Re: Keep or Drop? : Sat Jan 14, 2012 7:56 pm  

Wellens
Flannery
Meli
End of the line for these three.

Wheelr; I would love to see him get a good run free from injuries as he has shown real potential at times. This would determine if he warrants a new contract.

Clough; a very solid player and he earns his keep, definitely another contract.

Hale??????? not seen enough of him so I will leave this one to the powers that be.

Dixon; maybe not progressing as much as I would like, but he is still young. Another contract would not go amiss.

Soliola; If he wants to extend his contract; then by all means.

Re: Keep or Drop? : Sat Jan 14, 2012 8:52 pm  

Wellens - Bin an utter legend now nearing the end of his usefulness sadly. Hard to see what the point of resigning him would be - a conveniently timed retirement and move into a coaching role after a final glorious season would be best all 'round I reckon.
Soliola - Keep hard to see where we'd get anyone of similar quality from given the rising money in the NRL and general mediocrity of the young forwards we seem to have coming through. Definitely worth as long a deal as we can afford/get him to sign. I fear he may be heading back down under regardless.
Meli - Bin (probably) almost certainly time to kick him to the curb given his age, and his almost annual brain explosions at O/T wouldn't be missed. As above though, it's hard to see where we're going to replace his go forward and general attacking threat which has been screamingly lacking in our backline otherwise the last few years. Depending on how Makinson, Foster, Wheeler, Gardner etc. go this season we may have little choice but to keep him for another year....
Flannery - Bin/Keep again, hard to see many better options out there at the moment. Doesn't count on the overseas quota either (unlike any other antipodeans which we would need to sign given, again, the dearth of young talent) which is a major plus. On the other hand I wouldn't be at all upset if he went and we wouldn't need to find that good a player to replace him. Not bothered either way really...
Hale - TBD need to see him play some games and look at how he develops next season and how much he demands come renewal time. Impossible to say right now.
Clough - Keep an absolute no brainer. He's been a little disappointing the last 2 seasons (largely due to injury) and needs a big year, but he brings too many qualities to the team that are just simply not readily available on the market right now to discard.
Wheeler - TBD If he can play 20+ games next season then he must be resigned whatever the cost. If not then we have no choice but to let him go and risk seeing him become a superstar at any of the dozen other clubs who'd gladly snap him up in a heartbeat. Dear God let it be the former....
Dixon - TBD The Dixon from towards the end of 2010 (with a bit of development) would definitely be worth a new deal (especially as he'll probably be pretty cheap). The Dixon from last season could be easily discarded and replaced by a promoted youth teamer or 2. Let's see which Dixon we get next year and then decide.

Re: Keep or Drop? : Sun Jan 15, 2012 7:39 am  

Saint94 wrote:

I know the season hasnt started but it will give us something to talk about. The following players contracts are up and the end of the coming season. Who if any would you offer new contracts to and for how long?
obviously this season will say alot but atm what would you do?

Wellens
Soliola
Meli
Flannery
Hale
Clough
Wheeler
Dixon

IMO

Wellens: Coaching position?
Soliola: Still young..3 years
Meli: Can see him getting 1 year, but i'd let him go
Flannery: Bye
Hale: 2 years (its the trend atm)
Clough: 3 years.....shown he has quality, he will only improve further
Wheeler: can see him going somewhere else and being injury free and a world beater
Dixon

OK you can tell its been a while since anyone had some rugby. There is alot of rugby to be played before anything is definative and that IMO goes for all players. So with that proviso in mind.

Wellens ~I can see a rolling one year deal. Personally I'd do this at the moment if he finds a new role. I think we need to give someone the chance to make a play for FB for the long term benefit of the club. But he may have a stormer so who knows.

Soliola/Meli/Wheeler~for me all three are connected. Dixon to but to a lesser extent. We need a new centre. If wheller does not step up and take it then the club have to look elsewhere. If they can get anyone better then Meli will get another year. If Sia signs then we cant go NRL and that limits the centre field even more. If Sia goes then we need cover in the second row therefore increasing dixons chances of a new deal. If Wheeler steps up and takes the centre spot then Saints will be keener to keep sia as they will not need his spot for the centre position.

