Mmm. I'm not Wilkin's biggest fan as I think he's not physically imposing enough, but when he come up with games like you mention, he's a real cracker. I remember years ago when Skandelis was having a good season for Hudds, Wilkin really targeted him in defence and nullified his impact.
You need one backrower that will make 40-50 tackles a game and he will do that every week.
He sure can pick a line when he wants to as well. He may not be big and hard, but then again, he does annoy the opposition and doesn't mind taking a punch. He has been guilty of being Mr. Nice too often, but I think you lose that with age (speaking from experience).

The fear is that, as the tackling graft takes it out of him, will he stop running hard and start trying to be playmaker, getting in the way of our halfs? Not with Travis Burns around, I reckon

Wilkin wouldn't be in my team. I'd pick Flash (less frills but harder hitting) or Jones (more dynamic overall) as my grafting backrow.

I'm happy to be proven wrong.

No offence Pete, but posts like this are bloody pointless unless you actually reveal the scoop beforehand.



Wilkin is the most obvious candidate really, we're not blessed with lots of leaders so he's a credible candidate with Roby being the only other alternative really at this stage for me.

There are other players but I'm not sure how they would go in a leadership role.

To me Amor and Walsh spring to mind, but they ain't from the town and they may not be a long term possibility.

This is a good call. It shows Wello is now very much a reserve in case of serious injury crisis.

More importantly, Wilkin is very much an aggressive in-your-face kind of player. Saints need that desperately since Graham left. He's clever enough to stay on the right side of controlled aggression, and he'll communicate that attitude to the rest of the pack when he's back where he belongs in the scrum. I don't see Roby as captain material, to be honest - he's not a big talker, and he needs to focus much more on his own game, playing as he does at hooker in the thick of the action all the time.

As for whether Wilkin deserves his place, I think he certainly does. We may have some good young lads coming up, but effectively they are interchangeable prop/2nd row types of the sort we've been producing for years - decent solid lumps who run hard and tackle lots, but don't offer a whole lot in terms of a passing game, organisational skills, or clever line running. I think the loose-forward position is made for Wilkin, with a slightly more old-school ball-handling, wide-running kind of role. The likes of Thompson, Savelio, Greenwood etc can take their turn rotating in the prop/2nd row spots and doing the hard graft. Wilkin still offers just a few more options in his game than they do at this time.

I'd be tempted to go for Lomax. Bit left field admittedly, but it's something he could grow with, and I feel like it's something we could do with some longevity with. SOL was criticised from pillar to post when he was first given the captaincy, but he's grown into one of the best captains in super league, and I feel like Lomax could do similar

I'm actually going to miss Saddened's Wello bashing when it comes to an end, its been a quirky feature on these boards. Maybe Saddened! can find a new anti hero in the Saints line-up. Thinking about it, Wilkin has that potential.

I wonder who's this seasons scapegoat will be?

"Old boys club" in the coaching staff* obviously



*(Or Jordan Turner

)

Jordan Turner will be up there when he plays with no heart like he does for 60% of the year.

I've got a feeling that Vea might be in for it if he doesn't do big things. People will see him as a replacement for Sia and, I suspect, may have unrealistic expectations of him.

I think Wilkin will be but I'm personally keeping my eye on big Mose this year. No excuses this with no pre-season thru injury so I'm looking forward to seeing what the hype is about.

Surely he can put more than 15 mins in this year as he should be as fit as he can be.

Yeah an I wuz told before Christmas but I didn't even tell myself because I didn't want to spoil my own surprise, but my dad was told this was going to happen in Christmas 1962 so beat that.

About as pointless as yours

Apparently he went great guns against Wigan.
If his work rate is up there and he's a tough lad, then he'll fill a good role while the likes of LMS, Sav & Greenwood dip in to do the high impact stuff.

Yes ok

Aye, it was pleasing to hear he had a good game.

How big is he? If he's big and heavy and he likes a graft, I think we may see him doing some of the props work in the middle, certainly indefence, in order that we accommodate the more impact stylee Sav at prop and what seems to be an excess of decent backrowers.

he used to wear 8 for London, didn't he?

He's just over 100Kgs, so big without being massive. He did play a fair bit in the front row last year, but I think that was as much down to London's desperate situation as it was due to his ability to play there. Might be wrong though.

Vea is massive.

So, given the emergence of Sav, Greenwood and Thompson, combined with the coaching staff perhaps shielding Richards from week upon week action, or adjusting for injuries - I think it quite likely we'll go into some weeks with only 3 out-and-out props in the squad, but a troop of big back rowers to make up for it.

I reckon injuries permitting Richards could play ~20 games next year, and the games he doesn't play either Thompson will move up to the front row, or Walker will step in and do a job.

In saying that is there any reason we haven't seen walker throughout preseason? Have I missed something?

He's been injured but think he's fit now. He must have a future at saints as he turned a very good offer down to move to Cumbria

I like Walker, but he's reletively limited going forward and he's actually quite a bit older than Richards, Thompson and Savelio.

I'm not sure what lies ahead for him.