whats your evidence of this?

I just no fella

I don't think Brown is sort of coach to take any crap, ask Trent barret.

I'm perfectly aware of Saints financial position. It doesn't take a genius to realise without McManus and company the writing is on the wall. But none of this is relevant to the contradiction posed by our obvious lack of strength and McManus repeatedly claiming we are maxed out on the cap. If we take McManus at face value then it raises important questions about the wisdom of our recruitment dealings (or lack thereof).



Clubs are always "buying big" next season. Haven't you heard? We've got Jamie Lyon's signature in the bag.

Quite a good article about Brown, not sure if its been psted already.. www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/georgeriley/ ... riley.html

Quite a good article about Brown, not sure if its been psted already.. www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/georgeriley/ ... riley.html

Nice article. Looking forward to him arriving. Some big recruitment decisions to be made too

Just had a look at the heritage site, it's a great site.

Just comparing our starting 17 against Leeds a few weeks back which is probably our best line up bar sia, and our starting 17 in the GF in 2006.

FB : Wellens - Wellens
Wing: Meli - Meli
Wing: Ade - Ade
Centre: Lyon - Shenton
Centre: Talau- Wheeler
SO: Pryce - Lance
SH: Long - Lomax
Prop: Cayless - Perry
prop: Anderson - La franki
Hooker: kerion - Roby
SR: Wilkin - Wilkin
SR: Gilmore - Flannery
LF: Hooper - TP

Sub:
Roby - LMS
Bennett - Mark Flanaghan
Graham - Clough
Fasavalu - Megennis

You have to say man for man, bar bennett and flanaghan the team from 2006 was better.
In both years we had 6 overseas players.
5 home grown in 2006.
6 home grown in 2012.

So in terms of the best starting 17 we can put out, it's not because we are full of homegrown players, or because we had more overseas players.
If you asked me what is the difference, it was that in 2006 we had players at their peak, with some new talent like graham and Roby.
In 2012 we have players either full of potential or past their peak. We have one or 2 who you could say are at their peak or close to it, like Roby, Sia maybe TP if he was not injured.

I think we are a team in transition and 2014 will be the year we are out of transition as there are 7 big name contracts up in 2013. Along with any one year deals given out this year.

3 Priorities?
in no order
1) A stiffer, quicker defensive line.
Whilst we have games where the line seems to hold, I think we've been guilty of moving up too slow in order to hold the shape. Whilst this stops large amounts of missed tackles, it allows the opposition to gain territory and momentum too easily.

2) Smarter rugby.
Since Potter took over, we've had periods where we've looked lost on the last tackle. We've also been too one dimensional with our focus on Roby around the ruck, which has made us more suseptable to be shut down by a smart defence.
When I watched Hudds tear up Cas a couple of weeks ago, the variety of attacking plays was outstanding.

3)Belief (Arrogance)
I'd like to see Saints take to the feild with a bit of swagger, a bit of "I don't care you you are, I'm going to t**t you all the same."
Sometimes we just look like rabbits in the headlights.

I don't think we've got the best 17 in the league, but I do think we've got a 17 that the best coach in the League could win trophies with. Whether that's Brown, we'll have to wait and see.

Smart half-back, strike centre, big prop (preferably 2.)

Dureau is off-contract and would be a revelation, know we would have to move some people around to make it happen and it's highly unlikely but what a signing he would be.

Would be happy with a couple of props from the O.O.C. list, Jake Emmitt would be ok. Don't know what's available in the NRL.

No idea for a centre, there's seemingly nothing available.

Joe Arundel is available, if he's not already signed for Hull as is rumoured. There are plenty of young, talented British players around. It's time Saints got back to at least trying to sign them. Sargison at London, Arundell, John Bateman. All young, talented British players we could realistically have signed.

Dureau is rumoured to be Wigan bound if he doesn't decide to stay on at Catalans. We should move heaven and earth to sign him, but I suspect we won't bother.

I'm looking forward to seeing Brown's recruitment. He has taken some great young talent to Huddderfield like George, Eden, Patrick, Lunt and McGilvray. He seemed to find them from nowhere and seems pretty good in picking out the best positions for them. The conditioners at Huddersfield look good so I hope he can bring a bit of that.

When is Broughton OOC at Salford? he would be a good replacement for Meli. I'd also have a go at getting Tom Burgess. It will be interesting who Brown will go for when we have a quota space available he took Luke O'Donnell to Huddersfield and when fit he is a great player and would like him at Saints.

Broughton would make me smile if we got him. He's looked very good when I've seen him, even if that's not very often in the grand scheme of things.

I'd be happy with him. he's pretty big and won fastest man in Superleague and has scored something like 30 tries in 54 appearances for Salford.

Dan Sarginson would be a really good addition to our team IMO.

I've always liked the look of JordanTurner, who seems to be finding his niche as a centre. Well worth a punt, I'd say. He might just be happy to come back over the pennines.