Flannery ~ hardly played recently and at the moment would struggle to get a bench spot in the starting 17. But the formation of the team will be all important. ie loose forward who will play here? back on the bench policy? how gaskell lance and lomax will fit together? So flannery may still be decent but time to give his spot to an up and coming academy lad.

Dixon ~tough one went well in 2010 less so last year but I was really impressed in the GF he ran some of our best lines tackled well and gave us some penetrating runs. If he can increase his fend and or offloads could be a diamond in the rough. For me he's a keeper at least one year but if he storms it then performance will determine the size and length of contract.

Clough ~ Injury will determine whether he cuts a new deal. We need props but who knows who the club have a long term eye on.

Hale? needs to get some games to prove anything. he is a bit of a srodingers cat. is he good is he not. we'll only know if we open the box.

Wheeler ~for me he could be a skillful centre but needs to get injury free. heart has nothing to do with it. at the moment he would be no major loss. but then neither was keith mason at the time and he went on to be a very hany prop. we need them at the moment.

Its all very long winded but contract negotiations arre rarely done based on one player. we have no idea who saints are targeting from out side. what new players will impress both at saints and in other teams and what players are asking for and what intentions players have to go elsewhere?

Re: Keep or Drop? : Sun Jan 15, 2012 9:19 am  

No1 Saint wrote:

Wellens - Retire to backroom
Soliola - 3 years maybe 4
Meli -Final Season I think
Flannery - Same as Meli. Good solid player nothing special
Hale - see how he develops
Clough - worth a 2 year ext
Wheeler - Depends on injuries tbh - if he doesnt get a run I think he'll be on his way(rightfully so)
Dixon - worth an extension unless he gets overtaken by Hale ....

I agree with this but if I was saints I'd look what other quality backrows that are available before giving sia a new deal. I like sia and I thought he had very good season last year but I think he lacks slightly with ball in hand, I don't think saints use him proper to be honest, someone with his size, strength and pace (for big man) should be breaking the line more.

If nothing was any better, I'd have no probs giving him 2 year deal.

Re: Keep or Drop? : Mon Jan 16, 2012 12:01 pm  

Anyone suggesting we get rid of Clough really needs their head testing!

Re: Keep or Drop? : Mon Jan 16, 2012 1:53 pm  

The Yellow Giraffe wrote:

Anyone suggesting we get rid of Clough really needs their head testing!

He has been injured a lot last season, so people forget what he can really offer.

I suspect that now Graham has left, Clough's metronomic if unspectacular go forward will come in very handy.

I'd also suggest that with the arrival of Flash, Flanders isn't going to be getting an awful lot of action until we get some injuries.

Re: Keep or Drop? : Mon Jan 16, 2012 5:01 pm  

The Yellow Giraffe wrote:

Anyone suggesting we get rid of Clough really needs their head testing!

He looked awful when he returned from injury last year, I except he'd been out injured but he looked really really poor.

I'd see how he goes this year, I like clough and hope he gets back to the way he was two years ago.

Re: Keep or Drop? : Mon Jan 16, 2012 7:58 pm  

The Yellow Giraffe wrote:

Anyone suggesting we get rid of Clough really needs their head testing!

He was naff last season. He needs to step up quite a few gears this season to be offered a new contract IMO.

Re: Keep or Drop? : Mon Jan 16, 2012 8:15 pm  

SaintsFan wrote:

He was naff last season. He needs to step up quite a few gears this season to be offered a new contract IMO.

Totally agree.

Re: Keep or Drop? : Tue Jan 17, 2012 8:39 am  

SaintsFan wrote:

He was naff last season. He needs to step up quite a few gears this season to be offered a new contract IMO.

Not making the headlines every week doesn't automatically constitute being naff.

He makes good yards 9 times out of 10 and puts in a good stint defensively. Solid but unspectacular. Every team needs one or two of these in the squad. We cant have 5 James Graham clones unfortunately.