I thought Meli had a great game, other than his two mess-ups. And to be fair, if Maurie hadn't done his stupid rubbish attempt to offload, Leeds wouldn't have had the ball and Meli wouldn't have popped it up for Leeds to score.

There are a lot more players to blame than Meli.

We have to make two changes for next year if they like it or not



Meli has to come of the wing so maybee put him in the second row
And Leon has to make way for Wheeler at 6 so put Pryce at wing or fullback Leon has been pants this year



And Saints decision to have 3 Hookers next year

Meli did a Meli! But, when he does he sure does do it in style!

I'm not a particular fan of his BUT surely this one match shouldnt reflect the season he has had, which IMO has seen him be the most improved!

I said on another thread we'd do as well playing Armstong on the wing as Gardner.

Whilst he finishes strongly close to the line, he does lack the pace of a decent winger. He also had a purple patch around 2006 when he was virtually mistake free under the high ball - this seems to have deserted him.

Meli, while he does make some monumental gaffs, I hold in higher regard, he does return well and can finish and create oppotunities unlike the Arrow from Barrow. Let's face it, Sully was equally inept if you kicked a ball at him. The real problem for me is that if you took Meli out of our team, we'd be scoring even less points than we are now.

So, if we were to have a back line of Wellens, Lomax, Gidley, Wheeler, Armstrong, Pryce & Eastmond - would we be doing better or worse?

Maybe a Freddieesque venture to the 2nd row wouldn't be a bad call.

But Sully could finish from anywhere on the pitch. Neither Meli nor Gardener are even close to Sullivan in terms of classic winger finishing.

Had Sully had Gardner's opportunity on Saturday it would have been a try.

People are blaming Meli for making mistakes then suggesting we have a look at Ainscough.

ainscough has potential and coached correctly could be a massive asset, Meli has had his chances, many many chances but he just keeps making critical mistakes.

I've said this before I think he would be better in the centre/second row with soliola where he couldnt be targeted by kicks like he is now

As a non-Saints fan, Meli is error prone in defence, but is at least a threat with ball in hand. Gardner is error prone in defence and attack. I think he's been made to look like something more than he is in attack because he's played outside Lyon and Gidley for such a long time. You lot see him play more often than me, so I might well be missing something, but he doesn't look nearly good enough for a top club to me.

There is a reason (hic) why hes not playing 1st team (hic) and its nothing to do with his (hic) rugby performances

I think you will find many of us share your opinion.

You can't coach dropsy out of a player. It's a psycho-physical response which is rooted deep within the subconcious. Totally different to ... say ... poor tackling technique, which is a concious decision - albeit a bad one. I'm not saying you can't do things to improve the situation (correcting footwork, positioning, jumping etc.), but if you've got bad hands age 17 you will almost certainly have bad hands age 27.

Signing Ainscough in place of Meli would be a step sideways, perhaps backwards. Certainly opposition coaches would target him without mercy.

Ainscough's major issues seem to be positional. Ade used to be very prone to errors but some good coaching helped him out alot - Ade's biggest problem is he just doesnt seem to have any pace any more ..

Get Meli in the back row to cover the lose of Gilly, Soliola to centre and then sign a flyer to put on the wing.

Doesn't have pace anymore? He never had any pace, and now he has even less!

As a Leeds supporter I certainly think Meli certainly has an upside moving into the back row and although the errors he made turned to be critical ones there certainly is a potentially good 2nd rower. You cant fault the lads effort and he's big enough to move into the pack.

If he didn't make stupid mistakes from kicks he would probably be the best winger in the league. Going forward, you can't fault him, which is why i think he would be very good in the second row.

I'd move Pryce to 13 and Meli into the second row. Potter won't though.

Wellens
Lomax
Gidley
Soliola
Wheeler
Pryce
Eastmond

Probable backline for next season.

Although I can imagine him being a good 2nd row, I can also imagine him completely fu*king up the defensive line.

Let's try it. Stick him and Soliola in the 2nd row, one on each side and lets see if we can start punching some holes. Wilkin and Flannery can provide the work rate in defence and Puletua can be an impact prop.

He doesn't have the pace for that accolade.

I'd just be happy to bin Meli. He cost us the Grand Final this time out, him and his stupid schoolboy errors. I'm weary of him doing this and I don't think he should be excused or defended any longer. I feel worse about him this time than I would have done had he not played so brilliantly for so many weeks because had he not done that then his ridiculous, costly brainfarts would not have come as such a crushing disappointment on Saturday night. I would have anticipated them instead.

i stand by what i said after last years GF. I will pay for melis air fare home (unless somebody fancies chipping in). as for gardner, he looked like he was towing a caravan when he went "flying" down the wing and got dumped into touch. get rid of both along with hargreaves and flannery. if we are gonna have players take up places on the overseas quota then imo they should be the best players in the team and he is far from it.

I don't think meli is fit enough to play 2nd row.

His defence would also worry me when he's tired.

I think our backline will be

wello
Gardner
gidley
wheeler
meli
pryce
eastmond


I'd go with that but would play lomax on wing and drop Gardner.

Perhaps he has some kind of long-standing injury. I don't know. Almost all wingers drop down a couple of gears in their late twenties and early thirties - but Gardner is a bit young for that.

And I can only repeat the point: Criticising Meli for bad hands is like criticising a bird for flying. It's what they do. The guy has ALWAYS had dodgy hands. He ALWAYS will. I'm sure he tries desperately to correct this fault but it's completely beyond his or anyone else's power.

If there is to be any real criticism it should be aimed at McManus. I can only assume the new stadium has drained our finances to the point where he could only spend at bargain bucket basement because no one in his right mind would have offered Meli the eye bogglingly long contract he did on the strength of performance. He gambled on turning around an NRL washout who had shown good form in the NRL prior to being figured out and obliterated. Unfortunately the odds were against him from the start.

Meli only made one error, the pass to Smith. The ball being knocked out late on wasn't his fault and could happen to anyone.