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.

Unfortunately you are the company that you keep.
You are posting on a Saints/Wigan thread (and others) where I think you will find quite a few complementary comments on Saints and Saints players. Can you imagine this thread on RedVee?
Personally I like posters like yourself, FTV, StuM, Saints71 et al coming onto the forum to give your views and supporting your team and players. It makes it more interesting and for me personally it can and does make me reconsider some views that I may have. I did sign up for RedVee a few months ago but after seeing some of he posts/comments I just couldn’t be bothered to receive the anticipated angry backlash to any comments that might be deemed “controversial”
Is this site filled with angels posting angelic commentary? Absolutely not. But it doesn’t contain posters who with every single reference of Saints use Stains or Scum as the default adjective. It doesn’t contain posters who use the word “ape” when discussing a coach in virtually every comment of the said coach.
I’m not for censorship but if any poster on here regularly used inflammatory terms I’d definitely give them a verbal straightener and I know that many others would do too. Maybe it’s time that the minority of the infantile posters are challenged more robustly on RedVee. Hopefully that time will come.

Please keep on posting on this forum. I respect your views but I will respectfully challenge them if I think that you are incorrect. Personally if opposing fans come onto the forum and post just to wind people up I don’t mind that as long as it is done in good spirit and not just spewing bile.

Genuinely didn’t see either of those examples (on redvee or you referring to them on here) but that’s way way below the belt and you’re right, worse than I’ve seen on here.

It seems like there is no middle ground with RedVee. I like TYG cringe at some of the comments and I think the "Wigoon" and "scum" descriptions are childish to be honest. It's something I would hear a kid saying at school. The same with the "inbred" and "ape" comments.

The other side to that is the genuinely good posters on there (of which TYG is one amongst others)

However to be fair there are quite a few that will happily give Wigan due credit even if only to use Wigan and their signings for example as a stick to beat Saints with!

Sad individuals mate, who ideally wouldn’t be involved in Rugby League but it’s the social media generation of saying anything that shocks, thinking it makes them look like a smart a*se. It’s not an every day thing that sort of stuff but I don’t see loads of moderation of things like that over there and maybe that’s the issue. It’s the independent nature of the board that makes things more harsh. I’ve even seen fellow Saints fans going at each other in a really poor manner (loads of issues around a group of young lads sitting in reserves sears was one and a couple of those lads were just moronic) and that doesn’t happen on here.

Eckersley.

I thought that he is a centre or winger?
Has played FB?

https://x.com/saints1890/status/1720153 ... 92074?s=46 Outstanding this. That’s 18 home grown Academy products in our 2024 squad.

https://x.com/saints1890/status/1720153 ... 92074?s=46 Outstanding this. That’s 18 home grown Academy products in our 2024 squad.

Yes, he played a few games at fullback in the academy. I was talking to Kyle Amor about him when Eckersley was
on loan at Widnes. Amor reckons he would make a very good running second row.