I dont honestly care what he says. He plays FB for NZ and the Warriors not 6 or 7 . End of really.

As for his kicking game I hope he has alot more in his locker than a chip and chase, we need someone capable of pinning teams back or getting us out of jail like Deacon does for Wigan etc

No I suspect he wasn't lying. Then again neither were Darren Bloor, Gus O'Donnell, Scott Moore, Matty Smith or indeed Jonny Lomax but that doesn't make them specialist halves either. I think you are (mischievously I suspect

) avoiding the issue.

Hohaia is not a halfback. He may have been once but then that begs a different question......if that's his hot position and has been all along then why has he not played there for 4 years? If the answer is that there were other, better HB's in fornt of him at NZW, then he would have had plenty of opportunities at other Clubs. Souths go through halves like they're out of fashion but no NRL club was chasing Lance to play at half. That's a fact.

I would suggest you are being selectively blind or deaf. When Kyle announced his decision to leave, Lance was recruited. Replacement for 7. Leon is 6. We have Wheeler, Lomax and Gaskell who all play at 6. We only need one experienced halfback and no matter how many times No.1 Saints repeats what he does, Lance is an experienced halfback, but at 6. Royce has already enabled Jonny Lomax to give it a go at 7; I'm quite sure he could educate an experienced player like Lance Hohaia in the finer arts of feeding the bloody scrum.

Oh, and the sarky comments about his chip kicks are silly, No.1 Saint. That is what I have seen him do, as I wrote. Not all that he can do. I have no idea what other kicks he can do. I was just excited by the fact that he could 'chip over the top' and regather - something I haven't seen a Saints player do for years. Scuse me for allowing the small things in life to make me happy.

No he isnt. He may have played the odd game there but that does not qualify him as 'experienced'. In fact I bet Lomax has played more games in the halves than him




And there lies the problem. Oh next seaon should be fun when we cant get over the half way line when we play a set out of our own 20 under pressure.

got to love saintsfan and her 'fingers in the ears la la la i cant hear anything youre saying' approach.

You credit me with a deviousness I don't possess.

I heard Hohaia's interview and just accepted what he said. No reason to disbelieve him and since Royce coached him then I figure he has no reason to lie, given that he will be playing under Royce again.

Am I the only one who can see we are doing it on the cheap?

I've been saying it for 3 years. We've lost our ambition to win things and now looking fir cheap option signings.

I've got a great deal of respect for sir mac but he's gone down a little in my eye now. He's come out in public a number of times saying we will have a team to grace the new stadium, obviously that's lies. He should just be honest and say, we are broke and doing best we can with what little money we've got.

The great names that have left this club over the last few years and never been replaced.

I wonder what sort of impact Losing Graham, pryce and eastmond will have on season ticket sales?

I've just signed up for another year but now I've starting have I done the cottrect thing.

Yes. But that's because you live on your own little planet, Pete. It's called delusion.

Strange about Radio Merseyside; players quite often say things that later turn out to be a little different.
e.g. Leon on 20/01/11:


Funny that...

I think changing your mind is very different from changing your history!

The future shape of your squad has to be a concern for you guys but it seems that the club have done their best in view of the finances available.
Pryce was offered a two year deal and that was seen as right, the player wanted three. Three years for Pryce on the very top money is something the BOD have not been prepared to go along with. That is very understandable.

You will have Lance H with experience as well as Gaskell, Lomax and Wheeler who can and have played at six. It is also rumoured that you have another signing to come in. Do you know if it will be a prop or a half?

I just think that in all of this you can't take the finances out of the whole matter. There is then the unknown of the test court case with Leeds and the HMRC over ebt's etc. Lose that and it's a another pile of debt for most clubs.

Chill out. I said mischievous as in fun not devious as in malicious.

He's not gonna come out and say 'actually no I ain't played HB since x years ago so at best I am gonna be rusty, at worst utterly diabolical' is he? This is PR for God's sake. The point, which I am staggered you are repeatedly failing to acknowledge let alone see, is that Hohaia is NOT a half back. Ergo we do NOT have a recognised half back next year.

Most people other than you it would appear, as is your right, are more than a little concerned about that given that we have played this year without recognised half backs and have manifestly demonstrated an inability to win when it matters.

In the main I agree but you need to read this post in it's entireity. Lance will play at Half Back. Lance is not a half back.

I think

that the incoming player is a prop. No names mentioned

Since Royce Simmons helped coach him down under and he helped recruit him, if there were lies, deceit, PR or whatever you want to call it going on, Royce is in on it too. And the club. A veritable consipracy really, to fool all the fans into thinking we have a true halfback when really we will be total sheeite next season.

Jeez. Get a grip people.

I'm really looking forward to seeing Hohaia in action. His pace alone is fabulous. And I just loved seeing that chip kick and regather. Gave me great hope!

He did? If that is true I'd be a tad more confident about it. But I can't recall Royce working with anyone but Wests and I don't remember Lance playing for anyone but the Warriors?

Royce was first team coach at Penrith in 1997 but as for working with Lance I am not sure when he had the opportunity, but I have to admit I think Royce has said it before.

I don't think Saints can play Wellens at FB, he was awful in the semi final and just offers no injection of pace and he cannot create anything. The modern FB HAS TO to do that.

Personally I would do the same with Lomax as we have with Tomkins. Take the pressure off him, take the responsability of organising and kicking away from him and put him at FB to let his running game tear teams appart. FB is an extra half-back in the modern game anyway.

I think Gaskell and LH combination has a good balance about it.

I just remember Royce saying he had worked with him before, and with our two other new recruits as well.

Wouldn't it have been common sense to replace them tho?

I've known for best part of a month that Leon was going so I'd imagine the club knew a long time ago. We should have acted earlier and replaced him with a stand off.

We've known both eastmond and jammer was going fir a good while and I'd expect the club to have known a long time before.


So we've had time to search for good quality replacements.

We surely have to go

1 Lomax

6 Hohia
7 Gaskell

As per usual that makes a decent attacking trio [especially when you throw in Robes at 9 but we will be incredibly thread bare - Injury to one of those and we are reliant on Wheeler who is no game machine himself

We have replaced them. We will be getting another big bloke. All is fine with the world.

What did you want? Some NRL million dollar player? Dream on.


We have oodles of stand offs at the club.

non are close to leon as yet

Nope, although I would like to see Gary Wheeler actually get an extended run there - ha! - as I think he could be the closest. But 'yet' does not mean 'never' and we have Hohaia coming into the halves to bring experience to the team in that position and I'm not as doom and gloom as a lot of other people appear to be.

To be fair having a lesser standard of playing roster isn't going to mean that you are not going to be capable of winning things, I just look at other clubs including us and think that the standards are going to drop across the board apart from maybe at Catalans.

Wigan... losing Madge(Massive IMO), Hoffman, Coley, Deacon?. Big losses IMO and no new signings YET!
Warrington... Morley??? questions marks over his future. Briers is another year older, louis anderson, solomona(another off season on the pies!) J Monaghan? Hodgson a year older.
Leeds... well they signed richard Moore FGS
Catalans are the only ones I can see being significantly better that this..

I am willing to be contridicted by the way.

No ive never said get million dollar NRL player, I'm just saying it would have been nice to bring in a stand off for pryce, prop for Graham and someone to replace eastmond.