As everybody knows and its been documented on here more times than I care to remember we have had a average season at best but I for one am very hopeful come 2014 that we can start to build a side that can challenge for all 3 trophies. I am very impressed with our business for next year with the purchases of Amor, Masoe, Walsh, Beaumont, Dawson. I truly believe under the guidance of Nathan Brown we are on the right road. People have there reservations about Brown but I believe his recruitment has been excellent and hopefully we have gone passed the route of signing overrated, past the sell by date Australians.

We have had a barren spell in terms of winning trophies and I personally put that down to losing some World Class players like Pryce, Long, Cunningham, Graham and Sculthorpe which was the core of our team for many years (with the exception of Pryce). Having to replace these players was nigh on impossible without paying huge transfer fees or breaking the Salary Cap. Now I do believe with Lomax, Walsh, Roby, Wilkin we have a core of a side that can really guide us to future trophies and create a new Saints legacy. Warrington are in a period where they are rebuilding after losing Morley, Carvell, Hodgson and Briers hasn't got long to go. Leeds im my personal opinion will come unstuck at the end of next season or certainly at the end of 2015 when Peacock, McGuire, Burrow, Leuluai, JJB, Bailey, Sinfield will all be retiring or thereabouts. Wigan have lost arguably the best player in Super League in Sam Tomkins and he will not be easy to replace, O'Loughlin has a couple of more seasons in him and a few more will be on the verge of retirement. At Saints there is only Wellens that I can think of who has 12 months left in him and possibly Manu and Laffranchi. If we keep our squad young, fresh and keep our recruitment standard high, we can amount a serious challenge.

And who would those be, none of them are as old as the three Saints players you have mentioned. Also please consider that Wigan have won five of the last six Academy Grand Finals.

You do realise that 11 of the Grand Final team came through the Wigan academy system, and Wigan were the youngest team to ever win a Grand Final last week.

Bowen



But not to turn this into a Wigan vs saints thing as its great to have some optimism on this site for once!

I concur I'm feeling really quite happy with the squad we have built for next year, there are still rumours floating around so we may even see another new face yet. Regardless if we play like we did at the end of the year well turn a few heads, and well be certainly be up there! And it's gonna be our youngest squad for a long time too!

This is the kind of lunacy that makes me such an important feature of this forum. Without me, you lot would all get so high you'd end up having a breakdown.

Amor, Walsh and Masoe are all good signings on the face of it, but by no means certs. The other two appear to be on par with the likes of Heath Cruikshank and Liam Felton as signings.

You are suggesting a team with only ONE halfback in it's squad is going to win something? Looking at the squad, it's going to take at least another season for us to return to competing for trophies. We NEED another halfback and by the looks of it we're going to be enduring another season having to field 16 players, as Wello is staying.

I'm not convinced our pack is up to it either. Masoe is unproven, and if he turns out to be a Feka-esque joke of a forward, I don't see who is going to be making the hard yards for us. Walmsley can't do it on his own.

And what if Walsh gets injured? We'll be just as bad this season if that happens.

Sadly what you say is true, particularly about Walsh. We are pinning an awful lot on him for next season, if he picks up a serious injury then we really are back to square one. However, if he stays fit, and if the likes of masoe and amor live up to their promise, then we really do have grounds for optimism, especially as turner and manu were starting to come good in the second half of this season. I wouldn't exactly expect a year of the wolf, but I do think we will continue to build on the good work towards the back end of this year

I can,t see us being as bad next season as the first half of this season gone. It took about 20 games before the swapping and changing stopped through experimentation or injury.
We,ve got an off season now for Walsh to teach Lance something about half back play. Amor is a great acquistion and Masoe giving us true impact from the bench.
Injuries will damage any team if they are all your pivotal players as in the saints case.
Think I am a little bit more optomistic with our new team for next season especially as our debut players of Manu,Turner, Swift and Walmsley having a decent season under there belt.

