another Smith-Damien.Aussie centre c 1997

Paul Hampson?
Was supposed to be a flyer,spent all his time In the reserves

Leon Felton

Barry Ward,

Totally forgot you guys took Smith, what a drinking machine!



You have had a few from us, who, for one reason or another never quite made it.

Dean Busby and Andy Dannatt

Are we talking literally here?

He wasn't a bad player tbh. We could do with someone like him now. I would honestly give my mortgage for Paul Anderson at the end we signed him now.

In terms of being found out and longevity, surely Phil Adamson and Tricky Trindall are the front runners.

Tim Jonkers



Bibey and steve hall stand out a mile.
closely followed by Josh Perry

Joking aside, if he doesnt improve he will be the worse signing for years

Adamson, Felton, henare

Tricky Trindall, came over for no reason what so ever as we had Tommy God, the fans hated him for being rubbish and taking Tommy's place, went home quickly and pretty much guaranteed Hanley left too

Peter Souto

Jamie Foster

Ste Tyrer

James Roby. Useless that one.

Souto - between periods of going AWOL - actually turned in one or two good performances for Saints. IIRC, he played well in the JPS final victory over Leeds.

A lot of the names listed in this thread, whilst failures in the long run, did show at least something useful at rare times.

At the other end there are names like Ricky Cowan (as well as the infamous Mark Bourneville) who arrived with no objectively-defined reputation to speak of and thus barely scrape into the "smallest flop" category.

I vividly remember Mike McClennan claiming Cowan was a [i"big guy with great hands, good foot speed, tremendous physique and outstanding fitness"[/i. With such an impressive summation you could be forgiven for thinking we were signing the new Mal Meninga.

After his first game my guess was he must have been an old drinking buddy of McClennan's from the dockyards back in NZ who had fallen on hard times and was calling in a favour.

I see I got a good reception regarding good old Tim....saying that it's only an opinion calm down. As I said Hall at number 1 suppose I just didn't get Jonkers but I stand corrected.

And by the way I used to love Big Baz thought he was the quickest fatty Iv;e ever seen, seriously what a legend haha

Didn't we once sign the wrong player. I'm sure I read somewhere that Hanley wanted a particular player, ( think it was scullys book) we sent over a scout or director on a jolly to austrailia and he came back with his brother instead all signed up.

Hanley blew his top at the board and that was the beginning of the bust up.

The are rumours we signed the wrong adamson but I'm not sure it was when Hanley was in charge.

We wanted the adamson Leeds had and come back with his sister.

Radney Bowker

The same person who thought Tim Jonkers was poor thinks Barry Ward was a legend. That really does say everything you need to know.

Many are simply mentioning our worst players, and the list is endless (especially in the millward days) a flop is someone you expect big things from.

Trindall had all the potential to be class, but he was not right in the head so hardly played.

Adamson was a decent enough player, but got caught up in the 'who signed him' argument between Hanley and Hughes. He was excellent in the a team.

Damian smith, Barry ward (although he was a cult figure) are certainly two who you expected bigger things from

Sorry Div I didn't realise that everyone had to agree with you and must share the same opinion. Someone who can't accept an opinion on the other hand says all they need to know about that person IMO, IMO stands for In My Opinion, but I guess that doesn't figure with you, anyway you have an opinion and so do I. Build a bridge and get over it flower. And good shout with Radney Bowker forgot about that little gem.

Going back a fair few years before that, we sent scouts to watch a young winger at Preston Grasshoppers, a right flyer.

Reports came back that he'd had a decent all round game, and rumours were that wi*an were also dead keen on him. We signed him up straight away, full of delight about getting one over on the Pies, unaware that for the match we'd seen, Dave Tanner had replaced the injured Mark Preston.

Preston went on to have a great few years at wi*an, scoring shedloads of tries. Dave Tanner forged an unspectacular career at Saints as a mediocre utility player.

(the story's probably BS, or at least heavily exaggerated but, given the Laurel & Hardy management of the club at the time, certainly believeable)

Oh, and Jonathan Griffiths, despite a handful of good games, never fulfilled anything like the promise that his talent and paypacket warranted.

And yet, based on expectation levels versus reality, Michael O'Connor wins the 'biggest flop' award by a mile.