I've always thought Long was more likely to bang one over from the line than from in front of the sticks.

Certainly when it is a key kick anyway.

Long also provides the added advantage of a quality scrum half by scoring and making a decent share of tries.

You are bringing barry ward back?

Who cares?

i really noticed his poor goalkicking towards the end of last season...could he have some kind of 'yips' problem?

Longy has scored about 153 tries, his kicking of the 1000 goals has been on a part time basis. For 4 seasons it use to be scully for 400+ goals also Lyon kicked quite a few.
So if Longy kicked all through his match career his potential would have been closer to 1500 goals.
Does that mean people are casting judgement on his 2009 performance.

Spot on, I'm in the latter category

but the game needs the Long, Newton, Jimmy Lowes characters.

Newton, how the hell is Newton a charachter????

Or do you mean we need someone to loathe?

he cant kick for s***, i seriously believe that if he wasnt such a prima donna, he would of been dropped as kicker a long time ago

Shows how much you know. Its a well documented fact he hates kicking and doesnt want to kick but does so because there is no one else.

no wonder he hates it hes just not that good at it, theres got to be several people in the squad who are better than him, the scary part is that if they had a better kicker then theyd prob be unbeatable

Saints aren't good enough to carry on missing GK's, it will start to count in the bigger matches can't keep scoring 3 tries for the oppositions 2.

2 from 2 suggests we are....

While the rest of Super League continues to march backwards at a pace, that won't matter.

The only sides who look to have improved are Shudds, who we beat away and Hull, who are looking at fielding 13 NRL players.

In praise of Long ... timesonline.typepad.com/rugby_le ... nd-sh.html

In praise of Long ... timesonline.typepad.com/rugby_le ... nd-sh.html

Wow.....talk about Owning™!

Four or so years ago I would have no problem including Newton in that list. But the Long/Gilmour (as well as a number of other blatant head shots) incident left a nasty taste in my mouth.

Apart from Long has played 2 seasons more than Deacon and Deacon wasn't first choice kicker until 2002

Well edited.

Scully was our first choice kicker for 3 1/2 seasons and Lyon for a season after that accruing about 450 goals between them. That time Longy was just part time.
Just imagine if he did it full time and showed some interest in kicking he would be setting superleague records for kicking. So you got to say his 1000 + goals have been on a casual basis, I think he has also achieved 1 of his 3 Lance Todd Trophies on his kicking performance.
So when people slag him off for being a bad goalkicker...people need to know the facts.

kicking alot of goals is more reliant upon how many trys your team scores rather than the kicking skill imo

And we score fecking gazillions!!!!!!!! (Well, 218 last season)



Despite only having the main kicking duties at Saints for half of his 12 seasons at the club, he is still our second highest points scorer in history.
940 goals, 20 drop goals and 152 tries is not to be sniffed at.

Longy stopped being our first choice kicker in 2004, in the seasons 2005 and 2006 he did very little goal kicking, that honour was given to Scully.
As far as trys are concerned he is no 1 in superleague from a half back point of view.

Also Cunningham is the top hooker for tries in superleague.
Also Wellens is the top full back for tries in superleague.
Also Gardener is the top winger for tries in superleague.

A season start that Penrith fans could only dream of.



It is only fair that Saints get 4 for a try and other teams get 6, it evens out the competition. It would work better than a salary cap any day of the week.

Tom Briscoe, yeaman, G. Horne, Calderwood, Horne, Thorman, Dowes, Radofrd, Tickle, Washbrook, Thackray, Burnett - played both games so far