Ok there was alot of whittering from Saints fans about Hill and that Saints should sign him, but there was little from the club. So I have 2 questions.

Do you think Saints are looking at a 5th prop for next year, LMS, CLough, TP, Perry, a another??

Who would you sign?

Taking into account we are at the limit on our overseas,
But could take a quota player pre 2008 from another club,
The player has to be realistic, ie on last year of contract or Saints could prize him away from his current club for a reasonable fee.

ie Carvell and Morley would be unrealistic options.


Ideas?


Personally I can't think of anyone and maybe we need to go a bit outside the box and maybe get a big robust forward from Union. They would not be first choice prop anyways and would have time to train up. We have done it before but with pacific islanders which we can't do given the current situation with oversea's players.

Griffin, why would he want to go to Leeds in their current state??

Yeh just read that on another thread, but would his current club (Huddersfield?) not want him to stay and be able to offer more than Saints?

If you want to look outside the box, Andy Powell from Union would go well in League at prop. Only problem is he's about 29, but will be out of contract at the end of the union season.

Also has some off-field issues:



Hilarious in all honesty if you ask me.

29 is not that old for a prop, in hisprime physically you could say

amor looked good yesterday in a very poor team would someone like that not be worth looking at

I think you're more likely to see us pick up someone like Dowes from Hull, who is OOC.
A solid prop who'd go well in a top 5 side, would add weight in defence and going forward, without costing the world. He would probably also relish a last chance at a club within touching distance of silverware and wouldn't command such a high fee.

I've discussed this point before, but wigan's front row isn't as star spangled as other teams, but they work so well together to share the work and have a real agressive mindset that it takes them beyond other teams. Don't worry about us not picking up stars, we have TP for the flashy stuff up front.

Griffin would be nice, though. Is Carvell still OOC? He was immense against Hudds on friday.

Anyone who isn't in kindergarten would be worth looking at. Anyone with any physical size or presence would. I'd be made up with a couple of Championship level props to be honest.

There's not many about though. I mentioned Dowes above.

The problem is, because Royce likes to play 3 props from the start, 4 props isn't enough for our squad.
Cats have Ragain and Mounis OOC this year, who are both hard back rowers. Maybe a nice hard, no nonsense 13 like mounis is the way to go for our squad?

I'd be very disappointed if we wasted money on Dowes.

We've obviously got nothing in the academy or they would have been used by now. He's an experienced and established player and whilst no Apolo or Fairleigh, would be a body. As mentioned by others you can get by with solid pros if the effort is there, look at Wigan's pack for example. Bar Hoffman and O'Loughlin there is no quality at all.

Absolute nonsense.

Would rather move Hand up to the first team than waste valuable wage on very average first team players, especially seeing as we seemingly throw money at players.

Coley, Fielden, McIllorum, Farrell, Tuson, Prescott, Hansen. Hardly world class players and all thoroughly replaceable. Mossop looks a good prospect but isn't yet a top class prop and Lima is doing a decent job despite getting smashed about a bit but isn't as good as TP.

It all depends on how much, though. If he came, he'd be 4th/5th choice prop, so couldn't command much of a wage and may be swayed by a final hurrah at a club at the right end of the table.
He may not be a star, but he's always solid when I see him and hit some great form for Hull around 2005/06 when they were good.
He's 30, so a decent age for a prop. I don't know much about his injury record, i must admit, but I'd certainly be happier with him in our squad at the moment.

There's players I'd rather have, but I'm afraid we need a couple more senior players that can [ido a job[/i to bolster our squad.

So you'd say that amongst Coley, Tomkins (who you decided not to mention but is an England back rower), Leuluai (who you also decided not to mention but is a world cup winning hooker), Lima, Hock (who you also decided not to mention), Prescott, Hansen, Mossop etc there is "no quality at all"?

Mossop IS a top class SL prop. Especially when mentioned in the same thread as Ewen Dowes! Don't be blinded by big names/reputation - Prescott and Mossop are quality forwards.

I think Forster's infront of Hand in the pecking order.
I'd like to think one of them would be good enough, but I've been dissapointed with the effect that having more than one of Dixon/Ashurst/Magennis on the bech is having. Obviously, hindsight would have seen us hold on to Emmit and we'd be in a much better position, but hey-ho.
Hopefully one of Forster or Hand will be able to step up sooner rather than later. Forster allegedly weighs 110kg and is only 5'10" according to wiki (FWIW), so sounds like he shouldn't have a problem physically, but he's still injured for a couple of weeks and will need some time to get anywhere near 1st team fit.

Stop being so pedantic. Do I need to put 'overall' or 'generally' before everything? Wigan are SL champs so clearly aren't all rubbish. But in terms of stand out individuals they are not that impressive. If you threw Dowes into their pack for example he would fit in fine. All the names mentioned are replaceable and their departures won't be a major hurdle for Wigan in the way Graham leaving Saints is for us.

If you look on the SL stats site for most yards, the only forward that shows up is Lima, and he's pretty far down - yet WIgan are top of the pile. The Wigan forwards play as a collective like no other side.

Then probably best not to say they have "no quality at all" in their forward squad bar 2 players and expect not to be called up on it - because it's gibberish.

It's not being pedantic - it's commenting on yet another of your nonsensical exaggerations.

I stand by what I put. Those players as individuals are not outstanding. Their success comes from the way they play rather than who they are. It's why they are so resilient and can change players about so easily.

Saddened (even though I think he was fishing) is probably right, in that Wigan don't have a stand out prop who tops the metre charts. Mossop is becoming that player though and will be there soon. Wigan work as a group in the forwards, no heroes but solid hard work.

Saints are blessed with an excellent set of forwards IMO. They just need to be coached well and conditioned it seems! I just don't think Simmons knows how to get the best out of them. You're pack in terms of names and reputation is up there with any in SL.

The Chair Maker mentioned Paul Johnson and his situation at Wakey. He'd be a better option that Dowes for me. It's not often (if at all), that Saints let players go and we regret it, but I agree with the comments re: Johnson and Emmitt. Both should have been kept on.

True, perhaps Johnson would relish a 2nd chance at Saints, rather than be aggreived he was released.
I don't think anyone could criticise the decision to let him go, he had done virtually nothing to suggest he was worth a 1st team squad place. Emmitt had shown more promise, bt perhaps was offered more by cas?

A fair bit more apparently.