But you have to as his playing ability does not stand apart from his character when you are considering him as a player!

Let me put it this way: would you consider the final season Barba to have been good for Saints? If not (and I'm assuming not) do you think that was down to him suddenly losing all his ability or was it because of his character and him being a self ed quitter?

You can't separate the two. They don't exist in isolation. Every player is a combination of their ability and their mental strength and character. Barba had all the (attacking) ability in the world but his mental strength was, shall we say, questionable. That doesn't make for a great player! Flashy?...yes! Capable of some eye catching moments?...yes! A great player? No. A hundred times, no.

Edit: I think I can resolve this by asking who you consider to be the better player for Saints: Coote or Barba?

A good joust with reasonable debate going on.

Can anybody see this happening on RedVee?

To be fair, I've read this site for a long time, always nice to know what the enemy thinks of you

Despite the rivalry there's some very sensible and knowledgeable posters on here that can give credit where its due. I've certainly not come on here for unncessary arguments. Both YG and Rogues Gallery will confirm that I'm fair minded.

I agree 100% It wouldn't even be worth a debate. Just to relate that back to the discussion we're having, he's by far the better player despite having nowhere near Barba's attacking threat. In fact he doesn't even have anywhere near French's attacking threat for that matter. The reason he's the better player is because he's the better player in the round. Not as good in attack but waaaay better in defence, a better influence on the team, better professional and a better club man. All things that combine to make him the better player.

As I said, you can't separate out 1 individual aspect and say "because they're exceptional at that, it negates all the negatives". If that were the case you'd have picked Barba over Coote.

Never mind sitting back and being entertained...get some work done! I'm doing all the heavy lifting here

It’s a strange one with Wigan at the moment for me. I can’t work out if they are any good or not. Clearly it’s an improvement on last season and they have some real pace in the backs. The pack has looked decent but I feel they would come up short against Catalans or Saints.

They’ve also played HKR who looked really out of sorts and a new spine and then Leeds who had lots missing. However Wigan have definitely looked much better, I guess time will tell.

Longevity?

You only had him for 3 years from the age of 28…

Compared to some overseas signings, 3 years is a decent time, some only do a year before they get homesick. Also I was comparing him to Barba who only did one and a half seasons with us so Coote was at Saints for double the amount of time.

Coote was (is) a very clever player, his reading of the game excellent. However his feigning of injury was annoying, borderline cheating?

My favourite memory of him was his tackle on Regan Grace as Bevan French raced past them both for the try that set up Wigans win in the League Leaders decider at your gaff in 2020.

*Holds trophy aloft to the cheers of the massive crowd*

Cheers mate. I enjoyed it too. Kudos to FTV and Stu for engaging in the way they did. It's a real pity there aren't more like them as it's always enjoyable to get the opposition viewpoint when it's done like this.The LeBron/Wolf69s of this world are just sad and tedious.

On a similar note I remember having some great discussions and banter with opposition fans on the way to games. It's was one of the things that made Rugby special. It's a shame it doesn't translate across forums like this more.