. . . despite the commentators saying Meli worked hard, he made a couple of very very very very poor errors.

And yet there's a thread about Gardner?

The bloke's on a big contract but I can't help thinking we'd be as well playing a kid on the wing.

Really reaching the end of my tether with this guy - he looks like he's petrified of catching a ball, always looking at the defender. Grow a pair.

give over!

He played well tonight.

He gets enough stick when he plays bad so he earned a pat on back tonight.

He's a winger. He can't catch.

The one he dropped after the ball bounced away from Wellens was pathetic.

He didn't even contest the one where Longy got penalised for blocking the chasers.

I don't doubt he runs the ball well, but every ball he drops is worth 10 relieving runs.

The two brain farts when dropping the ball under hardly any pressure almost outweighed any good he did driving forward.

wello was out of postion in 1st place but meli should have caught that.

I'm not a big meli fan but he did well tonight. He run very well and made good yards.


The guy gets bagged even when he plays well!!!

Thought he played well tonight. Probably broke more tackles and made more yards than anyone for us. The incident referred to about the bomb that Donald got the penalty for that led to their try, perhaps the blame could lay with Long. He should have attempted to catch the ball instead of concentrating on Donald. The ball was coming down nearest to him, ( it nearly hit him on the head)

as the lump said, his hard work was undone by his poor hands under the bomb, we need to be giving him an hour extra a day under them in training until he can catch, its not rocket surgery as Barry Mac would say

What do you mean? There is a fixation with Meli and the 'bomb' the two balls he missed tonight, where not 'under' the bomb. One was Wellens mis-judgement under the sticks and t'other should have seen Long go for it instead of looking at Donald

He played very well tonight!! He was fantastic!

Gardner on the other hand, is absolutely awfull. Worst winger in super league by a country mile. Meli is world class compared to him.

Still got nowhere near catching either under zero pressure.

It's not good enough.

exactly!

Give over FFS. Give him a break. I'd love to see him in the pack to be honest as a second row. I was great for us tonight.

but he is a winger, so should be able to catch the ball, thats his job. He has been brilliant for about 5 - 6 games now but this is a major weakness in his game.

Neither of them were his ball to catch. Why are you not slagging Wellens and Long for missing them under zero pressure? Like I say Meli is an easy target from past form, but he did nothing wrong tonight in my view, (one of our best players) and to be honest I'm not his biggest fan!

You are Francis Meli and I claim my Five Pounds.

Long was looking to protect him so he could catch it (stupidly so IMO, he could and should have been far more subtle). He also missed a pretty easy catch when jumping behind Donald at one point.

You can't be serious.

If we're talking about the same incidents, one good kick found the ground and bounced away from Wello - Meli fumbles an easy take.

The other Long is nowhere near - he's blocking runners. Meli looks at the ball for a few seconds . . . . then decides to look at the chasers instead.

He runs the ball well but the fact is when he doesn't clear up simple positions he puts us under the sort of pressure that 20 runs won't fix. The bloke simply isn't good enough to perform consistently as a winger given the kick pressure they come under. He's not up to it and a couple of decent clearing runs don't alter that.

Nice fumble on a pass at the end to put the cherry on too.

No! he is a guy that clearlt doesent need glasses!

Whatever he may have done or not done, we have no pace in our backline what-so-ever.

We need to find some speed from somewhere otherwise we are doomed.

If that's how you want to look at it then longy was shocking!!!!

Nearly every pass he threw was either in front of the plater, behind the player , to a Leeds player or had a big red cross on it!!!

I find it unreal how to mistakes by meli and he's getting bagged again!

He run better than any saints player last night.

Wello was all over the place in the 1st place when meli dropped that kick.

meli has probably been your best player for the last few weeks, nobody else is scoring tries

Can anyone explain it:

According to this forum

We have the two worse wingers in superleague.
We have the slowest Fullback in the game.
We play most of the season with one prop forward.
We play all the season without a left centre.
We have had one of the worst seasons for injuries.


Yet we finish runners up in the league, manage semi final in the CC, push Leeds close on there own ground, still looking OK for the play offs.
Based on the above we should be bottom of the league no hopers should we not.

I thought he had a strong game myself, although the couple of knock ons are still a concern. Let's hope he doesn't do it if we reach the final...

However
Meli can't catch but after that he is a top winger
Wello is slow but after that is still by far the best fb in the league
He's one hell of a prop though and we have tony p in 2nd row who is prop size.
Young players ala wheeler/eastmond/dean have done better thanexpected in centre.
Young lads have done far better than anyone could have hoped for.
Its not all bad!

That what I was thinking, I don,t slag off any saints players, everyone has weaknesses, off form etc.
After last nights game, I think the performance gave us more reasons to be cheerful.