Can anyone who attended last night's forum at Langtree Park divulge what was said for those who could'nt go?

First of all it was a fabulous night. McManus, DA, Wello and Tommy God were hilarious, as individuals and as a group routine! I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the hotpot was delicious. (Should have served red cabbage too though!)

Lots was said. McManus admitted to making a mistake in letting Lee Gilmour go but is convinced Manu is a top drawer signing, in spite of his age (the age issue was brought up by a fan's question).

The cladding is going to be done. Apparently Saints bought the stadium as designed; they didn't design the stadium. However, it was Saints who changed the perimeter fence into a wall. The funding has been set aside for the cladding, which will be done in the off-season. No details were given about what is going to be clad or what the cladding is going to be like. McManus didn't wait to be asked about this; he just volunteered the information.

DA said he was not asked to coach us again and he didn't ask about the coaching vacancy. He did say that if he did ever think of coaching here again he would let Saints know and if they turned him down he would coach Wigan instead. He was so funny. It seems he is coming over for a visit next year.

The only answer I didn't like, I thought was a sop and a pretty obvious sop, was the one given to why Lee Gaskell isn't playing. Tommy God answered that and rambled on about it being a 'learning curve' and all that rubbish. They were quite open about Hohaia and his performances, I was surprised about that, but I think they picked up on the overwhelming sense of disappointment in (a) Hohaia's performances and (b) Gaskell's demotion.

Erm, what else. There was loads said but it's hard to remember because there were so many funny moments. Wello was on prime form and got the biggest laugh of all with a bit of you-had-to-be-there wit.

Oh, Wello is getting a new contract. No confirmation of length but since Manu is 32 and has been signed for 2 years, I can imagine Wello at 32 also getting 2 years.

If I remember anything else other than the funny stories and general fab humour (which I remember lots of but wouldn't sound the same typed up on here!) then I'll post them. I'm sure others will remember different stuff.

*dons tin hat in anticipation of Saddened exploding*

I'm expecting something along the lines of "we now have a worse backline than Egremont".

He already knew, I told him last week. I was told it was a 1yr deal with the option of another year.

What was said about lance?

Any mention of super Royce?

It's so stupid my initial reaction was to laugh when Pete told me about it. Utterly ridiculous.

Kind of shows we don't have any ambition to win anything anytime soon, as we won't with Wellens playing fullback. It's as good as playing with 12 men now and it's only going to get worse.

In a nut shell they said his performances up to now have been disappointing but he is a quality player and DA reckons we will see the better of him after the exiles match as it helps a lot of players to feel settled over here. He also said that Lance has been struggling to settle in over here but is starting to feel better of late and reminded people that Lyon didn't hit his best form until he had been here a few months and it will be the same with him. Tommy Martin said he has been doing a lot of kicking with Lomax and Lance and Lomax wants Lance to take the line on more and take responsibility off him.

Him taking the line on [iat all [/iwould be a massive improvement...

A two year deal for Wellens?

By the end of it, his status as a club legend will be diminished if he spends all that time at 1.

Given Brown's penchant for experimentation, I wonder if we might see him spend some time in the back row.

Thanks for taking the time to post what was said last night - sounded like a lot of interesting stuff came out of the fans forum. I live over near Burnley so struggle to get over for stuff like this so it's great to read a lot of very reassuring information was shared.

As for Wello, I have said (and others have too) for a while that he can do a job for us in the second row. He is a great tackler, isn't frightened to run the ball in and has good footwork. IMO he would be very good in the second row for us, which would enable us to move Makinson (or Lomax or Lance) to fullback.

Saints seem to be doing a lot of things right since the move to the new ground. The Fans Forum sounds like it's a great event and I treated my Dad to a night in the corporate hospitality last Friday for his birthday and it was absolutely superb. I well recommend it to anyone who hasn't experienced it yet - a brilliant evening.

Thanks again

Not directly, in that there were no questions about him in particular. There was one question asking whether the players were bothered by a change in coach - denials all round of course - and that morphed into McManus talking about 'a difficult time' and Wello saying that Royce was 'a great bloke but this is a results based business'.

One panel member reckons Nathan Brown will want to 'prove himself' while at Saints.

We were told that Saints plan to hold one every 5 or 6 weeks.

No red cabbage? Scandalous! Glad I didn't go now. What were the pickle/relish options?

Seriously, thanks for reporting back for the benefit of those of us who didn't go.

Some red stuff and some brown stuff! You can tell the events team is run by a company owned by an Australian outfit. No idea about how a hotpot is supposed to be served!

Mind you the hotpot itself was bloody gorgeous. Just needed that red cabbage to make it perfect ...

Great stuff.

I love to see the club having such open communication with the fans, so refreshing. When this is done in such an informal and entertaining way, it's the best of both worlds.

Top marks, Big Mac.

I'm going to go to the next one. They probably won't hold another after that.

If Wellens is going to be used as a back up player then the deal is OK. If he is going to be our first choice FB for another 2 years then no, the deal is not OK. It's far from OK...

I'd love to see Sean Long at one of the future ones hopefully with them being held so often he may get a call.L

That would be very difficult whilst he is still employed by Salford I would expect.

Not really it's only questions and he wont have to give anything away about Salford. Steve Hampson was at the last one I went to so I don't think it would be that much of a problem.

Another interesting point that DA brought up was the increase in salary cap for the NRL and what it means. The financial power of the NRL will be a HUGE problem for us as the debut year academy players will be on 50k and the big names like Smith, Cronk, Thurston will be somewhere around the million mark. He also went into detail about why they are much better than us in Aus and how he bugged McManus for ages to get training facilities similar to the NRL to be able to compete at the top level.

McManus told us his view on the financial state of the game and how it can be solved and gave some hints about the next chief executive who can take the game to a new level.

Anything said about who will be Brown's No2?

I thought when Brown was announced it was also announced that KC would be no2?

Nah , Gilly was at one of Ade's earlier in the year