My god. The simpletons over at redvee are getting excited by a reserve Brisbane fullback who can only get a game due to injuries and when plays is terrible in defence. A 32 year old winger with no pace, to replace another 32 year old winger with no pace, and an ex wakefield winger who played about 6 games for them and became third choice winger for the roosters reserve team. Give me strength.

You mean as opposed to a simpleton that gets excited by posting utter crap on multiple different forums, of which exactly 0 people want to hear from them?

What has Rush gambled with?

Probably money

The issue we've had and one of the many mistakes Wellens has made is his lack of rotation pre all the injuries. He had opportunities to give the likes of Robertson 20 mins here and there against London and Hull earlier in the season. We were 1st or 2nd for a long while earlier in the season and had some of the kids been integrated into a winning team with lots of experience around them, they would've been in a better position

Instead he flogged the likes of Welsby, Sironen, Clark etc and surprise surprise they've all suffered injuries. This meant that Robertson made his debut away at Wigan and whilst he did well he's suffered since by playing in a team with lots of injuries and low on confidence

What Peet has done well is to dip his young lads in and out, like Douglas, Farrimond etc rather than a concerted run of games where a dip in form can be disastrous.

I don't think its a case of the kids not being good enough, its more of a case of how they have been blooded.

A lot is made of Wigan's Academy and production line and rightly so but lost amongst this is us making the Reserves Final again (finishing top) and the Academy finishing top for the 3rd successive year and winning 11 out of 12 games. We regularly have lads selected for England so the production line is there its just not been managed well

Compare and contrast how Woolf blooded Welsby and Dodd and its night and day. They played a variety of positions in a winning team full of confidence and experience

The problem with this, Stu, is Peet has had a winning team full of confidence to bring them into. Woolf the same. I'm not sure Wellens has. Whether that's his fault, injuries, a team not operating at previous levels or a mixture of all of these is subject to debate. Even when you were winning early doors, I don't think anyone thought you were playing well, certainly in attack, or even knew your best combinations. Bennison or Ritson, is Lomax the player he was, Hurrell's weight, Blake, has Dodd properly recovered from his injury and is he already on the plane anyway, Blake, is Wellens really the man for the job, Blake again etc. etc. Meanwhile Wigan were piling trophy in trophy with a fully firing team and a settled and successful coach.

The two situations aren't really comparable and, although Wellens has undoubtedly a part to play in that, I think it's equally a combination of factors that have contributed to the situation.

Just seen the highlights of Brisbane and Melbourne was that Sailor at fb for Brisbane or Adam Quinlan? Absolutely embarrassing defence

Brisbane were awful full stop, they should be ashamed.

I thought that the broncos would kick on from last year, but they have have gone backwards. Talk is all about sailor playing fullback maybe he is heading for a role in the half's.

Yeah you had the same reaction at the beginning of the season when I said Hull KR would be closer to a trophy than St Helens. Not so funny now is it?

It isn't biased at all. Robertson may well come good and every young full back looks good running the ball out but he has made more mistakes than had positive influences on any of the games so far. Anyone who suggests otherwise is complete and utter biased nonsense I'm afraid

Did I? Me personally?

Again you're talking complete rubbish on Robertson. Just another example of stubborn bias and refusal to say anything positive about a rival. Extremely small minded approach. An 18 year old kid scoring a try and getting MOM last week, getting 3 assists in 1 game a couple of weeks before plus creating the winning moment against Salford. But yeah, no signs of potential.

When he is one of the leading players in the comp and playing for England in a couple of years we will come back to this and talk about him showing no potential.

To be fair YG that game was so poor last week that you could have got the MOM award

Anyway, the lad does have potential but where is he going to fit in over the next couple of seasons?

I would imagine that similar to when Welsby came through, he will get 5-10 games across the backline next season, injuries permitting

I'm hoping that a good off season will see him come back having putting on some weight and much stronger because he really is skinny and this isn't helping him at this level.

Yeah Stu has nailed it.

I think he’ll effectively be next in line if any of our 1,6,7 are injured and may even get time at centre like Welsby did.

At 18 it’s not critical he has a starting shirt yet. He’ll work his way through and find his place in good time.

Bit of weight on him, I think he could kill it at centre with his footwork.

It’s not critical. It will be interesting who plays 1and 6 next season. If I was selecting the team, Welsby would be full back, I think the jury is out regarding Sailors defence. Obviously, if 1,6, and 7 play well, and stay fit, then the lad is going to either play a lot of his rugby in the reserves or on loan.

A big reason I say it’s not critical is when you look at Jack Welsby’s trajectory as a direct comparison. He made 1 performance in his debut year at the same age, followed by 11 the next. Robertson will probably surpass 11 this year so he’s already ahead of where Welsby was.

If our back line next year at full strength is:

Welsby/Sailor
Feldt
NEW SIGNING
Percival
Murphy
Welsby/Sailor
Lomax

Then Robertson could be next in line for any of 1,6,7 or even centre and he will pick up plenty experience and appearances covering various positions like Welsby did. Let's not forget Welsby's most famous moment in a Saints shirt actually came from him playing left centre that night! So I am not worried about Robertson having to have a starting spot nailed down just yet. He can comfortably rack up double figures again whilst playing understudy next season. He’ll still only be 19 at that point.

I’m confident the club will feed him in the right way for the long term good.

Prediction - St Helens will go to Warrington in the playoffs and win. Wigan v St Helens in the semi finals, Hull KR v Leigh in the other one.

After watching today's Wire v Saints game I can't see Saints beating them anywhere, home, away or neutral.
I do think Leigh at home will beat HKR next week.

All comes down to Leigh v Saints - now Saints are almost full strength it could mean they play Salford at home in the playoffs.

Either way I'm convinced it will end up with a Wigan v Saints semi final.

I am informed that Welsby is not a happy bunny at Saints.

Stories like that always seem to appear when sides have an iffy season. In terms of Welsby, he's had a funny season really. He's never quite looked at his best but is good enough to still have major impacts on games. It's not a Saints/Wigan thing to say that I think he should've gone to the NRL. He's achieved everything in this country now and a move out of his comfort zone can help him to keep progressing. Everyone is different and he may well be a home bird but he surely regrets it in later life if he doesn't go and see how he gets on.

He’s allegedly had a bust up with some of the senior players.

He probably has. Things like this happen at a lot of clubs. Look at Utd- Keane didn’t speak to Giggs for 6 months, didn’t speak to Sheringham or Schmeichel. Sheringham and Cole didn’t utter a word to each other for years.

Welsby certainly looked happy talking about the departing players on the Saints goodbye videos and singing the team song last night.