KC's treatment of our younger players in general has been bizarre in his year and a half here.
In terms of the younger players who had already deputised, Greenwood, Savelio, Thompson and Richards have all been treated poorly.
Greenwood was initially being loaned out only for KC to realise this was a mistake and hit great form early doors last year. He hasn't reached those heights since however but it must be tough due to him being scapegoated and dropped for plenty poor team performances. I don't think, despite him being our top try scorer, KC has let him play 4 games consecutively this season. Against Hull KR he looked back to his 2015 self, making a mockery of the King's decision to consistently drop him and leave Ant & Dec and 'Tills' in the side.
Thompson is another one that never seems to get a run of games despite going well when he does play. Although last year he wasn't as good as he was in 2014, he was still comfortably offering more than Richards' when selected. There are rumours he's had a few troubles with concussion however recently Saints have developed a trend of pretending if they don't mention why players are going missing for weeks (Thompson, Peyroux, Percival) that no one will mention it.
Savelio, after hitting some great form towards the back end of 2015, has been another one that has been messed around this time out. It seems Wilkin, LMS, 'Tills' and Tasi can have as many poor games as they want but when the likes of Savelio and Greenwood (and Burns but not relevant here) don't instantly perform, we don't see them for weeks.
Richards is another one. Due to KC not protecting him and flogging him every single week despite him struggling he is now a laughing stock amongst our fans. In truth he probably needs a 6 week brutal fitness regime, but all these young forwards need now and last year is 4 or 5 weeks in the side and maybe one or two out of it to recover.
In terms of promoting from within, Knowles and Ashworth have probably been the pick. Despite the bizarre decision that failed miserably to put Knowles straight in at hooker, he now looks a very promising back rower and is comfortably offering more than Wilkin and Vea at present.
Wellington and Bailey were given 40 mins, in which they struggled, and were taken off without a chance to rectify it.
Before the season ends, as it's practically over now, I'd love to see more of Wellington, Grace, Richardson and Levy. I can't see it though as it seems KC doesn't trust the young lads enough over the more senior pros in the squad.
