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.

Just said same thing, it's his decision making in defence that worries me.

I have a worry a clever team will target his postion in defence.

He gives alot in attack though which we needed.

One things for sure next year, we will have a very strong front row.

If perry settles and tony p plays the way he has this year and add graham and LMS, thats 4 very good props and two good hookers in moore and roby, it looks good.

Perry
Roby
Graham
Sia
Flannery
Wilkin

Tony p
LMS
Moore
Clough

That IMO is a very strong pack and very strong bench, we also have magennis, dixon, ashurst, emmitt and maybe frodsham all on the outside looking in.

With the amount of 2nd rows we have next year means wilkin should play 13 and stay there. Maybe if he sticks at loose forward we might see the form of 2006 return, he needs to get back to the player he was and not a grafter, we have enough of them to allow wilkin to get back to a attacking loose.

dont know how you can say moore is a good hooker, hes terrible, he carnt pass kick tackle and even attack, im suprised that he can get into our 17

Moore's distribution is the best in the club. It's been a long time since we had a hooker who could pass.

For that one sentence alone I'm going to completely disregard anything you ever say in the future.

It's not often i agree with ski but moores passing from acting half is much quicker than cunninghams has ever been.

Moores passing in nornal play is shocking at times.

It is also brilliant at times. Maybe the shocking passes will lessen with confidence and experience or maybe they won't, and it's a thing we will have to live with in order to get the benefits, which are some brilliant passes and some very enthusiastic defence!

i would have preffered we brought back smith instead, as he also covers hooker

Too late. He's signed for Salford.

ino i mean at the start of season