Ben Barba this and Ben Barba that.

Watch the try again there is one player who actually catches Tupou and for some reason decides to try an ankle tap despite being level. Its probably the worst attempt at a tackle i have ever seen in professional rugby league. His gonna be a great player and his defence in general has really impressed me but that was a massive brain fart from Danny.

Oh man talk some sense. Danny chased back and put 100% effort in to get there as did fages. He didn't get turned around and skinned for pace but a average super league player.

Why is it you can't admit it was shocking fullback play and embarrising for barba to be left for dead and he give up on it.

Would lomax have been skinned ? 100% no. Would Tommy have been skinned ? 100% no.

Barba been great player and probably still will be but he's not fit and shouldn't be in the 13. End of

Its not end of! at all its your opinion and fortunately i believe our coach doesent agree with you.

I was just pointing out the weirdest tackle attempt i have ever seen, its not a chase back his actually got the legs on Tupou and for some reason decides to go to ground.

FWIW on Barba. He excites me every time he gets the ball. Last week he stood Gelling up for his try. Ive not seen a player do that at Saints since Lyon. He will only get better.

He's shown some nice passes but his actual licj returns are pretty poor. I don't think he's beat a man yet and imo that's down to being so unfit. He runs across the pitch but hasn't got the pace or the fitness to do that at moment and on few kick returns he's lost ground doing the crab.

I just hope he can get some pace back because if he's lost it then his ability to make breaks are gone. His speed over 10 meters is what made the breaks in the nrl.

Why do people keep saying about Jamie Lyon? He s totally different player, totally different position and I don't know why keep mentioning Lyon and barba together. It was even completey different situation .

He's tubby at present & it will take a good off season before we see the real Ben Barba. He's not played for 10 months. Spoke to a Wigan coach in the week about Barba and he pointed out it's taken Tomkins 4/5 months to get back to anything like.

Have a look at the replay Pete, Barba was on the other side of the pitch making an attacking play with a chip over and run at the line just before Wakefield got the ball. Barba had made a fair bit of ground to get over the other side of the pitch towards Tupou, so Barba I think was very much in legs recovery mode and not set to defend.

Another excuse for barba haha. He got turned inside out and was left for dead

It all happens in fractions of a second but I think Danny checked his run because he thought Barba had the measure of Tupou.
Maybe he was trying to avoid a 2 man bounce off I dunno, his decision to check was fractionally before Barba pulled out which put him a step behind where he should have been and was left with a leg swipe as his only option of a challenge.
Tupou is a big fast thing but I reckon Barba would still have at least challenged if he was fit, he's had a long while out and he just isn't match fit yet, Barba isn't gonna pull up any trees this season, can't blame him for that.
I thought saints played well enough to stay in the game and at least give themselves an opportunity, but really, that was a gift from Wakey who were in full control for most of the game.
There aren't going to be gifts like that in the last few games, on the whole the game and the scoreline indicate just where these 2 teams are in the pecking order, good....but not quite good enough to trouble the big boys.
But, ya never know..

Skilful Stuff happens, a much slower Taia turned a much quicker Hardaker inside out and left him for dead as well.

I don't care about Hardaker. He plays for another team.

Send him back home then, obviously garbage and not a player Saints need or want by the sounds of it - we don't need Dally M winners in our team!!

Obviously not a sniff on Wellens if you can excuse the pun.

We should see what Jamie Foster is doing these days too, he'd fit right in with some fans I think.

Richardson should be demoted to the subs bench of the reserves for that attempted tackle. I can't remember seeing anything as embarrassing before

Regards

King James

Typical idiotic saints fan reply.

I've not said send him back. I've said I'm big fan of his. I said he will come good NEXT season when he's got some fitness back.

Anyone with half brain can see he's so unfit it's unreal and he's that unfit he's been a liability. I simply suggested he should have started on the bench and earned his right to play. He s basically walled into the team at the expense of lomax losing his position, Theo lost his position altogether against Wigan and now matty Smith lost his spot (rightly so).

You think it's tight he walks into the team in such bad condition? What must lomax be thinking? What must fages be thinking? What will Smith be thinking? I'd put my house on them not being to happy.

