Stu do you worry that this trip would put Welsby, Dodd, Knowles etc in the shop window for the NRL?

Think a big factor in your recent success is keeping the core team together and not losing them to the NRL/Union (something the 2010s Wigan team couldn’t)

From what I’ve read it looks like Dodd is keen for the NRL in 2025.

Massively so. Also looking at their social media they absolutely love the lifestyle there. I know that they have been before with Saints Academy but this is completely different, they now have the better facilities, hotels, eating at better restaurants etc, worlds apart from an Academy tour that they more or less had to fund themselves by raising money.

To be honest I wouldn't blame them either. Take Welsby for example, a 21 year old kid who has already won x4 GF's and a CC. What else is there for him to achieve at Saints? Go and test yourself over there and if it doesn't work out then he's still young enough to come back here and get a marquee deal somewhere.

I know that some of the Aussies were particularly impressed with Dodd's cameo. Looks to me like he has put a bit of size on in the off season so looks even better. He'll be like a new signing as we were playing superbly up to him going off on Good Friday last year and being done for the season.

Yeah agree on the Welsby point.

NRL scouts will have noted the form of 21-year-old St Helens half Lewis Dodd - with a shortage of class number sevens in Australia, he could find some clubs knocking on his door.

Above is what Moley said in his column this morning.

In note both are out of contract at the end of 2025.

Could be some rebuilding task if they both go, especially with Lomax and Roby retiring around then.

Saints in a boat we’ve found ourselves in previously in wanting to win a WCC game but knowing that by doing so, it opens plenty of eyes over in the NRL. It’s sad for the game here that the likelihood of a British side winning a WCC just means we lose more of our best players.

If I look at it from a players POV though, they’d be mad not to go and give it a crack. I look at Welsby and Knowles in particular and why wouldn’t you want to go within the next couple of years? You’ve won everything here, you’ll get more money and a better lifestyle and you’ll get to really test where you’re at. Saints seem to be able to find ways of keeping these lads but they’ll be tested more than ever if they put in a good performance on Saturday.

I think the best guess as to when the current Saints dynasty will end would be around 2025. Roby and LMS will be gone and a number of key players will be in their mid 30s (Makinson, Walmsley, Lomax, Paasi, Hurrell) and if one or both of Dodd/Welsby leave then it may also be around that time. Id be surprised if they didnt give it a go as they would have the safety net of a Saints return whenever they wanted it.

There will be replacements when the squad starts to disband of course and no doubt they'll be good ones as they've made lots of great decisions in recent years. But 2025 would be the earliest I'd say that this current run will come to an end - it will still be incredibly challenging for the other clubs to get over the top of them in the meantime.

Agreed. I actually think that this season is our last one with this core team and the ages they are at. Nothing lasts for ever and I think that from next season onwards we will need some rebuilding and transition will follow.

Wigan will always be there and there's huge wraps on this current Academy team with by all accounts some real potential superstars in there. Warrington will come good at some point especially as they are investing in their Academy at last. Leeds are also going down the project route with some Championship players that if they get some of them right like Walmsley and Batchelor, then they will be much improved too.

As I've said before I'd love to see Welsby over there. Whilst it would weaken us I'd love him to go and kill it over there at some point.

I think it could be a year earlier. You look at the amount of rugby that the likes of Percival and Makinson have played and you'll see them picking up more injuries. Percival in particular has struggled of late and Makinson missed a few last season too.

So it's just a Friendly then ?


Best get an Asterix Ready

Let’s be honest. As much as Welsby and Dodd are fantastic SL players, there are just as many equally as good NRL players running around in reserve grade over there.

We cannot compete with the talent pool over there

Kick off time put back 50 mins due to the heat.

Suits me as I'm at CentreParcs Fri- Monday so won't have to get up as early

Wigan the only club team to ever win in Oz

Strange feeling but getting more and more behind St Helens as the week goes on - mainly because of the sense of certainty amongst Australian pundits that it will be a complete whitewash. It wouldn't be a good look for British RL if the team who's won SL four times running get run over on Saturday. The change in kick off time should help a bit - hope they're able to keep the score close at least.

We should just about catch the second half at our pub/breakfast stop on the way to HKR.

Plans already in place
If Saints are winning well cut the transmission off

Good Grief, talk about wanting it all your own way.

Why don't Saints ask Penrith to play in Shell suits and take to the field drinking Carlsberg Export super strength pushing a Pram?
You'll deffo make the Saints players feel like they're playing at home then

I'm not ashamed to admit I'm behind them.

