I don't think meli is fit enough to play 2nd row.

His defence would also worry me when he's tired.

I think our backline will be

wello
Gardner
gidley
wheeler
meli
pryce
eastmond


I'd go with that but would play lomax on wing and drop Gardner.

Perhaps he has some kind of long-standing injury. I don't know. Almost all wingers drop down a couple of gears in their late twenties and early thirties - but Gardner is a bit young for that.

And I can only repeat the point: Criticising Meli for bad hands is like criticising a bird for flying. It's what they do. The guy has ALWAYS had dodgy hands. He ALWAYS will. I'm sure he tries desperately to correct this fault but it's completely beyond his or anyone else's power.

If there is to be any real criticism it should be aimed at McManus. I can only assume the new stadium has drained our finances to the point where he could only spend at bargain bucket basement because no one in his right mind would have offered Meli the eye bogglingly long contract he did on the strength of performance. He gambled on turning around an NRL washout who had shown good form in the NRL prior to being figured out and obliterated. Unfortunately the odds were against him from the start.

Meli only made one error, the pass to Smith. The ball being knocked out late on wasn't his fault and could happen to anyone.

What?

What what?

The error for Smith's try in the first half was his only error wasn't it? The other time it was punched out of his hands.

So far as I'm aware, Meli made two howlers: the loose ball he decided to bat into their ingoal area, giving them their second try, and later when he dropped the bloody ball, which led ultimately to their third try. Nothing was punched out of his hands so far as I know but by the time of his second howler I was imagining what forms of torture I could use on him so I probably wasn't concentrating.

Well, if that did happen - and I didn't see that at the time - then it should have been a knock on by Leeds shouldn't it? But besides that, he might have been guilty of a loose carry rather than someone punching the ball out of his hand. Nah, it just doesn't resonate with my memory of the occasion. He just lost it on impact.

Given his ability to make howlers at grand finals, I don't forgive Meli this time. He's done for me.

Ball was punched out backward by a Leeds player. Leeds are the masters of stripping the ball imo.

Exhibit A - 2007 grand final, loses ball in own 25 metre area. Leeds score with lautiti and take hold of the game.

Exhibit b - 2008 grand final, fumbles high ball which is swooped on by mcguire allowing leeds to establish a crucial 8 point match winning lead.

Exhibit c - 2009 grand final basically pats the ball to smith over the try line for him to touch down.

exhibit d- Loses ball in own 20 metres with 10 minutes to go. Leeds score game clinching try from resultant field position.





Pretty damning evidence.

Meli has played a key role in losing you all 3 grand finals.

End of next season.

Maybe we did but no one was available?

It's ok saying we should sign 2 wingers, 2 props and a new half back but the quality in these positions just hasn't been available within budgets and quota limits.

In the prop department, the resigning of Fozzard points to this in a major way.

What people forget is that Saints were left in the lurch a bit by Darren Albert who decided at short notice that he was going back to Australia.

We were then left with having to make do and mend and got Meli.

I suspect we will keep Meli till end of next season then he will retire or go and play RU somewhere