Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Sat Oct 07, 2023 10:13 am  

MadDogg wrote:

Saints probably need a few things to fight for top spot next year.

1) At least one if not two outside backs with some genuine pace

2) Lewis Dodd to have a great off-season to help him get back to his early 2022 form

3) Put a stop to the downturn in Konrad Hurrell's attitude and fitness

4) A front rower to replace LMS

5) An attack-focused assistant coach

They certainly need a metre making winger who will take the ball up. Ritson isn't good enough and Bennison is a poor mans Jamie Foster which is some feat. Not a terrible player but not good enough for a top side and probably not even SL standard if i am honest. Top sides can carry weak links, history tells us this but Saints' best players are all coming to an end. If their replacements aren't at least like for like they will drop like a stone. Not fair on Wellens really, he has been dealt a bad hand and he is one of very few Saints connected people i have time for as he was a superb professional and a seemingly all round decent bloke.

A few years ago, Walmsley coming off the bench was frightening and he skittled everyone. Now he is completely innefective an whinges every time he is tackled. Dodd isn't anywhere near as good as we were told he was. Welsby is decent but nothing out of this world, he has a good step and isn't scared of a tackle. Makinson, Percival and Hurrell have become injury prone, that is slowing them down. I don't rate Knowles one bit, another weak link in a good side.

2 players i do rate highly are Sironen and Batchelor. Batchelors improvement has been incredible and could easily see him in the NRL. Probably a bit too late for Sironen to go back now but they have one hell of a build on. Clarke has been on a steady decline but how do you replace Roby? Prime Roby was the best hooker in the world. Yes i include the NRL top boys in that too. Still, delighted they got beat though, just hope we can seal our berth later. I am bricking it.

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Sat Oct 07, 2023 11:47 am  

Cherry_Warrior wrote:

They certainly need a metre making winger who will take the ball up. Ritson isn't good enough and Bennison is a poor mans Jamie Foster which is some feat. Not a terrible player but not good enough for a top side and probably not even SL standard if i am honest. Top sides can carry weak links, history tells us this but Saints' best players are all coming to an end. If their replacements aren't at least like for like they will drop like a stone. Not fair on Wellens really, he has been dealt a bad hand and he is one of very few Saints connected people i have time for as he was a superb professional and a seemingly all round decent bloke.

A few years ago, Walmsley coming off the bench was frightening and he skittled everyone. Now he is completely innefective an whinges every time he is tackled. Dodd isn't anywhere near as good as we were told he was. Welsby is decent but nothing out of this world, he has a good step and isn't scared of a tackle. Makinson, Percival and Hurrell have become injury prone, that is slowing them down. I don't rate Knowles one bit, another weak link in a good side.

2 players i do rate highly are Sironen and Batchelor. Batchelors improvement has been incredible and could easily see him in the NRL. Probably a bit too late for Sironen to go back now but they have one hell of a build on. Clarke has been on a steady decline but how do you replace Roby? Prime Roby was the best hooker in the world. Yes i include the NRL top boys in that too. Still, delighted they got beat though, just hope we can seal our berth later. I am bricking it.

Bennison isn't a winger though he's a full back
As for Hurrell he's overweight now

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Sat Oct 07, 2023 2:03 pm  

Pieman wrote:

I take it you didnt see the game

I did watch the game and they played well. Just having a little prod at a Sts pal of mine who, went to the game. He rightly, imo doesn't think Sts got the credit they deserved. I like to remind him that Wigan are famous Sts, not so much so

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Sat Oct 07, 2023 2:56 pm  

thesaint71 wrote:

Bennison isn't a winger though he's a full back
As for Hurrell he's overweight now

What's going on with Hurrell? He was woeful in last week's reserves grand final.

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Sat Oct 07, 2023 3:24 pm  

Not finished yet but it's not been too bad a season for a team with a shockingly poor pack, just imagine if we had even one or two players who could scrape into the Saints squad

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Sat Oct 07, 2023 5:07 pm  

MattyB wrote:

What's going on with Hurrell? He was woeful in last week's reserves grand final.

Gone over his maximum weight so Wellens dropped him

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Sat Oct 07, 2023 7:51 pm  

apollosghost wrote:

Not finished yet but it's not been too bad a season for a team with a shockingly poor pack, just imagine if we had even one or two players who could scrape into the Saints squad

Maybe next year...........

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Sun Oct 08, 2023 10:14 am  

MadDogg wrote:

Saints probably need a few things to fight for top spot next year.

1) At least one if not two outside backs with some genuine pace

2) Lewis Dodd to have a great off-season to help him get back to his early 2022 form

3) Put a stop to the downturn in Konrad Hurrell's attitude and fitness

4) A front rower to replace LMS

5) An attack-focused assistant coach

This has made me smile,as for years we have had various Saints fans coming on here advising us how to fix our team and what we need to compete in finals and of course how crap we are and that only one player (Faz) would get in the Saints team as a bench player.
Now we are beginning to let them know why they are crap and what is required to improve.

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Sun Oct 08, 2023 10:36 am  

Jason65 wrote:

This has made me smile,as for years we have had various Saints fans coming on here advising us how to fix our team and what we need to compete in finals and of course how crap we are and that only one player (Faz) would get in the Saints team as a bench player.
Now we are beginning to let them know why they are crap and what is required to improve.

There's now very few Saints players that would make it into the Wigan team. I'm not saying they don't still have good players but there's very few who are better than their Wigan counterparts in the way that Roby, Walmsley, Lomax, Makinson etc used to be. I wouldn't have any of their 1-7 in preference to their Wigan opposite numbers. You could make a case for a couple of forwards and possibly Welsby in there somewhere (but at the expense of who? Certainly not French and Field) but even then, they wouldn't add much, if any, improvement. Bachelor is good but is he better than KPP* for example? I don't think so...

*Absolutely gutted he's leaving

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Sun Oct 08, 2023 1:51 pm  

I don't think there will be to much difference between the teams next year.
But we need to sort out dissiline out with bans Saints had players miss 23 games to Wigan's 12