Just a small point on that tirade. We could not get hoffman or waterhouse or any NRL player from the lower leagues. We have been at total on federation players this year and last. If we were going to sign them for next year . then we could not have kept TP. LOsing TP and Graham in one season would certainly see us out side the top four next year.

I did not want to sign meli last year. But playing him in the centres this year has kept him out of trouble and until the exiles game all our attack went through him.

His viable replacement in Wheeler has been injured far too often to challenge him at the back end of the year. I've not got an arguement with putting Wheeler there next year buthe has to be fit.

We did as the bookies expected then

And beating the favourites twice in the play offs and dumping then out.

We couldn't have released Flannery and gone for Waterhouse?? Or released Flannery and gone for ANY NRL player??

Making US the favourites for the final, then.

No we couldnt as flannery is off quota.

Ah yes, I forgot. But this doesn't mean we couldn't go for someone in the lower leagues or attempt to poach someone else's academy prospect. I doubt Flannery is playing for peanuts. To be honest, I'm not particularly bothered by Flannery. I'd rather we had someone else - but at least he isn't a defensive liability or a parasite like Gardner.

Nope.

Its quite simple you can have five players who where not trained in europe.

Flannery and meli are not binded by this as they were already in SL pre the new rules.

So its not as simple as get some one. To get some one we have to lose someone. Its easy to say we dont need lance now but when he was signed we were in a shocking position in the halfbacks. You cant do contracts with hindsight. Who could we get now? If then we have to let sia go next year.

Gardner had been playing impressive this season up to his injury, i think it was the back end of last season his wheels fell off.

by his standards maybe. Makinson is a better winger by a long way now, let alone when he gets more experience. Foster is as good but brings his kicking too. Ade should be our reserve winger next year and i hope his new contract reflects that.

As stated, this doesn't mean we can't go domestic (such as Westerman or Ratchford). The key question is - if Meli, Flannery or Gardner were playing for, say, Widnes - would we show the slightest interest in any of them?



I never mentioned losing Hohaia. Indeed, we are going to need him. As far as I am concerned we are STILL in a dodgy position insofar as the fullback position. Wellens will almost certainly start AGAIN next season - despite being shot for the best part of two, possibly three. If Hohaia is coming to play in the halves who do we have as a bona fide fullback replacement? Makinson is a prospect. But we haven't seen anywhere near enough of him to know for sure. For all we know he could turn out to be the next Leroy Rivett, or Danny Arnold. Foster? Ashe? Is that the sound of a barrel I hear being scraped?

Westernan cost £100,000 and we've not got that kind of money.

Ratchford was a option but I think he's gitca very big deal at Warrington and we can't afford to overspend on players if ge club don't think they warrant the wage demands.

We've been in dire need of a centre since talau went. We are also in need of a prop andva experienced halfback (maybe hohaia is the answer)

Gardner HAS played better this season. But if we are using Gardner's form over the previous four seasons as a metric to judge his absolute worth we're really struggling. At the very least it suggests he was playing for a contract extension and I have no time for that whatsoever. A professional rugby player shouldn't pick and choose the games he puts effort into. It's not conducive to a winning ethos.

I've no idea what money Saints are prepared to spend on a player. Neither have you. McManus and his associates have, in the past, repeatedly stated we are spending up to the cap. If that's the case it should be possible to trim Flannery's wages plus two or three fringe players to take a big bite out of the figure and pay the kid's wages.

You get what you pay for. If Saints want to win Grand Finals it is up to them to find the money.



If we are spending up to the cap then there's no reason we couldn't offer a similar deal. They can't spend MORE than us.