 months no matter what his size was before.Probably says a lot for the conditioning and fitness team at saints.As opposed to wigan who man for man look so superior in the fitness department.

Due to his size and lack of games beforehand I would say 5 to 8 months is a reasonable timescale for him to be match fit. If he doesn't start featuring occasionaly towards the end of June/ start of August is when I'll start questioning things.

I disagree.5 to 8 months seems like an excessive amount of time to get fit especially for a youngster.If he has a problem with training and weight it needs to get sorted or show him the door.It was a similar thing with wheeler with his attitude to training and his weight.If you cant motivte yourself when you are at one of the best rl clubs about then its time to pack it in.

From a normal injury - 5 to 8 months sounds about right, depending on what it was. I had to retire due to injury (so according to the red bit I'm more qualified to talk about it ) it's not just as simplistic as motivation and "training the house down" but getting your body used to impact again, getting used to peaking at the right times (aka not in training) and generally "getting back in routine" can take a good 3 months beyond recovering from a physical injury. Then, when you consider Savelios case is far more complex than a broken leg for example - your assuming that it has something to do with his attitude shows you have never been in the unfortunate position of having to re climb the mountain.

Oh, and weight and fitness are too different things. The trick is to get both for forwards, not one or the other. I bet our conditioning team could get him running a marathon soon enough, but that's not what were going for here.

I totally understand the argument for patience with Savelio (and from my perspective that's to do with the future role he plays in the team rather than fitness related issues.) But I do think doing 20-30 minutes this week could of been helpful to the team.

People often underestimate the fitness of top level RL players and the time required to get to full match fitness. There's a reason pre season is often around 4 months long, bearing in mind the vast majority of players will have had a full season of playing to maintain fitness levels too, Savelio has had none of this. Savelio was building from a very base level of fitness and needs time to get upto match fitness, 5 months is not a long time to get to the levels required.

I completely agree with this, ironically I would have been playing him if I was picking the team. However, it does not change the fact that in terms of boosting his levels to the required fitness the work he is getting through at U19's is far more beneficial for him individually.