Quote: Cruncher "I'm not ashamed to admit I'm behind them.
I like to think I can recognise a quality team when I see one, and I admire quality, and since we lost all the trolls who infested this place when we were struggling under Mo and Whelan, I feel more brotherly towards their fans anyway.
They've got a job and a half on, but as someone else said, it would look dreadful for our game generally if the best side got shellacked by an Aussie team who their pundits would no doubt then claim was undercooked etc, thus rubbing it in even more.
The real downside of a Saints win would be the attention it would draw to their best players.
I'm not sure it's quite the problem it was back in the days of Wigan v Bath, but that only went west for us because up till then RU were totally confident they had the better players and it was a real wake-up call for them. The Aussies don't need that as our top players' agents are constantly marketing them down there anyway. But if Saints make a really good fist of it, it will be harder for the Phil Goulds of this world to write them off as s###e, and easier for their agents to get through the doors of the NRL's top clubs.'"
I understand the concern about players' heads being turned but it is what it is.
We were going to crash and burn when KC, Newlove, Scully, Joynt, Long etc retired. We're now going to crash and burn when the current lot do.
It isn't so long ago a good proportion of Saints fans were hammering Woolf for picking Jack Welsby!! The reality is the club will continue to invest in its academy and bring good players through, as will Wigan, and the more go over to the NRL and do well and make good money, the better. They deserve it, there will be other local lads coming through that we will enjoy watching.