For example, just put yourself in lomax anid fages shoes. Lomax is fit (wasn't unfit as barba afyer two serious injuries), never drops high balls, never missed tackles and our main threat out the back. Tho really come on this year and in our top 3 players of the year. How would you feel seeing the level of fitness barba is at and getting picked?

Oh yes he did win the Dally M, he won it 6yrs ago now. In that 6yrs since he's walked away from the game, suffered with depression, used cocaine, had drink problem , won the grand final and was sacked, went to union and was released. If you think we are getting the 2012 Dally M winner then your deluded.

Todd Carney won the Dally M, should we get him?

I'm just thinking about the team and making too 4. I think having barba at fullback makes us a worse team this year and as I said, I think he will be good for us next year.

Lomax appears to be as much the victim of his cap hit amongst some, as anything else.
I do think he will probably go at the end of the season, largely due to the injuries and the aforementioned salary.

However, right now, he is a better selection option than Baba.

Let's see how Baba is after a full off season, committed and fully conditioned, for now though, I do think Jonny should be in the team.

Lomax signed two year deal last month.

www.redvee.net/5-talking-points- ... saints-18/ Excellent read and 100% agree

www.redvee.net/5-talking-points- ... saints-18/ Excellent read and 100% agree

I didn't say you said send him back did I, nor did I say that we are getting the same player from when he won the Dally M - what I'm saying is he won it, and that isn't handed out to every man and his dog is it! Has Lomax or Fages won Man of Steel? No. Have they ever come close to it? No.

How do you expect a guy who's been out of the game, as you rightly point out, for so long, to be match fit without playing any matches? I agree with you, in that if it were me, he would have come off the bench, but I see no issue with Holbrook chucking him in and seeing what he can do - our season is pretty much on the line now and the players that have played all year haven't probably performed (or wanted to perform, under KC) as we'd have hoped for. So Holbrook has taken a chance with playing Barba hoping he can bring some of the magic he obviously has as a player that some of the other lads don't have, and fair play to him. 2 games in, has it worked? Possibly not. Could it work? Who knows without giving him a go...

At the end of the day, Holbrook isn't there to make players happy, he's paid to win trophies, which means making decisions that not everyone is going to like - fans and/or players! Professional players will accept it, non professional players with throw their toys out of the pram, and there are plenty of other clubs out there for players like that.

What would you rather have - a happy bunch of 20 odd players that are all best bum chums and finish 3rd, 4th, 5th or below, or a group of hungry players that want to fight and win and work hard and finish 1st and win trophies?

Mate, he's been awful and it's down to not being fit. You can play players that unfit . He s not earned his spot in the two games, he's made mistakes, he's unfit and Danny brough and Michael Dobson will be rubbing their hands.

I'd imagine it's knocking his confidence as well. Big NRL superstar and Dally M winner playing so bad and being made to look like he has.

Holbrook should take him to one side, tell him he's not fit enough to play from start at moment and put him on bench and he can come again next year.

Let's get fit players playing in their positions and push for a semi place.

Again I don't disagree with you, but the question is how do you get him fit without playing him? Coming off the bench for 20 mins a week for 3 weeks isn't gonna do it - and what happens if somehow we manage to make it to the GF, he's played an hours rugby over the 4 or 5 games, and Lomax, Fages, etc goes down with a broken leg in the semi final - would be even worse to throw him in at that stage having played so few minutes.

I know it's all if's, but's and maybe's at the moment, but if he hadn't played him, we wouldn't know, and fans on the other side of the coin would be moaning saying we have a world class player that we aren't playing, so can't win either way.

You do have to play to get match fit I agree with that 200% but he's not going to get match fit this year and only 2 games to go.

Even if he did get some fitness back he will lose it all come him going home for winter if it was early season then yeah play him and get him fit for the business end bit it's Not, it's the make or break part of the year and can't carry people.

It's about the TEAM trying to win the grand final and not trying to get Ben Barba fit.

Not to shabby from Barba tonight... Looks like he's getting acclimatised.