I'm waiting for the announcement now of a new joint partnership with NHS-Hull for a scheme to help the victims of gambling addictions

St Helens chairman Eamonn McManus saidvery good terms and we wish him well.

“We have a number of very exciting young players who next season will be commanding regular, first choice, selection and they must be given every opportunity in the long term interests of the club. St Helens are committed to this policy.

“That said, we must pay full tribute to the incredible achievements of Sean Long over the last 12 years at the Saints.

"He is one of the most decorated players in the history of the club and has been pivotal to its pre-eminence in the Super League era.

"His talent has been at the centre of all we have achieved and his personality has always enlivened the place.

“He still has three more pieces of silverware to aim at this season and I know that the St Helens fans will show their support for this truly great player. "He will leave as a personal friend of many of us and as a club legend

"Very good terms" being 99k a year...

This will be a good signing for you lot IF you have a young up and coming 7 to learn off him and you can keep him fit.

He's certainly better than what you have but he needs runners and protection to be even moderately successful, remember he's in a dominant side at the mo'.

I'd personally be surprised if you get him to play more than 27 games over the next 2 seasons. and yet you'll all be surprised when he's injured more than fit.

Rupert Pupkin said last week as to why we should sign him "Because he is a proven himself in SL, possibly as the best SH to play in SL. Orford has proved nothing over here." Must be good then!!!

For me, this is a good signing. He's a very experienced player, and should bring some stability to the team. He has a great kicking game, which is something that we are currently lacking in, severely.
He may be old, but Saints, a top-team, still wanted to keep him for next season, and he's proved on more than one occasion that he's still up for it.
Hopefully, he'll be able to 'general our forces' on the field too, as right now we have no one doing this, and all of our moves are telegraphed to the other team, and if not we just run like headless chickens.

The main downside to this signing is his age. This isn't a signing that we can build the future around, and in a couple of years we'll be back in the same position, so I would have preferred a younger scrum-half, who we could have built our team around for the next few seasons, but, really, how many of these are there around at the moment?

This can't be our final signing for next season, that isn't good enough. We have Fitzgibbon to boost our pack, but I would say that we need to offload players like Cusack, Thorman and King, and bring in some younger players with better ability, and can improve, as apposed to the three I just mentioned, who won't change no-matter-what.

I would like to see a new fullback to come into the squad. I'm not Tony's biggest fan, and I would like to see Horne form a partnership with Long. However, if a stand-off/scrum-half of good quality became avaliable, such as Briers, Myler, Benji Marshall (Whom I would love to sign), or Orford, I would be happy with Horne moving to Fullback.
However, if that didn't happen I would view Fullback as the priority position to sign.

So, it's a good start, and kudos to the board for signing a scrum-half, just as the fans wanted, but I'd like to see this backed up with signings in other areas, and maybe a Head Coach who knows what he's doing and can actually coach a side to their potential.

It's also good because it doesn't take up a quota space, but it would be so much better if we had a young, up-and-coming scrum-half for him to
influence.

Overall, I'm quite happy.

I should also make the point that whilst Saints did offer Long a one-year contract, his position as starting scrum half was not secure. Saints are committed to bringing Kyle Eastmond through and it's doubtful (especially after the mid-season point) that Long would have played more than 50% of games as starting scrum half.

Oh lighten up

Bloody hell, we've signed a scrum half! Hallelujah!

Definitely a very good signing IMO. Hopefully gives us 2 years of organisation and some genuine brains on the pitch, in which time we should also be able to line up another.

Now fingers crossed for Lynch, and a fullback or stand-off from the NRL (anyone reckon a Long and Finch combination would be nice?).

He's just told them both who else we are signing!!

Trust me, you won't use him for goalkicking! I think he's only been doing ours this season to reach his 1000th, but his in play kicking has been better this year and if you need someone to drop a goal in the last minute against Warrington you've got him.

We'll miss him at Saints even if it would've just been for a year, but we've some cracking youngsters coming through who are seen as his replacement, its just a shame we couldn't have kept him around to help bring them through as it seems he will do at your place.

Good signing for you imo, but your pack will need to protect him well.

Saints only offered him a 1 year deal cos they are going to make a bid for Thurston for the 2011 season

I just can't help feeling undewhelmed about this signing !!! It seems to me that we have only gone halfway to solving our halfback problem.

I will however reserve judgement until we have finished our recruitment for next season. As long as we make two or three quality signings (and no other SL club ends up with Orford or Thurston), I suppose this signing could be okay but I really hope that we have a couple of marquee signings in the pipeline.

I take it that this isn't the "best signing since Peter Sterling" signing that has been talked about ??

O'meley now please would be quality signing !!