Saints over the past couple of years have perhaps taken their eye off the ball when it comes to the playing side of things and everything had been focussed on getting the stadium in place - without it the future was bleak. Now that is in place and the finances start improving the club will start to move forward again in a playing sense. I've seen it mentioned on here that Saints are a club on the slide, when the truth in actual fact is very different.

For any coach the chance of the Saints job is attractive but when you factor in the way thngs off field have been turned around and the work teh club is doing with the younger kids it's not as strange a decision to move there from Hudds as you may think.

Quote PAUL M="PAUL M"Saints have made 5 grand finals in a row, we won one playoff game. We still have a team to buikd and prove ourselves. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.'" Bang on the money Paul, See this. www.thisishullandeastriding.co.u ... story.html

Quote PAUL M="PAUL M"Saints have made 5 grand finals in a row, we won one playoff game. We still have a team to buikd and prove ourselves. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.'" Bang on the money Paul, See this. www.thisishullandeastriding.co.u ... story.html

Quote east hull FC fan="east hull FC fan"You think Manu is better than Hock or Westwood?'" Yep both www.superleague.co.uk/statistics ... eason=2012 www.superleague.co.uk/statistics ... eason=2012

Quote east hull FC fan="east hull FC fan"You think Manu is better than Hock or Westwood?'" Yep both www.superleague.co.uk/statistics ... eason=2012 www.superleague.co.uk/statistics ... eason=2012

dont let facts cloud the issue of what a blow this is to our club.
Obviously some peoples natural reaction is to downplay a players worth and ability when they decide to leave the club, happens every time.

So saints aren't spending the cap? If they aren't fair enough, if they are your talking .

IF having the choice of re-signing Manu, or a good 6, IMHO, a priority for the balance of the team,is that we need a good 6.

Your opinion is based on stats? He's not the best back rower in SL. One of them though. Just glad we've potentially replaced with one of the best in the world then eh?

I don't believe we are up to the cap but can't be sure. But what I say isn't all finance related. It's to do with appointments and signings made, not all have been great and when I say there's been an eye taken off the ball it's that I refer to. Without the ground there was far too much uncertainty and this affected many things, who we could attract being one of them.

I'm not looking to sugar coar anything or prove anything, just telling it as it is really. You'll know now that with your club under the right guidance you are better placed to achieve, same with us now. We're in a better position to move forward.

And lost all 5. Bottlers.

Oh for goodness sake.

Nobody is playing down his ability, and pretty much everyone would rather he'd have stayed. I'd argue that it's not a 'blow' to the club as that implies some kind of semi-disaster, which IMO is overplaying it more than a tad.

If you're fond of facts, how about the fact that having him in the side has won us nowt since 2005 whereas other teams without him in the side have won stuff? It's not all about one player, no matter how good they are.

No one is disagreeing with you that we need a top quality 6. But that is just clouding the issue, we need quality in every position.
McRae is quoted as 'pushing the boat out' to try and hold on to Willi so i think they value him quite highly and would also see him leaving like the majority of us a massive blow to our plans.