His defensive positioning has over the years, been second to none and it's still pretty damn good. He appears though to have lost half a yard of pace and his reactions have slowed down a tad. 3/4 years ago, Finch would never have stepped him like he did. Offensively, he still gets in the right position but again maybe speed is letting him down. Having said that, if Sts don't offer at least another year or some sort of coaching role, he'll be snapped up by some other team. Sts current standing just shows how much losing a player as good as the big red whinger can do to a side.

Did he have half a yard of pace to lose to begin with?!

That's a risky strategy when operating under the salary cap. Surely it would be better to try to get that player resource in the first team squad contributing positively rather than risking the unrest of the others by demonstrating a management ethic that is not entwined with the way in which we want the club to operate. If they're not good enough to get in the team then yes don't play them but dropping a player indefinitely in the hope that your actions will force the players hand rankles. You can have the strong management approach without behaving in such a way. No matter what our beliefs are players are still employees and should be afforded the level of respect that goes with working for a world class sporting organisation. After all word spreads and if we play hardball with players who have done nothing wrong, other than not perform to the levels we expect then that will carry stigma. I'm not against what you're saying but it's a gamble that can have long-term repercussions for our external recruitment.

Oh FFS.... What is wrong with you anyway? Noone is arguing that many Saints players are massively underperforming and many have for a long time, while Wigan are all riding the crest of a wave - similar to the reversed Saints/Wigan situation immediately pre-Maggie with many of the same players in situ on both sides in fact. Would you have argued that every single one of Wigan's players were worse than every single Saint back then? Don't be so patently one-eyed and ridiculous.



Many/Most of Saints' current squad would outperform most of Wigan's given the same coaching and tactics. At the moment they're performing like a pile of cack because they aren't and haven't for nearly 4 years now. That does not make them bad players for the rest of eternity...

Whilst Wellens has been the second best FB in the SL era (behind Radlinski), he didnt have more than a yard of pace to begin with and 3/4 years ago a cr@ppy wigan centre with no knees skinned him and went the length of the field at the JJB

Seeing as Wellens hasn't mentioned retirement, coupled with the fact I think he would want to be a one club man, I can only see another deal coming his way at the end of the season. If it is on vastly reduced terms, with the remit that he is to be used as backup only, I would be happy with that. However, if he still going to be our starting FB, then no, I don't think we should offer him a new deal. Let Lomax, Makinson, Gaskell or Swift try to stake a claim for the shirt.



I'd be happy giving Ade a new contract, if he returns to full fitness. He may not have much in the way of pace now, but his yard making out of his own in goal/10 meter area is excellent, and we could use that whilst allowing for a flyer (or as close as we have to a flyer) taking the other wing spot.



Wheeler - at the moment I am leaning towards letting him go. Unless he can go through the remainder of the season injury free, he should probably be moved on to allow Percival/Jones time to settle into the position.



Hohaia and Perry - I would seriously be looking into mutual releases. Perry has shown nothing like the form he showed in Oz, and is an incredibly costly spectator at the moment, or a vastly ineffective Prop on the rare occasions he now takes to the field. Not needed. Lance, I feel sorry for. This season he has been shown to be the square peg we didn't need for that round hole. If the rumours of his deepening home sickness are true, then I could see him released back to the NRL and a replacement brought in, to allow Lomax to move to FB.



Manu is also a 50/50 for me. Great player on his day, and he is still producing the stats to back this up. Also seems relatively injury free. But... he is coming to the team where players go to die, and I am sure within 4 weeks he will be rendered utterly useless as a player, yet still racking in the coin of a 3 year deal. I am torn with rumours of us cancelling the contract offer. He could do really well for us, or he could bomb. If Brown has a different replacement in line, then that could be an avenue worth exploring.



Brown also needs to light a fire underneath LMS. Can be excellent on his day, and the games against Leeds and Warrington showed that he can do it against the 'top packs'. He just needs to start reproducing this form on a more consistent basis.



Is there a possibility we could lose TP at the end of the season I wonder? If he continues with these niggling injuries, he could just decide enough is enough?

Gardner? A new contract? Hells bells, he shouldn't have got his last one.

We have Ade till next year already. Extending any further people will start to think he has some hold over the club.



I could see fans removing a player, but if a club does it they do play a risk with him just saying there are no better offers I'll just sit it out and take the cash.

If we already have him for next season, then I amend my comments to allow him to play out his contract here.

Gardner is on contract until end of 2014 I think.

I'm also worried about TP. I just hope we don't need a TP for our (bung) hole next season.

Brown makes suggestions of who he wants but McManus negotiates and gets the players. He is in control of the wage structure within the club.







Lomax played full back in the reserves. Lomax reminds me of Burrow a little bit - clearly a very good player but doesn't really have a set position, but he'll give it a good go anywhere. He's done a good job at 7 to be fair to him, but I don't see him as natural half back. He doesn't really have the consistency in his passing or kicking, he's not a natural organiser and some of his decision making is dreadful at times. I think he'd make a really good full back, chiming into the line and using his step and speed to take players on, that's what Lomax enjoys doing along with backing players up with his support play. I did acknowledge Makinson in my previous post, another who could potentially play there without question, but Lomax is the more experienced player of the two.



I'm kinda gutted Eastmond went off the rails and left us, he could've been absolutely electrifying for us at full back for us, like Tomkins is for Wigan. Sure he has some defensive deficiencies but his attacking prowess outweighs that massively. Nathan Brown would love coaching a player like Eastmond.