You've got something against Meli, hes played well this season.

I will never forgive him for his part in our downfall in the GF. I told you that straight after the GF.

And he's been playing no better or worse than last season, or in fact any of the other seasons. He's just the same.

He played well in the Exiles games, I'll give you that.

But could you see Meli ever scoring a try of the kind Makinson scored on Friday night?

Or chasing down a player to secure a dropout like Foster did on Monday night?

He always plays better in the exiles games, could it be that saints don't get the ball to him enough?

Meli is and always has been a lazy ass. He's having a bit of a larf with the Exiles, playing with his bros. Playing for Saints week in, week out demands consistent effort and that would be against Meli's philosophy.

Meli is the great Satan and responsible for all ills and evils in the world. Only the counterbalance brought about by the anointed God-child Makinson prevents the descent of the whole world into the fiery pits of hell. All praise him.

Makinson couldn't have caught that ball on the full against widnes, it was WAY over his head (from what I recall).
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Compare it to the ball Foster let bounce when Karl Pryce scored, he was right there but let it bounce, either thinking (hoping) it was going to hit the touch line or even bottling the catch. A worse mistake, imo.

IIRC, if Foster had taken that ball he'd have been bundled into touch by the tackle that would have followed. He took the gamble on it bouncing out, and lost.

Yes he has messed up in finals,players can do that,it happens to the very best of them,Billy Slater has made errors that have cost Australia dear,Don Fox missed a goal from in front of the sticks,Mark Elia had the ball punched out of his hands,Scott Gibbs made a couple of blunders in a regal trophy final.The point is even the best players mess up,get over it and move on instead of constantly banging on about mistakes in the final,remember he played a part in getting to those finals in the first place.

Meli is a big part of the reason Foster looked good last year,he made room for Foster and yes some of the tried took an element of skill from Foster to finish,but you expect that from a first team winger.On the overall team balance the left hand side is stronger having Jones and Meli there than it would be having Jones and Foster there.

Meli has scored some sensational trys over the years and offers a lot going forward,obviously in the eyes of several coaches now he is worth a place on the wing.People moan on and on about Meli not being able to catch or being out of place,but Foster does exactly that as well,now i dont want to knock Foster to much as hes young and i hope he can pull himself around from this,BUT on balance Meli has more in his favour in size,speed and experience whereas Foster only really has goalkicking.

I think you're probably right, I just think not playing safety first in that position was a poor show.

Anyone who thinks Foster offers more than Meli to a Rugby League team needs to start watching a different sport.

Agreed, it was a mistake. Pretty much the kind of mistake that most, if not all, young players make at the start of their careers.

Foster's been quite unlucky, in some ways. He started to rack up a few poor plays which, as you say, isn't unusual for a young guy, but his mistakes were compounded by our team playing poorly and each bad play being another nail in Royce's coffin. Most other times, you could see him perhaps having a break for a couple of weeks to regain some form, but with the new coaching arrangement moving Meli back to the wing, Ade Gardner initially coming back from injury and the sudden emergence of Jones and Swift in the 3/4s, Foster's found himself with a lot of work to do just to get back to where he was.
Sometimes situations just don't work out and Foster's not (with all due respect) a Cunningham/Newlove/Sculthorpe type that's [iso[/i good that he doesn't need a bit of luck in his career from time to time. The rest of the season at Hull will give him the chance to get his SL sharpness back and prove he can do a job. If Saints still don't want him then someone will.