So am I (more fool me I know, but I'm bored).

Saints 2006 won the regular season by a clear eight points. The vastly superior Warrington team of 2012 finished second, one point behind Wigan.

Saints 2006 lost four competitive games throughout that season

Despite playing a regular season round less than Saints 2006 (27 compared to 2icon_cool.gif, Warrington 2012 lost six and drew one of their regular season games (conceding 48 points at Salford and 62 points at London) and also had an additional (comprehensive) defeat in the play-offs.

Saints 2006 scored 30 more points than Warrington 2012 in the regular season, understandable given the extra game. However, the Warrington 2012 team managed to concede 109 more points (539) than Saints 2006 (430) despite playing a game less.

The Saints team of 2006 won the CC, League Leaders Shield, Grand Final & BBC Team of the Year. Individually we won SL Coach of Year, Young Player of Year, MOS and BBC Coach of Year. We won 32 out of 36 games, and the negative points difference of the 4 games we lost was only 10 points combined.

The Saints of 2006 was the best club side SL has seen, and by far still remains the best club side since the Wigan invincibles, anybody with half an ounce of rugby league knowledge would be able to recognise that.

As for the joker making comparisons, Mick Higham was allowed to leave Saints at the end of 2005 because he wasnt good enough to keep KC or Roby out of our team at 9, so how you can say he is better than Roby is beyond me.

To say Tony Smith is better than DA is also a brave call, seeing as Smith came to SL as a coach in 2000 and has coached SL for 11 seasons (1 where Giants were relegated) and in that time has won 3 Challenge Cups, 2 Grand Finals, 1 WCC and 2 League Leaders Shields (a total of 8 trophies). DA was in SL for 3 and a half years, and managed to win 3 Challenge Cups, 4 League Leaders Shields, 1 Grand Final and 1 WCC(a total of 9 trophies).

Overall, the Saints team of 2006 won 3 trophies in that year alone, Warrington have managed 4 trophies in 16 years of SL...therefore to me there isnt really a comparison to be made.

Was the 2006 side even the best Saints side in the SL era...?

Be a tough call - 99/00 was very good, as was 2002 and 2004 could have been until Longy and Gleeson bet against us and got banned. Think you would have to say 06 was the best we have had though

The 2006 Saints is the finest this country has produced during the professional era. This year's Wire team isn't even as good as last year's Wire team.

Blimey 2006 was a great year to be a Saints fan eh! Just brings back a lot of happy memories.

Some of the highlights from those comparisons include:

1. Cunningham but only just. KC played more games and helped the side much more than Monaghan ever could
2. Morley over the unstoppable Cayless. 06 was JC's best year.
3. Briers over Pryce, i mean really? Could Briers have done what Pryce did to Hull in the GF? Not a chance
4. Higham over Roby.
5. Waterhouse over Gilmour. A man who has had 4/5 good weeks against a seasons worth of hard work from Gilly
6. Old man Hodgson over 2006 MOS Paul Wellens

Theres more but i have more entertaining things to do!
Cheers for a much needed laugh in my day!

Bulls 2003 weren't too shabby either. Oh, how I yearn for a Bradford side like that again.

However, as a Grand Final side goes, St Helens 2006 is the best of the three (possible) options.

1 Hodgson Vs Wellens = Wellens
2 Riley Vs Gardner = Gardner
3 Ratchford Vs Lyons = Lyon
4 Atkins Vs Talau = Talau
5 Monas J Vs Meli = Joel
6 Briers Vs Pryce = Pryce
7 Myler Vs Long = Long
8 Moz Vs Cayless = Cayless
9 Monas M Vs Cunningham = Cunningham
10 Carvell Vs Anderson P = Paul Anderson
11 Westwood Vs Wilkin = Westwood
12 Waterhouse Vs Gilmour = Gilmour
13 Ben Harrison Vs Scully = Sculthorpe

14 Mickey Higham Vs Roby = Roby
15 Woody Vs Graham = Graham
16 Hill Vs Fa'asavalu = Hill
17 Grix Vs Hooper = Hooper

Coachicon_biggrin.gifaniel Anderson.

i have to say as a wire fan that that 06 side was top draw and better than our current wire side,
especially as we haven't won the gf yet (but hopefully). I think if we win on saturday then i think the
wire side should come away with a lot of credit and be recognized as one of the top forces over
the past 4, especially past 2 years.

Wellens in his pomp, Lyon (terrific centre), and probably the
best half back combination of long and pryce in the sl era, plus kc and graham with sculthorpe
are legendary now as rightful household names in the rl world and i would be laying some bricks
if that side were to be facing us on saturday.

I also think that our big name players deserve a lot of credit and respect. Games and ultimately
honours can go down to decisions made in a milliseconds and there are such fine lines to be
drawn between the top sides throughout the competition throughout history. Wire went
out last year after conceding a last minute penalty to Leeds/Sinfield and lost by one point
in the last minute. I have to say that I thought Wire were by far the best side last year beating
all the top sides home and away and on any other 'normal' day should have gone through and
at this point on the edge of 2 Gfs

That's sport. In fact it surprises me that Saints in those years of world class players didn't
do the double double, or even 3 consecutive doubles. In 20 years time, no doubt we will remember that
particular side, but it won't stick in the memory statwise many years down the line when we
look at number of Leeds GF finals won in such a concentrated period like the pies' record
of cc finals won late 80s early 90s.

Great sides only seem to be truly recognized in the years after their achievements, like music
and everything else that doesn't seem to sit right at the time, and then a few years later,
you sit back and think, "bloody hell, 80's music wasn't as bad ( when I listened
to it in the 90s". We're even signing some of that stuff on the terraces now like that depech
mode thing.

I know Wire fans will never forget this side, notably Hodgson, Atkins, Briers, Morley, Monaghan,
Westwood amongst many others, and I hope in 6 years plus time that they'll be remembered and respected
in the same breath as those great Saints players I've mentioned above.

I've had a few beers and must hit the sack. I still have a red left eye from the hangover on saturday
which looks like I have a constant hangover in work.

Good luck for next season (apart from Wire games!). You'll
be right up there as you always are next season.

Just a point how did that Saints side stay under the salary cap with all those greats?

We all know how dodgy the current Warrington side is in terms of the salary cap but that Saints side is a cut above in terms of quality, there's no way those guys could have been under the cap.

Wonder if by rights Saints should have that double stripped off them...?

No doubt offshore accounts, suspiciously highly paid "clerical" jobs for women who just happened to be players' wives and miscellaneous other legal loopholes were involved, similar to the ones your current squad is undoubtedly exploiting. I hope our revenue streams at the new gaff come online soon to allow us to be in a position financially to be able to do the same again.

Hopefully this scam will be exposed and the perpetrators have their titles stripped off them, although I am sure Wigan will fight vigorously for both Saints and Wire as they have always been opposed to the communist cap.

I cant believe this is even up for discussion. There is no comparison. The saints team of 2006 would have beat this current wolfs team without getting out of second gear.