www.raiders.com.au/news/2014/08/ ... stars.html With Canberra Raiders from next year Good Luck Sia you've been great for us hope you do well

www.raiders.com.au/news/2014/08/ ... stars.html With Canberra Raiders from next year Good Luck Sia you've been great for us hope you do well

Our continuing slide towards Wakefield continues at pace. Sad to see, this is basically Sia retiring as Canberra are a joke and will surely take a few years to fix.

Your not looking at the bigger picture, We have a lovely new stadium that holds other teams semi-finals in



But seriously Sia leaving is a massive blow that we will miss next season on a par with Jammer leaving , he is at times our one player that gives us that fire in your belly that we lack.

Sia has been great for us, but I don't think his leaving is particularly disastrous. For all his exuberance, he does have defensive flaws in his game. I'll miss him, but I don't think he's irreplaceable.

I thought Wakefield had a better backline than us, anyway?



I'm with Dux, he has great parts of his game, but his overall value perhaps isn't as high as we may think.

Canberra have also signed Josh Hodgson.

I agree but we will miss his aggression, work rate, pride in the shirt and he loves saints. That type of player is hard to find.

Sia has been pure quality on and off the field and is a great role model for any kids to look up to.

He's my fave saints player

You guys may see things I don't when I watch him against us and on Sky but to me he's nowhere near the class of James Graham.

Graham was and is world class and he used to worry me immensely when Wigan played against you. As for Soliola he looks a decent back row (probably one of the better ones in superleague) but no more really. He's rarely had an impact on our games and whilst he's had little support nor did Graham towards the back end of his Saints career yet he still carried you on his back.

Soliola is replaceable IMO.

Have I missed something? What's james Graham got to do with Sia going?

Ok, I didn't see that.

What's disappointing is the fact Hull Kr get a "substantial fee" for a player with a year remaining on his contract, but we let them walk for free...

Good luck to Sia, absolutely no bad feelings towards him, but I believe he's replaceable...

With who ?

don't make me get my charts out again



What would be difficult to replace is his influence, but he's struggled to have that this season (only castleford away springs to mind) so hopefully others at the club can step up. I'd really like some kind of incoming announcement before Wakefield, it's at a time when it's needed imo

It's very rare to get a overseas player that loves the club like Sia does. If you look at how he started with the injuries, if would be easy for him to have got homesick etc but he genuinely loves saints and the town.

I don't you will get thst sort of comitment from another overseas. He's back in form now and we will miss his aggressive defence and his hard strong running.

He will be a big miss.

The wheels on the bus go round and round !

Its time we give the opportunity to Greenwood, Richards, Thompson and Sav in raising there game, if we don,t they will be going the same way as Ashurst and Dixon.

It doesn't help that Brown uses him totally wrong. The amount of times Sia drives it up through the middle like some cannon-fodder prop is so frustrating. He should be charging onto clever balls at the less congested fringes of the ruck area to rip holes in the opposition defence.

Savelio aside, the others are just bog-standard forwards. They'll give it their all, but will never be standout players. Savelio has that something extra, although not without some faults in his game (which hopefully we can iron out)

Thompson is getting enough rugby and is coming along nicely. Richards isn't a secondrow.

We need to replace Sia as he's one of our top players. We went down that road of not replacing quality with quality from 2007 to 2013 and still not recovered now.

Isn't Vea the replacement for Sia?

I hope not.

No news on Manu either so our over croweded Backrow is soon to be depleated. Maybe the Backrow is our new halfback/centre situation where we only play with one.

I don't mind Vea as a replacement for Sia as long as we bring in some real quality in another position (preferably stand off).

If we are losing Manu as well it means we have to bring another 2nd row in or it means we going with just a very lightweight Backrow in flash, Wilkin, greenwood and Vea.

I think stand off and a quality Backrow is is a must. I also think we need other positions but those two look vital IMO.

Ben Te'o, Atelea Vea, Jarrod Mullen, Adam Milner in
Anthony Laffranchi, Sia Soliola, Willie Manu , Lance Hohaia out

That'll do me