I've made the point a few times on this forum that Walsh is a player that doesn't like pressure and he openly admits this. This could be a major problem as Walsh looks to have the weight of our season on his shoulders!

We are going to expect Walsh to provide organisation, kicking game, lead us around the pitch,
Kick goals etc with no help of another halfback.

If he gets injured we are back to square one, hence the reason I've been banging on about the need of a stand off since we signed Walsh.

I must admit, I'm pretty happy with our business for 2014. Amor and maose should provide us with the go forward we lacked last year alongside LMS and Walmsley. Walsh is the halfback we've been in dire need of.

I'm much more optimistic for next season than I've been in a while but that's providing these new signings work out, the is a risk with all new signings. IMO we are a stand off and centre away from a super league winning team.

I,m pretty confident that the above will be shared by Wilkin, Walsh and Lance. This season has been the making of Wilkin as a pivotal player which he can now do and operate from no 13 spot, the back end of the season has seen Lance more effective taking on the line with a bit more space which he can progress into next season. That leaves Walsh biggest influence being his strength of a kicking game which we never really had since Bobby Goulding left.

Also losing Meli means we won,t see the barging tackle busts, instead we might see more of an expansive game from Percival and Swift, both of them have good footwork very elusive and quick off the mark, if we can send the ball out wide quickly our attacking structure will be very similar to Wigan and Warrington by breaking out from deep.

Next season we seem to better covered for injuries with the exception of the half backs, short term injuries we should be OK by using as already mentioned Wilkin/Charnock/Wheeler.................but I just have the feeling like every other superleague club there will be some competition for a proven half back from the World Cup, the most sought after position in Superleague.

Just for a second lets play out the scenario, and Walsh gets injured before a balls touched in anger.

We still have a stronger squad than last year, we hopefully won't have as many disruptive injuries early in the year (Roby and j lo only managed 33 games between them last year and we did alright during the backend when they both were playing) and, even if we do our youngsters have been blooded this year so should be more effective, and bringing in the likes of Dawson and Beaumont means we have a bigger squad this year.

Comparing in and out like for like is difficult but out of the ones going only Meli has really been in form last season - and many a word has been posted here and elsewhere about him in a negative way - he makes a very good centre, but jones/Percival has been judged to be ready (alternately a new centre as we're supposedly still looking with Percival becoming blooded more) and jones will put the work in to relieve the load on the forwards like Meli did - he may not be as effective at it, but he be better in other areas - our back line has been improved 10 fold on what it was as we are much more exciting going to the wings these days.

In the forwards we have Masoe, Amor and Beaumont in with puletua, perry (and potentially Laffranchi) out - I'm not sure how anyone can argue this isn't an improvement - Masoe may not work, and may become like feka (he may of course turn out like a young puletua but let's ignore that) but that still gonna have more impact than perry! Would people rather we had signed feka as hull? I really feel as though puletua should go this season as it seemed a season too far, was caught out flat footed occasionally and doesn't find the miracle ball as he used to - he got held up against Leeds in the last game and I'm convinced he'd of got it down 2 years ago - Amor who replaced him has the stats to impress and should go well, and well many on here don't want Laffranchi to resign so I shouldn't have to go through him



Turner turned out a lot better than I was expecting and I really have enjoyed watching him last year and hope he kicks on and could be challenging for internationals next year and so should j lo.

Ben Roberts agent is apparently touting him around the super league clubs so if we are that desperate for a 6 I'm sure there'll be talks, if you can get over his off field indiscretions and we have space on the cap (if he's not asking for silly money)



I feel like we have another signing in us but who and when I don't know

Let us be honest the standard of the competition is not that high. We are in the mix with five others who could potentially get to the cup final and then win it. Those same teams and I have to include Hull could get through a play off system in theory. We have I feel recruited well on the face of it, and added to world class talent in Robes and Lomax, and decent club players like Wilkin Jones and Turner must have a chance of a far more consistent season.

