I agree the atmosphere and increase in attendances were incredible as each game came and went. Not sure any other team before or since has had such an instance of this. I think the worst I felt personally (more so than the 75-0 / 70-0 fortnight) was Wakefield away where Richards 'scored' in the final seconds which was ruled out. At that point I thought we were gone. The Wire home win out of nothing gave us the smallest glint of hope, I think we struggled a win v Hudds with a late Danny Orr try under the sticks.
One of the reasons I can only slightly recall certain events is that I won't rewatch anything of that season as it still sends shudders.
I remember the Wakefield debacle with Pat not being awarded the try ,I also thought we were done after that but fairplay, things changed and our fans backed the team even more after that.
Good news with Delaney signing for 4 years, there was definite NRL interest in him.
Seems that Knowles and Lees have signed new deals too which will be great news, hopefully announced soon.
Get Stephens on a new deal and that’s the cornerstone of a decent pack.
I think that is where the Matautia money is being spent. I am happy that Saints are tying down their younger players, much like Wigan has already done, but I fear there will be break clauses in the contracts. Also, if Saints had lost the players mentioned they would have been in a hell of a hole given the ages of most of the first team pack.
Wire_91 wrote:its your first final in about 8 years and now you ravin and rantin about it F**k off, and ill be going old trafford tomoz cheering on the saints and ill be writing on this forum givin you loads of shi* when your drying you eyes and the wire fan will be here handing out the tissues in the thousands, thats if you do take that many fans cause now it looks like its your fans who have jumped on the band wagon now your in a final, this time last year there was only 1000 people in the jjb and now its fillin up cause youve won the league hahaha proper true supporters you are
No doubting Delaney's guts but the style while dominating at junior level seems to have leveled off against often bigger players. Obviously he's got time to put size on and adapt but I do worry for him the way he plays. Maybe he's not got the help around him no doubting his heart.
Delaney is at a point where his career could go either way. He was dominant in the younger grades and made a great start to his first team career but as the opposition players have got to know his game, they've figured out how to deal with him reasonably comfortably and it's got to a point where he looks like he could damage himself if he doesn't change his running style. If he can do that, then nobody can doubt his commitment and he has talent, so he should kick on. I think Stephens looks a better prospect though. It's very early days for him but he's just awkward to deal with and I don't think he'll be figured out anything like as easily as teams did with Delaney. He needs to work on his fitness but if somebody gave me the option of having Delaney or Stephens at Wigan, I would go with Stephens without a doubt.
Delaney is at a point where his career could go either way. He was dominant in the younger grades and made a great start to his first team career but as the opposition players have got to know his game, they've figured out how to deal with him reasonably comfortably and it's got to a point where he looks like he could damage himself if he doesn't change his running style. If he can do that, then nobody can doubt his commitment and he has talent, so he should kick on. I think Stephens looks a better prospect though. It's very early days for him but he's just awkward to deal with and I don't think he'll be figured out anything like as easily as teams did with Delaney. He needs to work on his fitness but if somebody gave me the option of having Delaney or Stephens at Wigan, I would go with Stephens without a doubt.
Very fair that. I agree that Delaney's running style needs working on. He struggled last season but then it came out that he had been struggling with a knee injury and that coincided with the time of the season that we had all the injuries in the forwards. He was absolutely flogged by Wellens and if I recall played about 75 mins in that hammering at Leigh, after being 50/50 for that game due to his knee.
He did come back strong towards the end of the season and played well in that play off defeat to Warrington, he seemed to run stronger. He needs some size on him but he's still exceptionally young for a prop forward so lots of time on his side still.
Re Stephens, I commented on Red Vee that he looked in really good shape from the pre-season videos that the club had released. His Dad posts on there and confirmed that he has lost 6kg.
I think he is in for a really good season. Does need to improve his fitness which will undoubtedly be improved by his weight loss.
Delaney was excellent last year and definitely warrants a new deal, both for performances and to keep him away from any prying eyes. I think his running style was protecting an injury as has been alluded to above, he seemed to have sorted this out by the last games of the season so I've no concerns there.
With that said he was massively over-exposed and it would be unfair to expect those performances on a regular basis from someone so young. Ideally both he and Stephens will be battling for that 4th spot in the rotation but it only takes one injury elsewhere for them both to be involved and that is too much to expect of both of them IMO. The problem with Delaney is that he is significantly ahead of where he should be, ideally we would bring in another prop to help with his (and Noah's) transition into the first team but he could rightfully expect to be considered a regular already and is presumably being paid as such. He will hopefully prove me wrong and maintain his standard of performance but I think we could do with another prop regardless.
