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Lewis Dodd to South Sydney

John said:
Exactly...and wingers who can hurl themselves into the defensive line like prop forwards. Time to outlaw passing the ball!
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To be fair, Wellens has already limited it to 2 passes each play and sent our only quick player to Swinton while all these promising youth players sit in the academy/reserves learning f**k all.
 
I wouldn't be at all surprised to see this. Would leave us needing to sign another option at hooker though.
 
Any rumours as to what the club plan to do? I.e recruit, use Mbye or use the academy?
 
Saddened! said:
Any rumours as to what the club plan to do? I.e recruit, use Mbye or use the academy?
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This is the acid test. When he came through and that first half year before Easter I thought he was going to terrorise the competition for a decade, unfortunately that ACL injury has robbed him any chance at legend status already. He might kick on in a different environment but we’re never seeing that kid burst on to the scene again.

But we know he’s on a fair whack (I think I’ve seen it described as a proper grown up salary before). It’s all about who the club replace him with. I personally don’t think it needs to be a halfback, if the money is spent buying us a new backline and another prop it will be well spent. But the key is quality. There’s no half measures this recruitment season.
 
John said:
Fair points, but we've got some backs coming through: Vaughn, Sambou, Ritson, Dagnall, Roberts, Robertson, Whitby. I don't how long it will be before they will get a shot in the first team though. I get the impression Vaughn and Ritson might get a chance quite soon. We also have a reserve hooker, Burns. I don't see Dodd as that big a loss, but I hope we do bring in a signing or two in the backs such as Lewis, Lam or Sneyd
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If these young backs are going to be some of the replacements for 2025 then they need to start getting an opportunity immediately. Would be a disaster to blood even a couple of them at once if we are serious about competing for trophies. I’d say Vaughan looks most likely given he’s impressing at Swinton. Burns is 24 and hasn’t had a sniff, strikes me as a signing for the reserve team. The rest are very young and untried even on dual reg for the most part. Ritson can hardly be considered coming through, he's a backup and rightly or wrongly the coach hasn't had enough faith in him to give him an opportunity.

I'd say Lewis is the one to look at but he has just signed a 5-year deal at an ambitious club, I'd be amazed if we were to offer a fee that would even tempt them. Sneyd an excellent organiser and he would solve all our kicking problems but you lose all running threat from the halves if you pair him with Lomax, and he's hardly a spring chicken either. I don't think that's the way to go unless you pair him with Welsby and add some more running threat from fullback, and then what do you do with Lomax who's contracted for another two years?. Lam, I just can't see it with the family connection at Leigh, another who recently signed a deal too. It's concerning really andleads me to think Welsby and Lomax will be the halves and a new player coming in at fullback.
 
I am convinced that we signed Mbye with one eye on Dodd leaving.

I think it was an odd signing at the time (getting him to play hooker) but it makes more sense if he was there to cover for Dodd if he left.

We have seen Mbye play #7 this year when we did not see him play there for the part of last year he played for us.

It will be Welsby, Lomax and Mbye next year
 
The question you have to ask, realistically is there an available player out there who is attainable and interested in signing who is better than Mbye? Probably not, if you ask me. Reinvest in a quick, strong back/prop, give Mbye the shirt and maybe give Whitby a few games here and there.
 
saintgeorge said:
Dodd is flying to Australia this week apparently to sign all the necessary papers.
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Why the club allow that? He’s under contract, he’s injured so the club should ensure he’s getting rehab. He doesn’t have to go to Australia to sign anything it can be done electronically.
 
I don't think we will sign a replacement. Both Whitby and Roberts are highly rated and I know that Roberts was doing really well before his cruciate injury. He's only just come back from a year out.
 
We have him for this season I hope and he won't start the not getting injured style of play in which case we need to release him now(not saying he will but it's a temptation) Going forward we have to be realistic both Roberts and Whitby are very good prospects and need to be blooded now with Mbye taking most of the games because in a salary cap sport I don't believe that we can just go out and spend big bucks on the likes of Lewis/Lam and they may not even be available.

It's quite a conundrum for the club.
 
There’s no way on earth Saints can’t not replace Dodd. Robertson, Roberts & Whitby are a few years off first team level, Roberts especially having just come off the back of an ACL.

As for Mbye playing there good grief, half this forum wanted him shipped off to Featherstone a couple of months ago & now we’re talking about him being number 7 for St. Helen’s.

Anything other than signing either a starting 7 or a 1 (the latter would mean welsby & Lomax in the half’s) would be negligence of the highest order. Whoever is furthest along out of the 3 academy lads when Lomax is finished can step up then and we’ll figure it out at that time.

Makinson Dodd Hurrell Blake & probably Mata’utia all likely leaving at the end of the season gives us a chance with real cap space to re invent the backline, Zero excuses.
 
The broader problem we have is that our 7 seems to have to play to instruction limiting his options. So would anyone with flair want to come?
 
No point having pace if you dont play to the line. Both Dodd and Lomax have been guilty at giving passes 5m too early this season, and whoever takes the role next needs to be able to carry it into traffic (which I do think Mbye can do).

There has to be an amount of realism in the expectation. We’re not just going to buy out Lewis from HKR (whom I don’t actually rate that highly anyway). And whether they’re a year away of 3 years away, Whitby and Roberts both have first team potential. So who is going to be better than Mbye but yielding the shirt as soon as one of those two is ready?

2 winger and a centre, along with a prop and we will look a different side, even with Mbye and Lomax in the halves
 
Just watching NRL360 ( James Graham standing in for Kenty after his public street push and shove) and they are talking it up like done deal, mentioning Ilias is free to leave Souths. Cooper Cronk did intro the item saying Dodds was coming from Wigan! They mentioned no halves from UK have really made it in NRL and JG did talk of the extra outside pressure/attention in Sydney compared to UK.
 
magic superbeetle said:
No point having pace if you dont play to the line. Both Dodd and Lomax have been guilty at giving passes 5m too early this season, and whoever takes the role next needs to be able to carry it into traffic (which I do think Mbye can do).

There has to be an amount of realism in the expectation. We’re not just going to buy out Lewis from HKR (whom I don’t actually rate that highly anyway). And whether they’re a year away of 3 years away, Whitby and Roberts both have first team potential. So who is going to be better than Mbye but yielding the shirt as soon as one of those two is ready?

2 winger and a centre, along with a prop and we will look a different side, even with Mbye and Lomax in the halves
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Agree with you regarding Lewis, he wouldn’t be worth the fee HKR would command.

We can’t just sit around waiting for the kids though (who may not turn out to be good enough) Jake Clifford & Tristan Sailor would both improve us massively & are out of contract, Clifford was good at Hull but hasn’t played yet for the cowboys, Sailor was talking to Leigh about coming a few months ago but Brisbane wanted to keep him this season. Both good options & both probably get able.

Mbye starting 7 will show a massive lack of ambition to me and I’d imagine it will a lot of people, people rightly not going to be happy if our bench hooker gets the starting 7 shirt next season & rightly so.
 
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