I’m with you ‘Easy’, looking forward to the new season, the signs are very encouraging. I just hope the fans don’t turn on Price the moment we have a bad spell, which is definitely going to happen at some point.

I bumped into two of our new Australian players the other day, in Stockton Heath. Said hello to be friendly and they said hello back.

It struck me how odd it must be for them, being here, having grown up in Aus, two young lads on the other side of the world, in a strange new place. It’s a tough ask for them to just turn up here and be brilliant straight away.

It might be a slow start, which increases the pressure. We might all need some patience.

I think it will be a slow start for the NRL players, simply as they need time to adjust to the conditions that Feb - Apr can deliver.

Once the ground firms up I think we’ll see the best of Roberts.

I’d expect the fresh start to have a motivating effect on the remainder of the Smith era squad and even if we don’t see a run of victories hopefully we’ll see some resilience and effort and go into the spring at least in mid-table, which psychologically puts us in a good position for the playoffs. Saints were awful most of last year but at the business end of the season Holbrook got them playing to within a whisker of a grand final. They actually outscored Cas away from home so arguably could have gone on to beat Leeds. Just shows how fine the margins can be even after an awful start.