Wigan will challenge for definite. Peet has proved himself this year; for all the hype about their attack and Field etc it is their defence which has been sharpened up. I think losing Briers to Brisbane is a blow.
Not sure on the rest. Dont rate Warrington at all nor their ‘Championship Manager’ approach to recruitment, I’ll stick my neck out and say Leeds have over achieved. I like Rowley and his project at Salford, but hard to keep it going with little resouces. Huddersfield need to start winning more big games to be taken seriously for a GF.
I’m not sure I agree Wigan will be in the challenges next year. They have had a really good year from an injuries and bounce of the ball perspective and how replicable that will be I’m not sure. The number of games they won in the last minutes has also really inflated their challenge. Then when you throw in that it seems likely that they’re losing French, and we saw how much that blunted their attack against Leeds, and puts them one injury to Field away from really struggling to score like at the end of 2021. Similarly, when you think back the the 2020 Grand Final, their defence seemed much harder to break down, and one of their key defensive links is retiring in Leuluai and I’m not sure either Cust or Smith (who Leeds seemed to target a lot) have particularly strong defence. Even worse, unusually, they seem to have an incredibly mediocre batch in the academy at the moment so it’s not like they can do their usual rabbit out of a hat either. I could easily see Huddersfield and Leeds over taking them next year, even whilst agreeing Leeds have benefitted from new coach syndrome giving them a really good run of form…
Very true. Their Reserves are unbeaten all season and play Wakefield in the GF today.
Nsemba will be a superstar and will play first team next season and they have others like Eckersley and Hill that will be first team in the near future.
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They have. Their reserves battered Saints reserves this year too. Its hard to get away from the fact that they appear that they are trending the right way. MS mentions about French leaving but is he? The longer it goes on the more doubtful it is. I think Peet has done a great job there; he will have a number of you g players to bring on next year. They have had a number of late wins but my view is that if that becomes something you fall on the right side of then it is a net benefit. It just builds confidence you can get the job done in a close contest.
So the players want Wellens, Woolf wants Wellens and Wellens wants Wellens. Announcement due fairly soon you’d think.
Forwards win games. The backs decide by how much.
I'm honestly happy with 4 in a row let's have a rebuild...a rest..give one of the other melts a chance at the big one. It was obvious that most others would point to all the other tenuous reasons we've done the 4....let em chat their S#%T we know what it's took to be here and that's all that matters.
Nope, never, nada. We can’t let Roby go out like that. Let him and Wellens put “5 in a Row” right, and build a platform for Lomax to lead into 2024. Pay the price it takes to get Murphy in to replace Grace, bring Ritson in for cover, and get Dodd back into the team. The next generation are coming through in Bennison, Wingfield, Buckley, Archer etc and they will all continue to put pressure on everyone to perform
I said a year ago that everybody at the club should be thinking we could do 5 on the spin, because why the hell not? If we didn't do it, no big deal, we've won more than enough with this group, but why not aim for it. So a year on, I'll say it again, only now it's fairly obvious, we want to win the league next season, regardless of the last 4 years. We can rebuild after that maybe!
I reckon we should just rest and rotate our players all year, give Roby plenty of games off and finish fourth or fifth. In the last couple of games start to get a roll on for the finals and hit our straps for the GF. I'm being a facetious, but we have the best squad by quite a way and could probably afford to do it.
There's absolutely no reason why not and especially so when you consider the challengers...
Watching Leeds tonight, they lack some firepower. Having Harry Newman, Sezer and Fusitu'a back will improve them of course but will be interesting to see what else they do in the market (I know they've signed Sangare and a young player from Wigan). Rohan Smith, given his background may know of a few gems from the QLD Cup, who knows?
Wigan do have lots of firepower and have shown they can beat Saints this year. I do think they need to strengthen up front though and wonder if the big contract for French hinders that? I note Reacher on here has said they have some very good young players in their reserves, so that will be one to keep an eye on to see if any of these can step up to SL next year.
Warrington have signed some good players and if they can get a new half in as well to partner Williams, that will give them a chance of being a contender at least.
Not sure on Catalan, they have lost a big player for them in Kasiano but have got Taukieaho to replace him (different style of play mind). They've an ageing spine. They do have a quota spot available and do seem to be able to attract some (relative) big names from the NRL.
Don't see Huddersfield improving on this year.
For Saints, having Dodd back in the side and in such a pivotal position, will be like have a new signing. Hopefully he can show what he was doing at the start of this season and isn't hampered by the achilles injury. If so, Saints will be settled in the key positions. Even so, would like to see some activity in the market to freshen the squad and not rest on laurels.
*Not to be confused with Mike Stephenson, MBE
Hurrell came to Saints as cover so you never know
I don’t want to be rude to Barrow but given the choice between St Helens and Barrow I have to assume most players would choose Saints
Bentley already was a full time SL player, Walmsley was still only around 23/24 when he signed? and Batchelor was around 24? 27 isnt the age to be sitting in the shaddows for a couple of years when you could be playing every week elsewhere. That is presuming that he wants to move or has actually been approached? It's currently all rumour.