Ancient RL fan 1: "Do you remember that weirdo on RLFans who thought that Wakefield had a better backline than us?"
Ancient RL fan 2: "Oh yes - he was weird."

Absolutely spot on. A 1 year deal for Meli was disappointing but a two year deal
is folly of the highest order.

Shenton will become like Loughlin the only consistent strike player in poor backline. All ball goes to him. Opposition mark him out of the game. Overplayed , forced to play with needles and ultimately broken.

Wellens is an institution but the position of FB has moved on and demands
HB pace and line breaking ability.

Bar Shenton the backline itself is very poor indeed.

You can carry the odd bits and pieces player such as Foster.

I still can't believe that Gardner has been at Saints for 10 years.

The whole backline needed radical surgery in the close season. Saints have suck an expensive plaster over one bit.

IMO i would not play wheeler at centre i would give his a chance at that 7 shirt when kyle is not playing. He is a fantastic 6 so why cant he play 7. 2 seasons ago we played Wakefeild away and he ripped them to bits him self with pryce 6 untill he got injured . He needs a good run with out injures and he will light up super league.

I would also try to play lomax or foster more this season on the wing and give one of them the shirt full time next season.

Flannery deserves his new deal as much as anyone else, he is a consistently fantastic defender, he runs fantastic lines in attack and makes more breaks than people give him credit for, and I wouldnt be surprised if it was more than the other back rowers. IMO flannery gets the nod over the other backrowers every single time

The Saints backline will be completely reshapen in the next few years. Shenton is the first part of the jigsaw and in the next few years Wellens, Meli and Gardner will all leave the club. Then there's Pryce and Eastmond's futures which are unclear, so apart from Shenton and maybe Soliola, we could have 5 new backs out of 7. I think it's impossible to replace all of them with players from outside the club, due to salary cap restrictions, so it's important to integrate the likes of Foster and Lomax now as they could end up taking positions in our backline.

As I said on the Saints squad thread, I would imagine Wellens replacement will come from either Gaskell, Lomax or Ashe.

Lomax would be the one better there than 6 !

He also has great positional sense, is great under the high ball and has balls. Although slight, he has done some great tackling. I can still see him on two occasions: once at the CC semi when he single-handedly brought Keith Senior down by a kind of limpet tackle thingy right in front of where I was sitting and the other occasion when, having been run over by Karl Pryce the first time, he positioned himself better, ran at Pryce from the side and sent him flying into touch. He's a smart cookie is Foster, just as Wheeler is, and I hope Simmons brings him on.

Ultimately i see Wheeler moving to 6. However for now i would play him at centre, so he can gain experience.

If all goes well and the players develop to their potential then a few years down the line, we may see Kyle and Wheeler in the halves, Lomax fullback, Foster in one centre, Gaskell in the other centre, with Shenton on one wing and Armstrong on the other.

Then again Tommy Makinson could end up in one of the centre berths. With Gaskell playing in the halves or at fullback.

Re Ashe he is quick, think he needs a lot of work to be a decent fullback though. May ultimately end up on the wing if he makes it.

The good thing is that there is a lot of competition amongst the youngsters. It should help them strive to improve.

That was my first thought too. It was Meli, Lomax and Flannerys wing that got found out time and time again in that game. Foster and Gidley were solid. Flannerys static defence and Lomaxs size were the main issues we had on that day.

Foster will more than likely play for most of the year on the wing with Shenton. While Meli will be on the other side as either a winger with Soliola or Wheeler or as a centre with Gardner.

Foster was exposed under the high ball in the Grand final, only the fact that Richards went off after 35 minutes gave him some respite.
Shaun McRae alluded to it in his commentary.

That bastion of modern tactics!