now that we have lost bryn and gained LMS what would youre line up be? mine would be

1. wellens
2. gardner/lomax
3. shenton
4. soliola/flannary
5. meli/lomax
6. pryce
7. eastmond
8. perry
9. roby
10. graham
11. soliola/flannary
12. clough
13. wilkin

14. moore
15. louie mccarthy-scarsbrook
16. puletua
17. ashurst/emmitt

wheeler, dixon, dean, frodsham, foster, magennis, armstrong

and there could be a few more signings before next season

1.wellens
2.gardner
3.shenton
4.soliola
5.meli
6.pryce
7.eastmound
8.graham
9.roby
10.perry
11.wilkin
12.flannary
13.clough
subs
14.lms
15.puletua
16.moore
17.ashurts

very strong team and woundt be suprised if more faces come in and if you can keep the majority of that team fit then i expect saints to be right up there and could be the team to beat again

Soliola won't play centre. I'll tell you that now. He played Second Row vs Wire this year and that will be his position next season.

I'd like to see.....

Wellens
Gardner
Shenton
Meli
Foster
Pryce
Eastmond
Graham
Roby
Perry
Soliola
Wilkin
Flannary

Moore
Puletua
Clough
LMS

In reserve include good talents.......

Lomax
Wheeler
Dixon
Ashurst
Magennis
Frodsham
Forster
Gaskell
Ellis
Makinson

chief i would go with lomax instead of foster but agree with you when you say soliola will play second row

Hell of a side that.

I agree with Chief and all of a sudden I'm looking forward to next season already.

so you would all prefer foster over lomax?

That freakin pack scares me! Its easily the best since 2006, starting with Jammer and Perry, then rotating with LMS and Tony P, just what tiring defences would love to see! with Sia, Cloughy, Wilkin, Lego etc etc behind them and Robes ripping them apart up the middle i cant wait to see that in action!

4th at best. No finals.

I really love your posts.

Brilliant squad that - good work by Eamon and the B.O.D. to get a squad like that with the cap in place. Even the "reserve" list players are quality, especially given their experience this year.

We'll just need to wait and see if Royce is the man to get the team playing good rugby (I think he will be). He is the most important signing for next year.

as far as the backs are concerned i'd drop ade, hes seriously pants.
2 of Foster/lomax/wheeler as wings with shenton and Meli as centres, leon and kyle in the halves.
lomax and wheeler can cover for kyle or leon, i'd even have armstrong in over ade, he's been ripping it up in the U20's

yes in the u20 but that doesnt mean hes upto SL standards

I'll grant you that, hence hes not in my first 17, but ade gardner is certanly not up to superleague standards, however i fully expect him to have a great year next year as hes playing for a contract, which will make me hate him more!

just like meli has been the last few games then? terrible since he signed then proves him self a few wekks before the end of his contract

Meli*. Capital letter for surnames.

I think, and it just my opinion that Meli had a great season last year, and again this year, but really came into his own when moved to centre, its clearly a much better position for him, building on all his strengths and almost nullifying his only real weakness

Meli and Shenton should be one of the best defensive centre parterships in the game, with rotation on the wings between Lomax/Foster/Gardener.

The acid test will be seeing how you cope without Cunningham and to a lesser extent, Gidley...

Meli has played well for the last 2/3 years.

Meli is one of a very few players saints have who can bust a tackle and make a break, he's big and strong and pretty fast for a big guy.

I'd say he has been in our top 4 players over the last few years but has cost us grand finals and thats what some people relate to.

He's doing ok at centre but i fear for him in defence when we come up against smart teams with clever players like monaghen(spelling) and lee briers who will target his defensive postion.

When he can be bothered, Meli's defence is up there with the best of them. But no matter how hard he tries, he just cannot defend against a loose ball. He was caught out again last night just as he has been at every Grand Final and in fact any time at all where a loose ball has been spotted in his vicinity. He is safer defensively at centre than on the wing; Gardner is better defensively and even though Foster makes his youthful judgment errors he is a very savy lad and is showing good signs defensively. Not to mention signs of being a very courageous player.

It's not his one on one defence that worries me, it's his postion in his defence when teams move the ball wide, he likes to come out the line, a good halfback (briers) will throw a miss out ball and leave Meli caught out.

Flannery is the same in the centre, he gets caught out with his postion in the centre but will tackle anything head on.

That comes from not playing centre regular but in time he will learn when to come out of the line and when to stay.

Centre IMO is the most important postion to tackle, if you get caught out, you get burnt.

I'm still not 100% confident about his decision making in defence in the centre channel, but I think that's an acceptable trade-off given how much more dangerous our backline looks with him there. It also, as you imply, keeps him out of the way of those grubber kicks.