Leeds are now in the hunt.

Looks like a Griffin/Hill scenario

Saints cant lose out on potentially another gem!

Walmsley is in the bag but will be loaned back to Batley next year.

Was with Gary Hetherington last Friday at Restaurant Bar and Grill in Leeds City Centre.

So we have blown it again! Great stuff

What did he have?

We have a left centre,a natural in josh jones in fact he is the first we've had since talau. we need an experienced halfback to get him some quality bal ....

Fair point about Josh Jones! And as I said before a experienced organiser at half back is a must. What some people fail to understand is that this squad needs change and wont be a instant fix under Nathan Brown in year 1 of his tenure. It will probably take him the full 3 years to get us anywhere near to winning Challenge Cup Finals nevermind Grand Finals.

Why on earth would we do that? He's already 21 isn't he? Which would mean he was 23 with absolutely no Super League experience when he returned. Seems a rather silly way to do things.

So is
Not replacing your left centre for 4 years.
Buying diddy men to play prop.
Giving your starlets new contracts and send them to another club or back to the physio table.
Buying a utility player with no kicking game to play at 6.
To drop your only HB with a kicking game.
To keep a pedestrian FB at FB.
To believe that a back up hooker is your star scrum half.
To keep retaining journeymen on the basis that nothing better is out there.
Giving 4 year contracts to post testimonial butty shop owners and international utility players.

Welcome to the Saints recruitment and retention strategy.

Leeds did that with Hardacker/Featherstone the second they needed him they recalled him and didn't send him back. I guess it is to keep Batley happy so they do not charge to big a fee (if at all). He probably needs a few months of training before going in the first team. I would guess that you will see him between rounds 10 and 18 next year assuming he does sign.

I suspect that Brown will have a shack up regardless of the player movements. I would suspect that Greenwood, Forster, Gaskell and Ashe will get runs next year. I would not say that Percival is out of the question for a game or two. He is not physically up to Super League yet but neither was Scott Moore when Milward played him against Wigan aged 16. I just feel it is the sort of thing a coach like Brown would do.

I would rather give these kids a run in the side instead of signing over the hill journey men looking for a big fat pay check at the end of there careers. Some of the youngsters coming through at many Super League clubs dont get a chance to shine and is it any wonder they go away from the game? Greenwood, Forster and Ashe are due for a run in the side when the chance arises. This way of doing things has benefited Wigan and Leeds even more so. Thats the way forward.

One poster randomly mentioned this on the Leeds board and you take their word as gospel...





I think that's what he will have to do next season.

Or lack of....

Hardacker was younger, what saddened means is that he will be getting on a little with no experince of super league.

We'd be better keeping him and picking games for hon to play and playing in the u20s if we don't think he's ready.

Totally agree!

Do you want to join mine and saddened club? We seem the only ones that can see how poor our recruitment and retention has been for past 5/6 years.

Its got to improve. I have said many many times before there are quality up and coming players not only in the Saints squad but in the Championship that need a chance in Super League. Not everyone will be a success but at least its better than signing over the hill Aussies on stupid wage cheques.

...and in the meantime the RLFans server burns through to the core of the earth with the heat generated by hundreds of Saints fans angrily complaining on "The Entertainers" how appallingly "unambitious" our recruitment is because we only ever sign cheap, raw and unknown quantity kids and never invest in quality, proven, experienced Aussies like everybody else does instead.

I will never, ever understand how someone could consider it "unambitious" to sign a proven quality Aussie or NZ international, nor how they could consider it more "ambitious" to sign some strip of a lad off the street instead. You couldn't make it up...

I would be quite happy for Nathan Brown to sign some up and coming youngsters from the Championship whilst giving our youngsters experience in the First Team. Its high time we stopped signing over the hill Australians and concerntrated on bringing through our own youth.

No team relying on home-grown players and ignoring Antipodean talent could ever hope to compete at the top of SL. A balance is needed and Saints generally do that balancing a lot better than most.

Oh look - we're finishing 3rd in the table despite no coaching worthy of the name for 2 years. Maybe you're right - maybe our player recruitment really does suck big time, eh? We'd have finished top easy if we'd binned off Sia, TP, Flannery, Meli, Hohaia and got in a bunch of Blackbrook and Tatty Heath amateurs instead wouldn't we?

I wouldnt class Sia Soliola, Lance Hohaia as over the hill players. Im all for blending youth with experience.

Ages of the our current overseas players when we signed them:

Soliola - 24
Meli - 26
Hohaia - 28
Perry - 30
TP - 28
Flannery - 27
Frankie - 31

Which of these would you consider the kind of over-the-hill, clapped out, past-it players that we should be avoiding the signing of and instead be recruiting non-existent, equivalent quality, unsigned young British talent instead? Only Perry and Frankie were 30+ when we signed them, and 30 and 31 is hardly "past it" for recent Aussie international forwards.

Once again, those inconvenient facts disprove the knee-jerk reactionism. Curse them.

No idea. I thought it was a bit strange when I was told but I suppose he is very young for a prop and shouldn't hit his peak for another 5 years at least. The main thing for me though is that we seem to be in the market for the kind of players we need for a change.

I wouldn't say we've signed over the hill overseas players, we've just signed overseas players to play in the wrong positions. TP was signed as a back rower and has played the majority of time at prop (until this year), Soliola was signed as a Centre, Laffranchi is a back rower converted to a prop and Hohaia is never a half back. Only Meli, Flannery and Perry have consistently played in their regular positions (and bar Perry, both were signed several eyars ago). Our recruitment decisions the last few years have been poor particularly overseas players.

Yes please. As long as your clubhouse has cladding.