What are the chances!
So I’ve come to Krakow for a few days and bumped into Hull KR legend Peter Fox! He was telling me that he nearly signed for Saints but it was dependent on Francis Meli leaving, and he decided to stay. Not being disrespectful but I would have taken him over Meli anytime!
Originally Posted by Stockportsaint
Wow. Blast from the past.
He had a great run of form for a good few years at Wakefield and KR and did well for England too. Surprised a bigger team never took a punt on him and even more surprised that we presumably chose Meli over him.
Decent player was Fox, but I think Meli gets a raw deal from our fans. He had his face-palm moments but he was a good player for us all round, IMO.
He was nothing short of a liability in the big games and made catastrophic errors in the majority of finals he played in. I remember detailing them all on the other board a few years back, I don't have the energy to search for it and can't face reminding myself of it either!
He’s a hard one to assess because on one hand could score tries that most wingers wouldn’t, but he had a habit of letting us down at crucial times.
Meli scored 31 tries in 34 knockout games for us when playing as a winger, that’s not a record to be sniffed at. Problem was when he made an error it tended to be a massive one and that’s what people remember. It’s also worth mentioning that once Talau went we chopped and changed our left centre and indeed our left 2nd row a lot so he didn’t have a consistent partnership to work with.
Forwards win games. The backs decide by how much.
I think once a player has made a high profile error other teams tend to target them relentlessly and it snowballs from there, sometimes they aren’t as bad as the perception
Also worth mentioning the quality of the opposition back then as well
Every player in the back 3 will have a howler now and again,just Meli had his in big games and that's clouded people's views
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