I'm looking forward to see who Royce picks as his havles for the second half of this year and the start of 2012.

Exactly, however I do think Lomax is the short term and the long term if he continues his form.

I don't think Gaskell will ever be as good as the likes of Pryce and Long. More of a Matty Smith or Danny Orr.

I doubt he'll even get to the level of Danny Orr ( he was very good at cas first time round).

He's still young tho and is holding his own so we will have to wait and see.

What a bloody ridiculous thing to say after only seeing him play half a dozen games at first grade.

Yet some want to play Gaskell who's only played half a dozen games at 6 before Leon Pryce.

how can you say gaskell will never be as good as pryce leon was playing on the wing for the bulls at the same age as gaskell not in the half we cant say how gaskell is going to turn out but i have seen enuff to say gaskell might play six for saints for years to come as for lomax he is a class player who will paly for saints and england for years to come but dont no if it will be at 1 or in the halfs

More chance of having a no.6 if we play Gaskell there than if we play Leon there with Leon's absentee rate this season! I'm not at all convinced he will play at all this season.

I think who plays in the halves next year will be interesting and I hope that Simmons rotates our halfbacks so that the young players are not blocked by the presence of Hohaia and Pryce (if he is still with us). It would be a real shame if Lomax continues to play at 7 this season, continues to develop in the way he appears to be doing only to find himself shunted around the park playing bit roles like he has been doing for the last couple of seasons. Likewise if Gaskell makes strides this season.

I see what your saying and agree to some of the points. We need to keep the likes of Gaskell active in the first team if Royce opts for others over him.

I don't think we should rotate the halves. We need a good solid partnership there which will grow.

I think lomax should be given the chance to remain at 7 under his form there this year and then it's down to Royce who he feels is best to partner him. Pryce is by far the best 6 at the club by a long way but we ain't sure if he's here next year yet.

Lance then comes in for 2012 so it's going to be interesting to see what happens.

If we do keep Leon next year and he plays to how he can then my gut feeling is lance will replace wello at fullback.

You play your best players.
Best stand off at the club? Pryce
If he's not here next year,doesn't matter,he's here now so he plays.

That's how I see it.

But what if the best players turned out to be Gaskell and Lomax? I'm not saying they will be, but what if they are? Here's a long shot - but hey, just go with it - what if Pryce is out for the season, it's Lomaskell or bust, we get to the Grand Final and win it with those two as our halfbacks?

And then Leon finally gets better and Hohaia turns up.

Who do you play then?

All hypothetical.Stupid question.Briers played out of his skin in a cup semi for us and we dropped him and brought back Goulding.Good call?

I,m sure Royce,s plans for the future will be Johnny @ 7 and Lance @ 6 with young Gaskell backing up in the halves for me he dosn,t get a start. For the present Lomax and Pryce in offense and defence are the strongest pairing, both can break the defensive line, again Gaskell backing up for either position.
I,ve not seen Josh Jones play but I assume he will be challenging Lee Gaskell in the next couple of seasons.

when lomax and gaskell have played in the half this year we aint lost a game so be intresting to see what royce does when wheeler and leon are back i would play pryce in the centre and put meli on the wing

Your first sentence was accurate; your second, ignorant.

Lets not get ahead of ourselves, I think a few people are elevating Leons skills. He was sometimes very very good, but sometimes pretty average. When times got tough and the pack got dominated, he had (has) a tendacy to go missing. An excellent halfback grabs a game by the scruff of the neck and wins it. IMO Leon is a good but not great half back, proved by the way he has never had a sniff at 6 for England

If I had a choice of keeping Gaskell or Wheeler, I'd pick Gaskell any time. And that is based on what I have seen of both players over the last four or more years.

If you don't want Gaskell, send him to Wigan, we'll certainly take him.

I just don't think he will, you're all welcome to your opinion if you think he will be and I'll be humble if he turns out to be as good or better.

Yes he's only made 9 appearances for the first team. But Jonny's played less games than that at HB and its obvious he is going to be a star. I don't think Gaskell will be a bad player at all, he's certainly got a career in the game, but I think if he was going to be a superstar we would have seen something to suggest that by now. All I've seen is a good solid player.

I see your point about him only playing 9 games and if somebody else had said it I probably would of been inclined to say something similar, but I just don't see him being as good as Leon.

Its a little pet hate of mine with some people on here who bang on about how good young players are when they ain't played even 10 games at super league. Youth development is great but for every good player you get I bet you get five bad ones.

I see people write on here, we don't need to replace wello as we've got Ashe, we don't need to replace flannery we've got Dixon and so on but that's taking a huge risk. Not every player can be replaced by young kids as half won't be good enough.

We had Steve Tyrer as the next Jamie Lyon and where's he now?

I just think people get to carried away with the youth development, it's a great thing but it dont always work and not every player can be replaced with youth.

Agreed, but since Gaskell has just signed a three year deal with Saints, those who are better placed to know clearly see some potential in him. Until that potential has been given a decent amount of time to develop - at least the same amount of time that Lomax has had, for instance, would be a start - I think people making negative judgments about whether that same player is going to be as good as one who has been around for over ten years is not only unfair but ridiculous.

I'm not knocking Gaskell and I like what I've seen of him, I liked him the first time I saw him because he takes the line on well for such a young kid but IMO Pryce has the class and experience and should play providing he's up to it after his injuries.

My new pet hate is the people writing we don't need to replace Gardner for next year because weve got makinson and he's fast



Makinson has played about 3 games, we don't know what he's like under the high ball, kicks to ground of if he can tackle but because he showed some pace in two games we've got him nailed on as future winger!

That's the way it's done these days. When he turns into Kevin Penny it's the club's fault for signing him in the first place.

I'm not making negative comments at all, read my posts. I said he's a good player and will make a career of it. I also said I think he may be on the same level as Danny Orr, a compliment in my book.

I could have said people picking Gaskell in a fully fit starting team over Pryce this year is ridiculous, but I didn't because I'm not as confrontational as you are.

You can see who has potential to be good and who has potential to be great from a very early stage no matter what you say. Look how Sam Tomkins burst on the scene, he has massive potential to be great if he cuts a few facets out of his game. I'm not comparing Gaskell to Tomkins, but I haven't seen anything in Gaskell to suggest he will be 'great'.

Everybody is welcome to their opinion.

I know it is but for Christ sake, makinson has played about four games and because he's looked fast, we've got him down as our winger for the next ten years! He's not even a winger!