I hope we ain't going down the post 2006 success when our player recruitment/retention was dire and we just about getting over it now.

With the Loss of Lance and Wello to retirement and the likes of jones, Mose, Saveilio all moving on for whatever reason leaves us short of depth in quality. These players need replacing if we are to continue to build on Nathans Browns excellent recruitment/retention.

It's worrying that we seem to be losing young produced players like jones and Sav this year, it's something we've never really experienced.

It's also worrying that we seem to be missing out on players we have been in talks or linked with. The likes of Gidley, Rapira, shillington, Mullaney, SKD etc.

I hope the club have plans in place our we will be much weaker next year and big lack of depth.

Glad you posted this not me. I agree entirely.

McManus is delusional. He said we had the best squad in SL when we were at Widnes.

People on here are as blind, the GF win makes them think we're indestructible. You'll no doubt be shot down in a flurry of philosophical quotes and slights on the mentally ill but you are right.

Of course there is still time for the club to turn it round,to be fair to them they could have a deal or two in the bag that we don't know about.

Im pretty sure we will bring a one or two names in with Tasi but we losing more than that which leaves us with lack of depth.

I know some will say we can replace sav with Knowles or Davies but these guys not even put a first grade Jersey on yet so it's impossible to say they are replacements.

We went all out with the youth and it back fired in the past. ID love us to have a complete home grown squad and I go every u19s game that I can but that's not going happen.

I'm not exactly sure what the club are supposed to do here.

Our hands are tied with Savelio, Masoe and Jones. They're OOC. We can offer them all the deals under the sun but if they won't sign, they won't sign. Jones is a utility guy and the club will unquestionably think that the positions he covers (back row and centre), we've got many options, including youth. Masoe we've brought Tasi in to replace. Savelio the club are/were desperate to keep but how do you replace ? He's been on peanuts and there's no NRL player coming here for the same money. We've put a lot of pennies into sorting out full back after full back as well. Again, NRL lads aren't coming here too often for six month contracts - it's not worth the hassle, so the club are hamstrung with contracts going into the next season. What are the club to do ? If we don't sign anyone to sort out the full back problem, everyone queues up to tell us we're writing the season off and lack ambition. If we do, we tie up good money in having countless full backs. Where do we go ?

We have lots of lads that are in their 2nd/3rd season at first team level and the club will see them as ready to take on more responsibility. The likes of Thompson, Richards, Greenwood (and Savelio should he be here). This is why only one prop has been brought in - the club envisage these guys growing further and further into mainstream prop forwards.

We've signed a lad to cover full back this season but also with an option to review I believe for following years. He also plays 6 and 7 so should we keep him on, we've covered Hohaia. We've covered Masoe. Jones hardly needs replacing as we've kids queuing up to get little minutes at first team level. The big one is Savelio and that's why all this has kicked off. You can't replace him like for like; you either invest good money in a seasoned prop to cover a bit part role as maybe a 4th prop; you bring another kid through or you increase the workload on your other young props, which is what the club were planning on doing anyway.

The club knew jones and Sav was out of contract, so why leave it until the season before they leave ? Jones might be just a versatile player covering Backrow and centre but he does it well and we will miss that.

I just hope we replace these players

Couple of things:

I don't know about Jones, but Saints have been trying to get Savelio to sign long term for over a year (he was offered a contract along with Percival, Richards and Thompson)

Offering cover players first team salaries just causes trouble. If we had matched Jones RU cover I assure you there'd be people complaining about wasting cap space on a player who wouldn't make a first choice 1-17. We're rumouredly after a cover centre and backrow really is covered.

Let's just wait to see how our ins and outs align.

In: Tasi, Haggerty, SMD, Quinlan (rumouredly)
Out: Jones, Walker, Wellens, Hohaia

Thets where we currently stand. Everything else is rumour at this point.

Edit: forgot Walker

Yes, they knew they were OOC but they wouldn't have expected them to leave. How many players leave Saints when they don't want them to ? Not many.

They've known for weeks Jones is off. They'd have looked at our options and decided he doesn't need replacing. Savelio I'm led to believe the hit the fan post Wigan. He's had a contract on the table for ages. I don't think Saints ever really felt he'd go and so they've likely only just kicked into gear.

I apologise then. We doing a terrific job in our retention/recruitment. We will be much stronger next year without wello, Lance, mose, Sav and jones.

I'm sure aussue reserve graders mcdinnell and Quinlan alongside Tasi and few kids will make us so much stonger. Roll on 2016!

We should be happy in the fact the likes of Rapira, shillington, Gidley, mullany and SKD turned us down. Strange that we wanted them tho considering we don't need them isnt it.

Hahahaha.

Not very good at this discussion thing, are you ? It's called opinions and people are entitled to them regardless of how much that annoys yourself.

Why don't you tell me how thinking Kyle Eastmond is a handy enough rugby player separates your incredible talent spotting ability again ?

Hahaha.

So your happy with our squad next year ? Happy we lost Jones? Happy we lost Sav?

You might be happy but I know McManus has been doing his nut over it.

Yes, I'm well aware of how annoyed McManus and Rush are at present. Not surprising really, is it ?

No, I never once said I was happy with anything. I simply debated Saints' stance on it. Like I said, I'm not sure what Saints are supposed to do about it. They've offered them contracts, they've chosen otherwise. I'm absolutely over the moon to not see us sign umpteen NRL has beens. That's a crap approach which doesn't work and I fully support Saints in not doing that.

rlhttps://www1.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/rugby-league/9882652/super-league-title-twist-and-turnsrl

Link to a Mike Rush interview just before the Wigan match (12/06/15). He talks about Walsh taking up his option of another year and the clubs plans for next season.

"Luke was done a while ago to be honest, but you announce these things in due course, and there will be more announcements to come, and probably some departures as there always is in a season".

This interview was done after the Haggarty and Tasi announcements, so he wasn't referring to them. McDonnell was playing for us at the time and his contract for this season and next had already been announced, so again he wasn't referring to him. Since then, there have been no new signings announced. The only thing has been Dawsons contract extension. So we must be hearing some more news soon.

With regards to the departures, he was obviously referring to Masoe, Wellens and Jones. The 'probably' part of his statement must have been about Savelio and Walker. Both situations had probably not been finalised at the time.

As for squad depth and retention, I am more than happy for the likes of Ashworth and Davies to start playing more games next season. Morgan Knowles is a stand out player, not just in our academy, but across the league. Danny Richardson is another who I think will go well. Ricky Bailey, although not ready yet, will turn out to be a good little player for us. Wigan desperately wanted him, but he chose us instead. Then we have the two welsh lads.

So with more announcements to come, and all these youngsters stepping up, I am quite happy with where our squad is heading. I have every faith in KC to build a good squad for next year.