2014 The year of the Saints?

FFS, we're sounding like Wire fans. Give over.

This thing about Wire fans saying "next year is our year" is a bit of a myth. Really its the rugby league media that says that.

The average Wire fan is like Saddened, but hardened by years of being poop rather than winning trophies like Saddened has seen at Saints. Last year for instance, the pre season talk on our forum was "why have we not made any signings we will pay for it, other clubs like Hull are strengthening and we are standing still".

Then in previous years it was things like "Myler / Atkins / Ratchford are good but overrated IMO we should be going for x instead".

For about 3 years it has been "our team is getting too old and I fear it will be a season too far for Briers/Morley/Hodgson etc"

In fact the cliche that is most associated with Wire fans, is not "next year is our year" but "last year was our last chance".

The media however, have been desperate for a while to see a new club break the dominance of Wigan/Saints/Bradford/Leeds, and in the past decade or so there have been three clubs that have threatened to do that: Hull (under McRae/Kear), Warrington and Hudds. Of those three, Warrington were obviously the media darlings because they are much more of a slick PR operation and accessible to the press and had Paul Cullen on Sky etc, they are better 'connected' in the media so they have had a lot more hype. So every year we have heard the press big us up and say "is next year the big chance for the Wolves". Winning the Challenge Cups fuelled the fire. But most Wire fans have not got carried away with this as we have a lot of the general cynics.

I expect people will start saying the same about Salford soon "its always their year isn't it" but that will be entirely media led as if you look on the Salford forum their die hards are a bunch of hard to please grumpy cynics (aka realists who have have been fed too much poop in their time to get carried away).

I think you lot have a very good chance next year. You have recruited well in the right positions. As for the contenders.

Most of Leeds' important players are well into their 30's, i'd expect them to be challenging but fall short like this year.

Warrington have lost a lot of experience but needed to IMO. They may be a bit light up front but still have enough to challenge.

Hudds should be challenging. I can't think of an important player they have lost and have recruited a bit more grunt in the pack. If Baloo learns from this year as Wane did from 2012 they have a good chance.

We have lost a few important players, again. The team ethic and systems are still there and in Bowen we have a very good player.

There are a few unknowns, Hull, Salford?

In conclusion i think it's between Wigan, Hudds and You

The squad next season is far better than the squad that we had this year. So on that basis we should do much better and be far more consistent than we were.

Having said that, I don't think we are in a position to be true contenders next season and we still are a centre and a 6 short of doing anything.

#It'sAlwaysOurYear

I agree vas said same thing earlier in the thread, we are a stand off and centre short of being real contenders.

We look to have solved the go forward problem with the signings of Amor, Mose and Beaumont who should provide us with that go forward we've lacked when stuck in our own half and struggled for field position in order to attack.

We also looked to have solved the scrum half problem as Walsh looks the type of scrum half we need. He's a good organiser, great hands, good kicking game but doesn't take the line on enough.

I feel we like genuine strike in the backs. Other than lomax, I can't see anyone else doing anything special we need it. That's why I think a good attacking centre and stand off would really put us up there.

If we can keep our best 17 on the park come the big games I think we've got a decent chance of challenging. We weren't far off this year in the play offs when we had our best side and we have a better squad on paper next season (although new signings as we know are risky).

Wilkin playing at 7 all season has developed his game which will help relieve a bit of pressure from Walsh I feel.

We do lack a player at stand off and centre but we have a pack strong enough to compete with all sides. If we can maintain the steel in defence that we showed towards the end of this year we'll go well.

Our target next season has to be a good cup run (although this can be taken out of our hands with a bad away draw or a bad run of injuries), a top 4 finish and aim for the last 4 of the Play Offs, It's anyone's game then.

Yeah, the forwards are massively improved by the signings and the youngsters we have in those positions are very promising.

