There you go Stu you are showing traces of anti-Wigan rhetoric.

Knowles height and weight is taken from St Helens website, he simply isn’t big enough for a prop. You may be right about Smithies because there is no official figures on Wigan’s website. Having said that I am not the one making these ludicrous statements it’s one of your own.

I will let you quote the stats relating to minutes played, I look forward to interpreting them when they are available. As it stands, I am happy to debate based on the SL statistics which use the number of games played.

Waney will have his reasons for selecting Knowles as will the Aussies for pursuing Smithies and not Knowles.

It is quite clear to me that the crap posted on Redvee is not thought through in the majority of cases, or supported with facts. In essence it is just views biased against Wigan. It is not a coincidence that Wigan have just won a GF. Whether you agree with it or not, and I really don’t care, I have tried to give a balanced view.

Regarding Waney, you are happy to pick and choose when you support his statements. I think you have shown your true colours these last few weeks.

You keep using Redvee as a stick to beat all Saints fans with when in actual fact a lot of decent Saints fans admit that there are idiots on there. In fact if you read it today you would see me and The Yellow Giraffe arguing with one such idiot.

Secondly I don't agree with everything Wane says or does but I do agree with some. I admitted that I agreed with his comments over Wellens just that they should've been kept private.

I don't think Knowles should play prop by the way.

My true colours? I'm hardly going to be pro-Wigan am I? However in the main I am balanced and fair. If you want to know my username on RedVee I'll PM you and you will see just today that I have been praising Wigan for being forward thinking and stockpiling props.

And I have been posting on here before and after the GF so I've hardly gone into hiding just because you've won a comp.

Reacher

He was the last one home so he sort of deselected himself from the first test.

In fairness to Stu, I think Smithies would’ve been on the plane with Smith, King and Farrell (who were also in Dublin) if needs be but presumably he knew he hadn’t been called up and therefore stayed on.

On a side note, I wish we had a couple less top class loose forwards and a couple more top class hookers. I can’t blame Wane for picking Radley and Knowles, as both are class acts but so are Smithies, Minchella and Cam Smith. He’s picking at most 2 from 5, yet at hooker and to a lesser extent Fullback, we’re scratching around for options (I say fullback because we have Welsby and then….errr….nobody really. Maybe Brierley at a push).

Come on Stu it’s the No.1 website for everything Saints, what am I going to conclude when I read that crap? I don’t know what you call yourself on that site so I couldn’t comment.

I don’t expect you to be an agreeing with everything posted on here, I certainly don’t. Other posters probably view my posts in the same way. Nevertheless, since we won the LLS and GF you have undoubtedly turned bitter. Fine, I don’t expect you to like the fact, I would think the same about Saints. But what I would like to see is some reasoned rebuttal of posts on this site rather than just making spurious claims. Your claim earlier that I didn’t drill down far enough to make my comparisons between Smithies and Knowles was just trying to avoid reasoned debate. Now, if you had produced another set of facts rather than dismissing mine out of hand that would have been acceptable.

I don’t think I’ve been bitter to be honest. I’ve only really had a pop at Wane in his guise as England coach.

Furthermore I was big enough to hold my hands up last night and say that I may have mis-interpreted the Newman article (despite Phuzzy still continuing the argument)

I just found it strange that you produced a selection of stats that didn’t really provide a like for like comparison for a player that has been overlooked for England by the player that you are trying to say is inferior. Moreover the coach who has made the said selection is Mr Wigan.

I’ve said on this forum that since the CC SF Wigan have been the best team in the comp and deserved winners. I’ve been accused on Red Vee of a hysterical overreaction for having the temerity to suggest they may now embark on a dynasty with the signings made.

If that’s bitter then that’s your opinion. I certainly don’t think it is.

Smithies had a much better season than Knowles in 2023.

The vast majority of RL fans know that.

Knowles will bounce back though.

I rate Knowles but by his standards he’s had an average season. I totally agree that 2024 we will see the “old” Knowles. I like his aggressive style and his intensity. I don’t see his handling skills that Wane refers to but that may be my lack of regular and in depth review of his performances.
Smithies has improved enormously since Peet took on the Head Coaching role. His handling skills have improved to the point that he is, for me, now a better all round player than Knowles but again that could be because I see more of Smithies than Knowles. What I do know is that 90% of RedVee contributors will never rate Smithies because he played for Wigan. An insular and at at times a cesspit of vile comments with infantile references to us as Wigoons and Scum.
On balance I’d take Smithies over Knowles probably 8 times out of 10 primarily down to his better all round skills and
His far superior discipline.

Stu, if you want to produce a better or different set of stats please feel free. I simply produced Super Leagues official stats and interpreted them, what more do you want? We can only benchmark performance against the statistics that are readily available to us and the rugby league community rely on.

Agree on the lack of options for FB is a little disturbing. Personally I can’t think of any young FB coming through who might eventually replace or challenge Welsby. I like Brierley but I think that he’s just a little bit short of being top class.
At hooker I rate O’Neil and particularly Litten. I must admit I’ve never been a fan of Clark and he’s got an impossible job of trying to replace Roby. Forber who I rate highly could be the answer sooner rather than later.

Whereas “Stains” are always spoken of with such admiration and respect on here aren’t they?

I really don’t understand how some people on here feel that this place is in any way superior to redvee or any other forum. There are morons on every single one of them, both redvee and this one included.

The majority of Saints fans can’t be judged on a small handful of idiots who post tripe on Redvee, in the same way Wigan fans can’t be judged by certain clowns on here. Redvee is no more of a “cesspit” and contains no greater amount of “vile comments and infantile references” as this place, so I don’t know why Wigan fans use it as a stick to beat Saints fans with.

Honestly YG, you’re a decent poster and you’re normally not far off the money. Yes you and Wigan fans won’t always agree but that’s only natural but to say you’re wrong on this score is a whopping understatement. That RedVee board is pretty vile at times and I’ve put a couple of examples on here in recent days that highlight that. I’ve never seen the like on here (or on the Saints board when it was used) and if there is anything that oversteps the mark, it’s stamped down, whereas it seems open season on RedVee at times. Even some of the interactions between Saints fans on there are awful.

You might not agree with the above but trust me, you’re wrong. It’s a small minority that look to be making it such a cesspit but those who shout loudest make the whole board look bad. I’ve said before, I don’t know why all the decent posters (and there are loads) don’t just jump back on here.

There’s no denying there’s idiots on there. I do cringe when I read “scum” comments for example. But I also cringe when I see grown men talking about “stains” or calling us scousers. I genuinely don’t notice redvee to be that much worse than on here in terms of how people talk about their rivals. I don’t read every thread on redvee though and tend to skim over a lot of it. I read down the left hand side and if I see a poster I know/like I will read the comment. So I’m quite selective with it to be fair.

All that stuff is childish nothingness. I don’t refer to Saints and Stains, scum or anything else and don’t understand why people do (or Wigoon, inbreds or whatever else the other way) but I’m talking about things way worse than that, of the like I just don’t see on here (or again as I pointed out, I didn’t see it on your board on here either). I put two examples on the other day. One was from a while ago, where a poster was being called a paedophile because he is a Wigan fan and one was very recent, after the GF. when Barrie McDermott was being called a f*@king this and that referring to his disability. The general hostility towards outsiders is a different level to anything on here and I’m not having it that this board is anything like RedVee.