In the NRL, he's up against players like Cronk, Thurston, Marshall, Todd Carney, Pearce, Shaun Johnson, Reynolds, Sandow, Soward, Cherry-Evans who are all quality players. In SL, the scrum halves are nowhere near that level of quality. I'm confident he'll be a good signing against a much lower standard of opposition.

Can we start a thread about a player who we may sign in 5 years time. So we can start with the negatives early on.

I would propose Rob Mulhern, we may sign him as a prop come 2nd rower in 4 years time so quick lets get on his back as not being Saints standard.

I also hear there are a few pregnant women knocking about, maybe we should start a thread on them for not producing players of St. Helens standard.

A huge number of 7's have looked dreadfully average in the NRL and then lit up SL in recent years. It's one position in which we simply don't compete with them right now.

Here's what (some) Panthers fans think of him..... www.pantherpride.com.au/index.ph ... to-england

Here's what (some) Panthers fans think of him..... www.pantherpride.com.au/index.ph ... to-england

Sadly sometimes that is the case.

The fact that St.Helens have signed a scrum-half currently playing for an NRL team should bring hope because as we all know the difference between the two competitions is vast at the moment.

Personally I would not be worried about his lack of breaks, he will be facing some much weaker defences in this country and Im sure he will bring other qualities too.

Paul Deacon rarely took on the line but proved his worth at both Bradford and Wigan.

Those extracts from the Panthers fan site in full - both pros and cons.

Positive :



Negative

Isn't this simlar to what we were told before we signed Perry, Le Franci and HiHo?
All unmitigated disasters using up a fair proportion of our salary cap.

It's hardly surprising people are cynical.

What is being said is that a player who is distinctly average in the NRL and has recently been dropped to the NSW Cup Comp is going to be really quite good in SL.

A player who has a good short kicking game but a poor long game and who doesn't take the line (ever according to the panther's forum) and who didn't get tackled even once in his last 80 minute game - really?
From a panthers team that would struggle against the likes of Leeds & Wigan.

Perry and Laffranchi came over with Australia and NSW caps and Hohaia as a world cup winner with New Zealand, so can't have been that average in the NRL.

Perry was a brilliant signing, just turned out to have left his heart in Oz, laffranchi and lance were signed for the wrong positions, hence bad signings.
I'd be happy if we got Walsh and he played to us potential, he's as good as we can hope for, and better than Dobson as an example

We screwed up with them bar Perry who is just shot with injuries and unlucky. Hohaia was a world cup winning [ifullback[/i who would have been a great replacement for Wellens and Laffranchi is a second row who can cover prop when we needed a monster prop to replace the monster that is James Graham. All 3 have pedigree

I think Perry came to play but the injuries he'd picked up before he came rolled into our pre season them kept getting little injuries until the hamstring put him out for the year.

I think injuries have caught up with Perry and he's struggled since then. Shame really

As has been said above.

Nothing wrong with all 3 players. Perry was unlucky, but we had that with Sia for year 1. Lets not forget his long injury. He came good, but he had years on his side.

Laffranchi and Lance are all down to the mystery that is our recruitment policy. Decent players played in their un-natural positions.

Walsh maybe NRL average, or as the other poster put it, may have lacked a 5/8th.

At Saints he will have Lomax from 1 and Lance at 6 so has little to no need to run at all. Just organise and kick.

Saints fans aren't usually ones for allowing the scrum half to not take on the line. I expect him to be booed off after two games if he doesn't. It would be a bit hypocrticial if he were not.

This signing has big warning signs all over it. If it turns out to be a shocking signing, the club can't say they weren't warned. On the kicking game, if you read the press about him in Australia, it seems the only kicking he can do is the short kicking game, specifically lofted kicks to the corner and grubbers. Andrew Johns amongst others has been very critical of his positional kicking. I read one comment somewhere saying that crickets all across Australia were delighted by the news he was leaving, as they tended to bear the brunt of his passing game.

They need to get this right.

YOU PEOPLE MAKE ME LAUGH...

we have to sign a 7 - because its obvious we need one (and we do) but the club identify an option and lo and behold he isn't good enough. Quite who would be I don't really know - I'm sure that if we had signed a Thurston / Cronk half back pairing it wouldn't be good enough because Thurston is too old and Cronk isn't fast enough!

I struggle to see who is good enough. would somebody please enlighten me.

Gaskell isn't good enough for the #7 job, we don't have anyone else on the books up to it either, and there simply isn't anyone else around we could realistically be signing any better instead. He may or may not be brilliant and may or may not work out for us, but he's the best possible available option we have and so his signing will do fine for me.

I look forward to all the posts next year by all the usual suspect numpties bemoaning Saints' continued decline and lack of ambition because he's not as good as Longy or Goulding were in their prime and wouldn't have made a '96, '00 or '06 team and so isn't good enough for us now, or isn't a 17 year old kid from Thatto Heath. Idiots.

That's what I'm clinging onto really.

Where have I said he isn't good enough? I've not seen enough of him to comment on that and I've not. All I've put is that the volume and specifics of the criticism of his ability and performances are a concern. You can't sign any player just because you need one, and lets face it, if we've persuaded him to give up his Panthers deal and outbid Hull, he certainly won't be cheap.

Goulding wasn't exactly prolific in taking on the line; more of a passing, kicking & organising No7. And yet he never seemed to struggle winning the fans over...

I agree entirely. It would be far better to make a den by putting a sheet over the kitchen table and sit there pretending everything is great.

I'm under there now.

You mean you expect us to be worse next year, because if we improve significantly no one will have anything to moan about.

If Walsh does the kicking and organising, and Lance and Lomax do the running, I think we'll go alright.

I still think Laffranchi could do a good job at second row for us, but he's done nowhere near to deserve his extra year.

Kevin Sinfield has made a career out of his kicking and organising game.
You dont look at him to scythe through midfield, instead Leeds use the likes of Burrow, Mcguire and their fast three quarters to do that work.

lets give Walsh the opportunity to come over here, settle in, then start moving the team around the pitch.

As for his halfback partner then we can look to Wheeler, Swift or Hohoia.

I get the impression that Browns first choice is Wheeler.
Hohoia is i think seen as an interchange hooker.
Swift has so far not been played in the halves, which suggests Brown doesnt see him as a halfback, even though he is one by trade. Then again maybe its been more a case of him being reluctant to put youngsters in key pivotal positions.

Wheeler

Well it cant be Lance as he has only played at stand off 3 times this season. you would have thought that if Brown thought Lance was a standoff he would be stood at number 6 week in week out.