The point you make about strike in the backs is unfair I think; considering that our back line will look like: Lomax, Makinson, Turner, Percival/Jones, Swift, Wilkin/Wheeler/Hohaia/etc, Walsh.

Makinson has shown that he [icould[/i do something (Wigan at home this season, for example) and Swift does look dangerous at times with the ball. If Jones plays centre then he does seem like a steady player who won't produce anything special, but he made 18 breaks this season so he must do something right. Comparatively, he made the same amount of breaks that Kallum Watkins and he is seen as a dangerous attacking player. Turner has made a promising start in a Saints shirt too. If we go with Percival he looks dangerous too, but far from a finished product obviously.

So I don't think we do lack strike tbh, although we 100% need a 6.

If we stay injury free, I really believe we can aim for 1st and the Grand Final. The standard of the league is that average elsewhere.

I don't agree with your assessment of our backs. All those have played this year and we've struggled massively to put points on the board at crucial times in games.

Makinson is a good steady player but isn't strike player and very rare he beats a man. He's a good finisher but he's not exactly a go to player when we need a break.

Swift looks a very good promising player but it's early days. Same with Percival.

Wheeler will not play.

Jones also isn't a strike player. He's also not a good centre. He won't (can't) pass. He plays with his head down and looks more of a Backrow than a centre. I like JJ, he's a good steady player but no strike player.

Wilkin isn't a back and not a strike player at all!!!!

Hohaia has been pretty awful.

Turner has done ok in his first season but I also don't expect him to make a break out of nothing.

Only lomax I'm the backs has the X factor, he's a go to player when we need a break or a pass but IMO he's the only one in the backs capable of being a match winner.

Don't tell me he is injured again already !

Out of Wigan's grand final winning backline with Tomkins & Richards gone next season, I only see Charnley as a strike player. The likes of Goulding, Thornley, Gelling, Green & Matty Smith aren't exactly X factor players. They defend well, are very well structured in attack & have a solid pack. We should be more than competetive next season, easily our best pack for years - Graham papered over many cracks, although admittedly we will need Lomax & Roby to stay fit & Percival to progress. All SL squads have their own 2-3 key players, so we are no different on that score.

Goulding does a awful lot for charnley to score and very under rated.

Smith is Lance Todd winner and Green is Harry Sunderland winner.

I'm taking about our threat outwide, we can't compare to Wigan next year but this year they have to halves that move the ball wide at speed and have rugby brain. That creates space out wide for Goulding, Tomkins, Charnley and Richards.

Our current squad has one centre (Turner) and no stand off!

At Wigan as you know Bowen will replace Tomkins, he is a strike player.
Likely Burgess will replace Richards, he's a strike player too. He's 6'4" and a flyer, given the opportunity by Wane he will score plenty of tries. If not Burgess then Manfredi, another strike player who given the chance will score plenty tries.
No lack of strike power at Wigan I don't think.

Swift looks good and Makinson looks pretty useful too. You need two pacey wingers of which Swift is one together with another half back. Still no left centre since Talau left years ago, I can't understand that one!
I do think Saints will be Wigan's biggest rivals next season.
Leeds and Wire seem to be ageing and slowing. Their star signings Briscoe and Asotasi don't light up Super League for me, but we'll see!

I think Percival is a tremendous prospect at Saints. I was very disappointed when he went there instead of Wigan. It may still be a season too soon for him, but if he's looked after (not overplayed) I believe he could be a top class player.

I didn't say Wilkin was a strike player, so not sure the relevance of your reference in reply to my post.

Fair enough if you don't agree, but I do feel that we have pace in the backs and having a half back who will create space for these players will make a big difference next season. Hopefully Walsh can help to do that. We need a 6, like I said, though.

I agree with you with JJ but he's made the most breaks outside of Lomax, so he must do something right. I remember him vs London away and it's the best I've ever seen him play at centre. He ran riot, although you could say against a poor defence but we lost that match!