Fair assessment of him. And I suppose that every player moved out of position to accomodate the injured halves is only going to create new problems. Good move Saints!



All the best for Friday.

I want us to keep hold of Matty, thought he was very underrated here after his heroics getting us to the 2007 GF, would have been a better option than Scott Moore IMO.
I hope he tears it up, and the saints board are left embarrased by the decision.

Would it be Leon or Eastmond you would have had him in front of? If you think we'd play him hooker - he's no Roby and we resigned Moore in the year he made the Dream Team at hooker.

Even if he wins every MOM between now and the GF, there's no reason for the board to be embarrassed about the decision not to re-sign him. He's 23 years old - he doesn't want to be sat around waiting for injuries to better players, nor could our salary cap allow him to do that with Lomax/Wheeler who can play in the halves.

Others have summed it up, he's not in the same league and doesn't have that bit of magic that Kyle does, but he's a more than competent squad member and a great option for Saints to have.

He'll do a solid job for Saints and in particular our kicking game should improve with him in the team.

In the days of pay as you play contracts, the likes of Wheeler and Eastmond would have had a pain killing injection and go out onto the field. I seriously think that some of these young pro's expect to be 100% fit and healthy for every game when in reality, someone like Longy and Kieron spent their entire career carrying one injury or another.

My honest opinion is he may have been a victim of bad timing. Kyle is better, but i doubt we'll keep him longterm and i think Matty would make a better 9 or 7 than Scott. Matty's distribution is much better, but as you say when we resigned Scott he was in the dream team.

You'd think it was Lockyer you'd had the thumbs up to play Friday

John Wilkin in the halves makes Matty Smith look like Lockyer.

i was at the willows this year....... and i beg to differ. plus, eastmond and smith as a combo would have worked quite well IMO. however, the salary cap dictates that you can't have all the best players so you have to pick who to keep and who to let go.

still, i would have liked us to have kept him over scott moore.

Actually made me chuckle



Anyway, Smith played very well in the SKY game against your lot this season, maybe he will be the spark for you this friday.

But your fans were saying he was brilliant after he had 1 or 2 decent performances there. His brain isn't fast enough to be a half back IMO.

Fact!

Smith isnt in the 19man squad after all that.

Love it ! I await "He's not that good any way..."

I'd go:

Wello
Foster
Gidley
Meli
Gardner
Lomax
Moore
Graham
Cunningham
Hargreaves
Wilkin
Flannery
Roby

Soliola
Puletua
Fa'asavalu
Clough

If Lomax is unfit, Smith will play.

Correctermundo sir

I'd swap Fa'asavalau for Emmitt, having two players on the bench that aren't match fit is a bit of a risk IMO.

Agree it's a risk, but it's not sudden death and they both need minutes if we're to win the GF.

I'm over the moon!!

Hopefully he proves everybody (but me!) wrong, leads us to a Grand Final victory and walks away leaving us red faced at letting him go.

Excellent news.

I'm not sure we do need Fa'asavalau, though obviously he'd be a benefit. After this match it is sudden death, would part of one match be enough for him to gain match fitness?

I'm looking at it as we could have Maurie with 2/3 games under his belt by the GF (touch wood), and Soliola with 3/4.

From memory, Maurie has played some very good rugby 2 or 3 games after returning from injury - fresh and free of niggles - he'd be a big plus for us if we can get him up to speed quickly enough.

I agree it's a pretty tough judgement call though, but I'd be tempted to go with it and assume that Maurie with a couple of games would offer more than Emmitt can.

Matty may not be in the 19 man squad but that doesn't mean he won't play. Soliola wasn't in the squad announced last week but made an unexpected appearance. At the very least I would be surprised if he wasn't on the bench!

i think we should give Maurie some game time this week, in the big scheme of things this game means little, so its perfect for a run out

I believe the club have up to an hour or two before the game starts to decide whether Smith will be playing on Friday and I'm sure it will all depend on how fit Lomax is. I think we can safely say Eastmond will not be seen and we already know Pryce is out. I think Smith and Lomax would make a tasty combo though because Smith is a good organiser while Lomax has a bit of flash. Love those dancing feet of his! But my guess would be that if Lomax is fit, he will play in the halves with Moore and Smith won't play.

As for Maurie, we can lose this match and still be in with a chance in the playoffs (although I really would rather NOT lose to Wire at KR at this stage!) so I would say play him and see how he goes. His very size could help us out along with Tony P and Jammer and Clough. Not to mention Soliola and Meli. Hit em with all the muscle while we actually have it to put on the field is what I say!