Or play him at FB. That way you also don't have to worry about a certain snail having to play as well.

The snail will be fullback next year, I'm certain of that.

I know

Look, stop being rude about Mr Wellens. He's cute, would die for Saints and he made the best fullback's tackle on a man twice as fast as him on Saturday. THAT is why we still need him because there is as yet absolutely NO ONE else in our team that can do that as well as he can. But he was pretty naff in other respects and maybe he was one of the walking wounded. Who knows. It's all become a blur this season has. I can't even remember who was playing in which match and who replaced them anymore.

The stat I'm worried about is: Played Wigan/Wire/Huddersfield 6(?) times, won zilch. Potter would have been lynched in the town hall square for that.

I'm starting to develop some serious doubts about Royce. Repeatedly poor (and sometimes borderline idiotic) use of the bench/interchange being the main one.

If anybody saw the pre-match build up for the wigan game, the difference between the coaches was marked. Maguire was very positive and confident in everything he said, Royce said he was nervous (which he was as he spent the next 80 minutes on TV biting his nails).

Jury very much out for me - I think he has "assistant coach" stamped all over him. Hope I'm proved wrong.

Let's be honest a hell of a lot of eye brows were raised when you found Royce. His career to date hadn't been impressive. How he got the job still mystifies me. Surely there most have been better applicants apply than him. I always remember my father telling me never to trust anyone with hooded eyes like Simmons has, OT and random I know.

As for Pryce, there a couple of times when the Wigan defensive line opened up in front of him. Yet when he tried to step through and pick up speed, he looked to have nothing. Obviously you'll have seen him a lot more than I have, has his groin injury taken away his speed and quick feet? Or is it just a case of being underdone and not truly match fit as some have suggested?

As for Wellens, your going down the exact same route we did, and Leeds are at present, being sentimental when it comes to ageing players. He's finished IMO, yet Saints don't have the ball's to say no, and it's clearly hurting the team. You'd think clubs would learn by looking at the mistakes that other clubs have made. Yet amazingly they don't, and the same mistakes are made over and over again.

I'll be honest, I rated Potter at Saints. I think the only reason you've been able to cope with the amount of injuries you've had this year (again) was because of the work Potter put in with your kids.

Royce has had Perry (fair enough, injured), Shenton + LMS to last years squad. Only really lost Cunningham (who's influence was waning imo) but that allowed you to have your best player on the field for longer in Roby.

That's probably because we still had Cunningham (a seriously influential presence in our team) and Gidley (with Longy still around in the first season). Pryce was playing for most of the time Potter was here and Eastmond too. Look at what we have had to play with for the whole of this season and yet we are in third spot today.


The only young players to have regular first team spots under Potter were Foster and Dixon. Everybody else had bit parts (some hardly featured). Makinson (our present right wing) had yet to make his debut, as indeed had a number of u20s players who have played for us this season. This Potter did great with the youth mantra is seriously over done.

Potter had an ideal chance to utilise Gaskell and Lomax as Simmons has done as we were without halfbacks for the final third of the season last year, but he went with Moore and Wilkin instead, giving Gaskell all of 1.5 games.

He's doing really well with Bradford.

Pryce was not fit enough for 80 mins of RL at that intesity and pace.
Two or three games back he should have either not played him or interchanged with Gaskell in both halves. Wigan have Hock back with 3 or 4 games and he wasn't in the 17 for those very same reasons.
Under Mcguire Wigan have faced Saints seven times. Wigan have won 5, drawn one and lost one. Maybe it's more about Wigan's coach than Potter or Simmons.

I can't see anybody mentioning this but a really telling stat from Saturday was that we managed three offloads during the game and they were all from Wilkin who is not really an offloading master. We have turned into Hull KR but with better players.

It's okay praising our ball retention but it didn't lead to anything. In most Super League games ball retention leads to a win, however when you're eating at the top table you need more than that especially when you're playing against a defence that can soak up forward runs down the middle.

Who is praising our ball retention? Our ball retention was shocking.

It wasn't. We made some errors, but we pretty much completed most of our sets.