What do you think of the chances of Meli being starting centre next season? Keeping Sia & Flannery in the pack?

Ever the doom mongerer (How many tries did "no use in attack" wellens score last year?). I agree he has neither the blitering pace nor size to really succeed in the reletively 1 dimensional (attacking wise) position of winger. However, he may have the abilities to make him a good centre - skill, timing, brains etc. Time will tell.

[size=85I certainly agreed on Flannery and, to a degree, Meli.[/size

Unbelievably harsh. Looks a talented player to me - good finisher and very good hands.

By the way, being the wing version of Paul Wellens wouldn't be a bad thing, unless you reckon 4 Grand Final wins, 2 WCC, 5 Challenge Cups, 4 League Leaders shields, Man of Steel, Players’ Player of the Year, Rugby League Writers’ Player of the Year. 2 Lance Todds, and 1 Harry Sunderland is a shoddy return.

I sometimes wonder whether you watch the game with your eyes closed.

Nah,thats a poor evaluation. He has good feet,prety quick over the first 30m's and clears his line well.
Lacks that killer speed from 30m's but imo he could make a very good centre. But there again my glass Is half full

No, I'm a visionary. People will still talk about me on the rugby league scene 40 years after I've died. In the days of Newlove, Albert, Sullivan, Lyon, Hunte, Gleeson the likes of Wellens and Foster are fine. They'd score 40 tries and it would work well. But when you've only got 1 centre in the entire squad and only Pryce and Eastmond who could be regarded strike players (One of whom plays once every lunar eclipse), there isn't enough threat to see us winning trophies in the future.

We are carrying too many 'solid but not brilliant' players in the backrow and on the bench to fill the outside backs and fullbacks with them as well.

He's too small for centre. The second rowers heavy breathing as they chased over would blow him into touch.

Didnt think he woas found lacking in the grand final, and he didnt play alongside Meli, that was Lomax. So I think your getting your players mixed up.

At full strength I would have Gardner and Meli on the wing with Wheeler and Shenton in the centres..

However with us lacking Kyle at the start of the season, and possibly all of it, if Saints sell him to a RU team. Then we will probably need to start with Lomax or Foster on one wing, so we have a recongised kicker.

Ancient RL fan 1: "Do you remember that weirdo on RLFans who thought that Wakefield had a better backline than us?"
Ancient RL fan 2: "Oh yes - he was weird."

Absolutely spot on. A 1 year deal for Meli was disappointing but a two year deal
is folly of the highest order.

Shenton will become like Loughlin the only consistent strike player in poor backline. All ball goes to him. Opposition mark him out of the game. Overplayed , forced to play with needles and ultimately broken.

Wellens is an institution but the position of FB has moved on and demands
HB pace and line breaking ability.

Bar Shenton the backline itself is very poor indeed.

You can carry the odd bits and pieces player such as Foster.

I still can't believe that Gardner has been at Saints for 10 years.

The whole backline needed radical surgery in the close season. Saints have suck an expensive plaster over one bit.

IMO i would not play wheeler at centre i would give his a chance at that 7 shirt when kyle is not playing. He is a fantastic 6 so why cant he play 7. 2 seasons ago we played Wakefeild away and he ripped them to bits him self with pryce 6 untill he got injured . He needs a good run with out injures and he will light up super league.

I would also try to play lomax or foster more this season on the wing and give one of them the shirt full time next season.

Flannery deserves his new deal as much as anyone else, he is a consistently fantastic defender, he runs fantastic lines in attack and makes more breaks than people give him credit for, and I wouldnt be surprised if it was more than the other back rowers. IMO flannery gets the nod over the other backrowers every single time

The Saints backline will be completely reshapen in the next few years. Shenton is the first part of the jigsaw and in the next few years Wellens, Meli and Gardner will all leave the club. Then there's Pryce and Eastmond's futures which are unclear, so apart from Shenton and maybe Soliola, we could have 5 new backs out of 7. I think it's impossible to replace all of them with players from outside the club, due to salary cap restrictions, so it's important to integrate the likes of Foster and Lomax now as they could end up taking positions in our backline.

As I said on the Saints squad thread, I would imagine Wellens replacement will come from either Gaskell, Lomax or Ashe.

Lomax would be the one better there than 6 !

He also has great positional sense, is great under the high ball and has balls. Although slight, he has done some great tackling. I can still see him on two occasions: once at the CC semi when he single-handedly brought Keith Senior down by a kind of limpet tackle thingy right in front of where I was sitting and the other occasion when, having been run over by Karl Pryce the first time, he positioned himself better, ran at Pryce from the side and sent him flying into touch. He's a smart cookie is Foster, just as Wheeler is, and I hope Simmons brings him on.

Jamie Foster should be first choice wing ahead of gardner, without a doubt!

Meli had a pretty good season last year as he always does (except finals) and foster after the away game at salford looked very good on the wing.

Foster's reading of the game is very very good for such a young lad, he's safe under the high ball, his defence is good but does lack a little in attack but i think as he builds himself up and puts beef on he will be a bigger player in attack for us.

IMO Gardner has had three terrible years, has lost 5 yards of pace and makes the wrong choice in defence nearly every time, he should start off 3rd choice winger.

Rommel, i think you'll find it was lomax on meli's wing the grand final.

Ultimately i see Wheeler moving to 6. However for now i would play him at centre, so he can gain experience.

If all goes well and the players develop to their potential then a few years down the line, we may see Kyle and Wheeler in the halves, Lomax fullback, Foster in one centre, Gaskell in the other centre, with Shenton on one wing and Armstrong on the other.

Then again Tommy Makinson could end up in one of the centre berths. With Gaskell playing in the halves or at fullback.

Re Ashe he is quick, think he needs a lot of work to be a decent fullback though. May ultimately end up on the wing if he makes it.

The good thing is that there is a lot of competition amongst the youngsters. It should help them strive to improve.

That was my first thought too. It was Meli, Lomax and Flannerys wing that got found out time and time again in that game. Foster and Gidley were solid. Flannerys static defence and Lomaxs size were the main issues we had on that day.

Foster will more than likely play for most of the year on the wing with Shenton. While Meli will be on the other side as either a winger with Soliola or Wheeler or as a centre with Gardner.

Foster was exposed under the high ball in the Grand final, only the fact that Richards went off after 35 minutes gave him some respite.
Shaun McRae alluded to it in his commentary.

That bastion of modern tactics!

Exposed like every other winger was against Richards last season you mean? Hardly a fair example.

He's a myth. The only way anyone is exposed by Paat Richards is if you give away penalties under the posts or when he's under no pressure.

He made up his leg injury so he could avoid the pressure of having to kick when it meant something. He'd go well at Saints.

In the season foster was great under the bomb just the nurves went in the grand final but he use to play full back as kid !

I've said on here before that I think he could make it as a fullback. I'm not sure how pacey he is over the long term - he's certainly nippy short distance - but he has very good positional sense, is good under the high ball, good hands, a sidestep, balls, learns quick and reads the game well. He would also manage to kick the ball over the halfway line for a dropout, instead of doing a Wello when all the fans are wishing the ball would get somewhere close to the halfway line!

Rubbish. He caught the high ball that won the match on 20 June. But it wasn't a Grand Final. He was only just 20, he had only played in the first team for half a season, he'd never been in a final before, and his team were playing bollox. He wasn't exposed at all. Next time he is at a final, he'll be fine.