Thought his tackling was spot on !! His not everyone's cup of tea and I no it's only one game but that's what everyone's problem with him was his defence

I dont think gaskell tackling is too bad it's just sometimes he can get caught out of position

If u look at posts to do with him they all say he shouldn't play cause lance is better defensively that's there opinions

I've never had a problem with any of Gaskell's play, defensive or otherwise. All he has lacked is a bit of experience to aid his decision making and if that time had been afforded to him last season we (well, me at least) wouldn't be sweating on this contract business.

I would be gutted if we lost him.

Gaskell is a player we need to keep hold of. He has a good organisational and kicking game which is a rare amongst emerging halfbacks, it tends to be a lot more orientated around a running game.

Ditto.

Thought he played really well last night, linked up well with Lomax to put Wello over, and his defence was superb. Wilkin took a lot of pressure off him in relation to his kicking game, allowing Gaskell to focus on other areas.

He does have a great understanding with Lomax, they understand each other extremely well and bring the best out of each other.

I hope he starts the season at 6, and has a cracking season. He is the sort of player who if we sold, could come back to haunt us.

Agreed

Decision making's his only real shortcoming for me. I wouldn't call it greedy, but there're times when he should let the ball go and doesn't. It's easy to see from the stands or on TV, but I think if Gaskell improves his decision making, he can become a very good stand off.

Agreed, which is why I was very frustrated by the end of last year as his decision making would not improve in the under 21's as there is no need to if you can beat the man.

You can only improve by making the mistake and learning from it.

definitely leaving at the end of the season (unless he is lying to his close friends and family).

Wigan bound

Decision making generally improves with experience. Same in any walk of life really. He missed a whole year which means he is now back behind Lomax in his development at first grade level. Therefore, we have to step back a season for Gaskell in our expectations, which is a real shame because had he been our six last season then by now we might have been watching real improvement in his decision making.

But let's not forget that even the great James Roby makes wrong decisions sometimes. In the friendly on Friday there were a couple of really naff passes from Robes, just as there are from all players on occasion.

His decision making was my only complaint with Gaskell when he cemented his place in the team at the back end of 2011. The grand final against Wigan was the perfect example, he was very dangerous with the ball and IMO our best player in attack but time and time again he took the wrong option.

After that Grand final, I thought we should have Kept the Gaskell and lomax combination for 2012 and let them develop, his decision making could only improve by playing with the first team players and gaining experince and a understanding but unfortunately we signed a fullback to take his place and some crazy coaching decisions seen him out the team.

Erm, the Grand Final in 2011 was against Leeds btw. Gaskell was nowhere near the first team in 2010, when we lost to Wigan.

Thank goodness this season we don't start the season as grand final losers again. Clean slate, fresh start.

I,m wondering if most of his problem was the lack of a technical coach the last couple of seasons, Gaskell on his debut was a very promising half back who seemed to get worse on his decision making as these seasons unfolded. We all know Lance isn,t a half back and even he was very poor on his decision making which put a lot of un needed pressure on Lomax. Hopefully Mr Brown will structure our half back play to allow Lomax and Gaskell to operate as "one", instead of the fragmented 6 and 7 we have had to endure for 2 seasons.
Hopefully this season Lance will start most of the games starting on the bench and replacing Roby and Wellens sometimes during the game.
Lee Gaskell needs to take the bull by the horns now, enjoy his rugby and prove to himself how could a player he could be and decide also which club it is going to be with.

I'm hoping Lance will start from the bench too. If he comes on, he can cover different positions and could hopefully make impact later on the game when players start to tire.

Decision making improves with experience, and with senior players like Wello, Robes and Wilkin around him, he will improve in that area the more games he plays.

He has his opportunity now, and the ball is firmly in his court.

I disagree. Last year he had an opportunity as well, he did nothing wrong in the few games he played, he even secured a win for us at Widnes with his last minute goal kick but none of that was enough for Rush. Sometimes, no matter how hard a player works or how much his game improves, the coach gets in the way. Hopefully Brown will be a better coach than Rush, and with the balls to stand up to senior players who might not like being dropped/moved elsewhere as a result of Gaskell getting his chance at 6.

I think Brown made it clear by starting Gaskell at 6 and Hohaia from the bench, that Brown's willing to give Gaskell a chance.

I don,t think Gaskell made the most of the very limited opportunity he had, he needed long periods of showing the ability to control a game, but the coaching regime, game plan, communication by the experienced players didn,t fall in his favour.
Rush and KC brought stability back in the side at the expense of experimentation and development of the younger player, as we know half back options were de risked.
When you think back at most of our half backs in the early stages of there career they obviously made lots of errors but the successful ones kept their head and didn,t drift out of the game.
Gaskell when he takes the wrong option sometimes drifts out of the game, I hope Our new coach can correct this and hopefully we might see some MOM performances from Gaskell which would give his confidence an enormous boost, otherwise we could have another Lee Briers on our hands.

Good decision making is a skill that comes with age and experience. I struggle to think of any half-backs who were spot on decision makers from a very young age (Bobbie Goulding would be one). For a kid with his experience he's fine on that score (better than Long was at that age, for example).

Regarding a move to another club, wouldn't it require a transfer fee what with him being under 24 (assuming we'd be offering him a deal)?

I think he can go for free at the end of the year. Whilst I can understand the temptation to go to Wigan, I think looking at Wigan over the last 15 years should tell a cautionary tale. They are no more loyal to players than the next team. And will quickly buy in a player and boot another out if they feel there is someone better.

I would like Gaskell to stay, but I would not want an end of season decision. If he has had a fair run of games by June/ July and not signed, I would hope that Saints start looking elsewhere to buy in rather than going down the Eastmond ransom route. It does neither party any favours.

Either we pay a fair price and keep him or move on quickly.

If Wigan get Gaskell at the end of the season it would incur a fee as he is home grown, providing we have an offer on the table for him.

It will be either 15k or 25k, I can't remember which.

We'd have to offer him a better contract than he's currently on.

Which if he is playing everyweek I can't see why so wouldnt up is money