In my own opinion:-
1. Have been our top 4 most influential/performing players this season - Roby, Graham, Wilkin, Moore. Roby has been Man of Steel, I don't care what anyone says about Tomkins (Or worse still those who say Monaghan should get it after today who weren't saying it last week). Graham hasn't been as good as in previous seasons but is still the best prop we've had in many a moon. His departure will cost us another notch in the competitiveness ladder. TP has been sensational as well as the pack stopped what could have been a mega-collapse with some amazing performances. Wilkin has been utterly brilliant pretty much all season, silencing those fools who don't rate him. Moore has also been fantastic, a change of position into the back row has done wonders for his game. We'll miss him an awful lot and letting him go (If we have) is absolute stupidity.
2. Have been our 3 most disappointing players this season - Wellens, Perry, Wheeler. Wello, because the diminishing quality of the rest of the squad has exposed him completely. His continued presence in the first team, as a guaranteed starter, is farcical. He's not up to it and adds absolutely nothing to the team in attack and it's becoming that way defensively too as he's never able to get where he should be and has started dropping every other bomb. He has cost us more tries this season than he has in his career to date. Perry because he is always picking up very minor injuries and has contributed nothing at all. Gary Wheeler because of his continued inability to get onto the field. People on here claim he's better than Eastmond and Lomax, which to be frank is a complete joke. Saints should release him in the off season, he'll never contribute enough to warrant giving him a contract.
3. Our best top 2 young and up coming players for the next season - J-Lo and Gaskell. Both were fantastic when they were thrown unexpectedly into the team in a time of complete crisis. J-Lo grabs the headlines and is a fantastic talent, but Gaskell's kicking game is great and he's developing very quickly into a fine player. Given the signing of Hohaia we might not much of Gaskell, which would be a travesty to be honest. Not resigning Leon was another example of the board's inability to manage a squad properly and will take us down a notch or two. I get the feeling Lance will not play much for us, looking at his form and condition in the NRL and it would be disappointing if he is considered an automatic first teamer. Although he could be great at half back, we don't know that and he could equally be absolutely terrible. I don't see how J-Lo and Hohaia can play together in the halves as neither has a kicking game and neither can scheme and organise, they are both runners. Lance to fullback (Close your eyes when the bombs go up) with J-Lo and Gaskell would be better, but at Saints they don't pick on form or ability but on reputation, thus Wello and Lance will play every game no matter how bad they are.
Try and negate the injury situation in your assessment. - Impossible. It has completely altered our season. Without it we'd probably have been semi-competitive with the big 2 and we probably wouldn't have seen Gaskell or J-Lo.
