You need a mixture of pace, strength and finishing ability. Feldt isn't slow, he's just not rapid and has two of the three attributes not to mention how he will help the young lads develop

I don't think our recruitment is finished with yet and Murphy is a real option. Sailor and Welsby will provide enough zip and pace in the backline and that's without any more signings.

Sailor isn't particularly fast and definitely not as quick as Ritson (although Ritson isn't good enough so that's irrelevant). What I'm saying is that, future signings aside for now as we don't know what they are or if there are any, your backline is exactly as lacking in pace next year as it was this. If it was a problem this year, don't you agree it will still be a problem next year?

I'm not looking to dampen your enthusiasm over your new signing(s) but I genuinely can't see what has supposedly changed?

Feldt will be getting slower

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By that logic so will every other single player over a certain age.

Sailor is quick. Not sure how much you've seen of him, he's not explosive off the mark quick but no slouch for sure and is much quicker than Dodd who he is replacing. And like I've said I will reserve judgement until after the last signing, I do believe there will be at least one more back.

I meant same type of player, I suppose only time will tell if he is an upgrade. I expect Feldt and Sailor will replace Hurrell and Matautia on the non-federation trained list. The biggest problem we have all got is finding British players to replace those departing hence the reliance on academy players.

He’s not great under the high ball. I think you need to invest in a prop. Lees and Delaney are too light to dent the defensive line, Walmsley is injured regularly and Paasi doesn’t seem fit. Stevens, who we have debated in the past needs to develop.

I haven't seen anything that suggests he's particularly quick. Off what I've seen he's around average for a back and no more but I'll take your word for it if you say he's quick. Feldt looks slow for a back. I've just been trawling around the internet and can't find anything that suggests otherwise. All his tries come from close range, albeit he's a good finisher from that range. Are you talking about Lewis Murphy the former Wakefield player? If so, isn't his injury record worse than Percival's and Walmsley's combined? I haven't seen anything of him for a couple of years. Does he have pace?

Fair enough regarding waiting to see what else comes in. It just doesn't seem, so far at least, that the lack of pace is being addressed.

Two non-fed marquee players for Saints.

Makinson ban reduced from 3 to 2.

At least we can get to see him in one last home game

Whilst we aren't going to have as quick a backline as yourselves and some others, I think we are definitely making improvements on it. Having Welsby, Robertson and Sailor knocking around is much pacier than Welsby, Hurrell and Dodd as a unit. Murphy is fast (if that rumour is true) and whilst not as fast as Ritson, Ritson has been cabbage and barely used his pace at all and doesn't seem capable of using it effectively in a game, so still a big upgrade. I'm not too bothered about having the fastest backline, there's so many other things to be considered. It just becomes a problem if your backline is actively slow af, which it has been this year and last. You'd like to think we'd be going for another centre as well which will then have Robertson filling in all around the backline rather than being first choice in any position. As long as we don't retain Blake, I think it will be a pretty big improvement on the back line we currently have which I'm fairly happy with

Now, how these quicker lads will fare being told to run straight into forwards that are twice their side every tackle, I don't know!

Good. There’s a reason he got a two game ban and Asiata one, both will miss matches against Warrington

I still think you should have signed two props.

I think there's probably an element of letting him play the last game at home too. 14 years is a long time to have your last goodbye taken away.

Seems like a sentimental decision the Makinson one. A second red for a similar incident must put him at the top of the range surely.

The game has changed unfortunately and everyone has to get used to this new reality. Players, refs and disciplinary are all struggling with it at the moment, as are us fans. There are almost certainly more adjustments to be made over the next couple of years too. I've got a bit of sympathy with everyone as it's undoubtedly a more difficult game to play, some of these head contacts are impossible to avoid and yet are being punished the same as deliberate contact. I'd have the Smith incident a much higher grading than any ban that comes from players falling into tackles but we aren't there yet.

Smith got 3 games (rightfully so) and Franklin Pele also got 3 games for his challenge on opening night and when you stack them up against challenges like that Makinson one and other accidental contacts like the Liam Byrne one on Good Friday, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me but then when you throw in the fact Hiku did the same as Smith/Pele, to Jai Field in the CC semi and faced no action whatsoever, it becomes a farce!

You can accidentally hit somebody in the head and be banned for multiple games but trying to elbow drop somebody in the head can be fair game. I'd love to see Paul Cullen or whoever challenged on how that Hiku incident was let go.

I don't think it's just a symptom of the ill thought-out chaos we are struggling with currently.

Didn't Blake Green receive a blatant blow in the face while lying on the ground in a Grand Final, which resulted in a fractured eye-socket, and no action was taken?

This is a genuine question, because something might have been done about it later, though nothing was done at the time and Wigan gained no advantage on the day.

The Disciplinary are a clown show and have been for a long time. The idea that someone like Cullen should be involved is beyond laughable given the on-field career that he had.

If that is the case then it is a poor decision, there are plenty of players who have missed a big game through suspension. I would like to think that Tommy won his appeal on merit and yes I am glad that he can say his goodbyes. Had Saints offered him the same deal as Feldt he wouldn't be going anywhere hmm.

The reasoning they gave was that no contact was made, which is why I asked the question at the time regarding Smith. Should that even come into it though? The intent is the same either way and as we're supposed to be trying to discourage deliberate attacks to the head it makes you wonder what they're thinking.

Given that we are more than happy to give new contracts to ageing players- Lomax, Walmsley, then how are you sure we haven't offered him 2 years? How do you know that Makinson hasn't asked away for a new challenge?

Why would we waste a quota spot if he wanted to stay?

I know what you're saying Zig but they definitely take these sort of things into account sometimes. Smith got the benefit pre WCC. I know the Cas player dove but I think most of us still expected a ban there.

That happened right in front of us mate and you could hear the impact. It was an horrendous attack. I said at the time that it was worse than the Ben Flower one and the damage inflicted on both players certainly bares that out. I think Westwood received a ban retrospectively but how he wasn't sent off is completely unfathomable.

Westwood got 2 games IIRC, which funnily enough ruled him out of 2 England friendlies ahead of the 2013 RLWC and made him available for the opener against Australia in Cardiff.

If the ONLY thing we could get right in our game was consistency from the refs and the judiciary, we'd be in a 50 times better place than we are now.

Almost a poor decision as letting Harry smith play in the WCC