Attendances would suggest otherwise. As would the fact that SL teams only need to win 4 games. It’s a tin pot trophy these days.

I believe I was talking to league fan thesaint71, not you. Why would I waste my time arguing with a union troll? Bye.

Get the excuses in early,are you that scared of Leigh ?

Win 4 games,you couldnt do that last year !

Is it my Wigan bias but Harry Smith is twice the player Lewis Dodd is ?

He's certainly been a better player this season.

When Dodd first came through he was set for huge things, there were a lot of SL clubs after him and he was described as the next big thing. Rogues Gallery will confirm the talent and potential he had. I do feel that the Achilles injury has massively put him back. Up to that injury he was outstanding at times and a lot of our attack came from him.

This season he seems to be playing within himself, rarely taking the line on with the good step that he has and his last tackle kicks have been awful. There are parallels to Luke Walsh and how he played before and after his bad injury. Conversely Smith's all round kicking game has been superb.

That being said he did have the nerve to kick the winning DG in the WCC and there does seem to be some genuine interest in him from Australia. Joey Johns has been reported this morning as encouraging the Dragons to sign him if and when Hunt leaves. He has been very complimentary about him.

Dodd has shown glimpses this season of his previous form but overall he has been poor and a lot of fans have even suggested he should be dropped with Lomax/Welsby in the halves.

I still feel Welsby is a way better 6 than 1 but that's a conversation for another day.

Smith has been very good this season to be fair

No you speak the truth.

Very different players Smith and Dodd IMO. He’s well off his best Dodd and I don’t think he’s got confidence or his zip back after that achilles injury. He’s more of an individual talent, compared to Smith, who is a game manager. They’d probably make a well balanced pairing actually (if Dodd found form because currently he wouldn’t bring the running threat Smith doesn’t bring either).

The more I watch Welsby, the more I’m sure he’s a six. He offers little threat running the ball but is absolutely superb at getting in to the line and picking a pass. If Saints at Welsby at 6 and a player like Field at 1, it would be pretty devastating.

Agreed. He's actually quite poor defensively at times. Granted we had the luxury of Coote for 3 years who was coolness personified but Welsby doesn't always get it right in terms of numbers and I'm never all that confident with him under the high ball.

It was good coaching from Wigan in the game a couple of weeks ago to recognise his poor positional play with the try that Field scored from that kick. That wasn't eyes up as such, it was recognised pre-game. I know French got lucky with the fact that Welsby slipped but he put himself in that position by not being positioned where he should've been.

I think Welsby would take it to another level at 6 without the pressures of being the defensive organiser at 1. His short kicking game is decent too. The beauty of him is the fact he is a goldfish as Ted Lasso would say.

His mentality and resilience is outstanding. He can make a mistake and then minutes later either score a try or produce a piece of genuis to make one. He is one hell of a competitor but still has flaws in his game.

Surprised the NRL are interested in Dodd and not much chat on Welsby.

Different types of players and positions but Welsby is the one of the best players in superleague and still so young.

Oh there's definite interest. Canberra for one are sniffing as a potential replacement for Wighton. They love their Poms as Wigan fans already know!

He’s not too dissimilar to Wighton, strong running game, cut out passes and can play centres too.

I’m an avid NRL watcher and Welsby would walk into any team in the comp (full back or 6 for most teams/ centre for the better teams).

Maybe he doesn’t fancy the NRL and saints can pay him well.

Hopefully he stays as he’s a player I love to hate!

It's an odd one with Dodd as he form has fallen off a cliff and now seems to be dining out on some good performances 2 years ago and that drop goal in the WCC! He's gone from golden boy to many Saints fans wanting him dropped. He hasn't even been close to Smith this season and, had Harry been kicking well, he wouldn't only have been out of sight of Dodd but running a completely different race.

I think Stu makes a good analogy with Walsh. Very similar "falling off a cliff" form pre and post injury. I suppose the worrying thing for Saints (and English rugby league internationally) is that Walsh never regained his form at all and became a shadow of the player he had been. Time will tell with Dodd, of course, and in his favour he is still very young so has plenty time to recover his mojo.

Its an interesting one but even as a Saints fan I'd love to see him go and test himself. There's nothing left for him to achieve in SL so go and earn some big money and test yourself. I believe he is a real homebird but 2-3 years earning a great salary could mean he still comes back to SL at 25 with years ahead of him. There's nothing left for him to achieve here.

Given you are an avid NRL watcher I'm interested in your opinion here. I too watch a lot of NRL and my only worry is that is he not too much "off the cuff"? He tries lots of things that don't always come off but rather than retreating into a shell he still tries.

Would the more structured and systems approach in the NRL suit his game?

I watched the Canberra games when George signed
The same type of argument was made I.e. George is too off the cuff, tries too many things etx.

Jack Wighton made more "mistakes than anyone
He regularly clocked up 5/6 or more errors in a game, kicking out on the full, dropped ball trying to push things etc.

Perception is 99% of the reality for some, and im not bagging Wighton
But Welsby at 6 doing what he's done for Saints would have no problems competing against the best over there in that position.