I like to think I can recognise a quality team when I see one, and I admire quality, and since we lost all the trolls who infested this place when we were struggling under Mo and Whelan, I feel more brotherly towards their fans anyway.

They've got a job and a half on, but as someone else said, it would look dreadful for our game generally if the best side got shellacked by an Aussie team who their pundits would no doubt then claim was undercooked etc, thus rubbing it in even more.

The real downside of a Saints win would be the attention it would draw to their best players.

I'm not sure it's quite the problem it was back in the days of Wigan v Bath, but that only went west for us because up till then RU were totally confident they had the better players and it was a real wake-up call for them. The Aussies don't need that as our top players' agents are constantly marketing them down there anyway. But if Saints make a really good fist of it, it will be harder for the Phil Goulds of this world to write them off as s###e, and easier for their agents to get through the doors of the NRL's top clubs.

I understand the concern about players' heads being turned but it is what it is.

We were going to crash and burn when KC, Newlove, Scully, Joynt, Long etc retired. We're now going to crash and burn when the current lot do.

It isn't so long ago a good proportion of Saints fans were hammering Woolf for picking Jack Welsby!! The reality is the club will continue to invest in its academy and bring good players through, as will Wigan, and the more go over to the NRL and do well and make good money, the better. They deserve it, there will be other local lads coming through that we will enjoy watching.

Bloody hell i would be

If it was a choice of a solar flare and certain death or cheering on a St Helens team i would still rather reach for the sun cream and chance it.

I can sit here and say I want them to win but ultimately when the game kicks off I know I won’t. I can’t help that, it’s natural and 99.9% of their fans would feel the same if the shoe was on the other foot.

What I will say is that I want them to do well in the game and push Penrith every inch of the way. I think the whole event, with it being noted in the middle of the pre season trial team lists on Aussie websites is totally disrespectful but that doesn’t surprise me. I’m convinced Saints will want it far more and I do think they’ll go pretty close.

I must admit I'm torn as well.....

I don't know whether I want Saints to lose by a thwacking 40+

Or for Penrith to score the winner as the final hooter is sounding.

It's stuff like this that makes me wish we would just let the WCC die, it doesn't matter if the English time wins, loses, runs them close or gets battered, the aussies will find a way to spin it in a disrespectful and belittling manner.

I mean we have got to the point now where they are being disrespectful before a ball has even flown through the air. I will say though, Penrith are putting out a stronger team then i expected and they hinted at in their initial statements, so fair do's to them for that.

I will only be watching the first half anyway as then i will have to set off for a more important game, Wigan vs Hull KR!

I never think the Aussies do themselves any favours by employing these excuse-making tactics.

Among the many of the WCC fixtures I've been to, the majority, to me at least, were very fiercely contested. Certainly, no one is telling me that Manly in 87, Brisbane in 94 and St George in 2011 weren't taking it seriously. Those were epic encounters, the Brisbane fixture - at Brisbane, remember - played in front of 54,000 people. Not a bad crowd for a warm-up game.

The problem is that the Phil Goulds of this world just seem to be impervious to criticism and are lacking any self-awareness. They seem completely oblivious to how blatantly unsporting and mendacious such a denial of reality actually seems.

But that stems from innate arrogance, and that's not generally something you can cure people of.

Totally get this and to further comment on Nicky Kiss's post I would be the same in wanting Wigan to lose. No point lying and pretending that I wouldn't.

What I will say though is that my hatred for Wigan has decreased over the years, I'm not like some fans that absolutely despise them and can't give them any praise whatsoever. I'm more than happy to admit to the size of the club, the history, the Academy etc and some of the off the field stuff with some out of the box thinking.

Living in the town for over 20 years, having mates as Wigan fans, both lads going to a Wigan school, having banter with the Dads on the school run, even with their Head who is a mad Wigan fan. I wear Saints training gear sometimes at the gym and have blokes who I've never spoken to before start to talk rugby.

My mate being professionally involved at Wigan was the biggest factor as I found myself wanting them to do well enough for him to keep his job but still not to win anything

No Dylan Edwards as well as the other absentees.

18 players

Water breaks

Sounding more like a friendly.

The almighty NRL are making it feel like that is what it is. Their own website just lumps it in with all the friendlies team lists, so that shows how it’s being thought of Down Under. Making those changes just adds to that, especially running with an 18th man.

If only it wasn’t Saints playing them (or Leeds), I’d be foaming at the mouth for a Superleague win. On the plus side (if you want a Saints win) the sheer arrogance and disrespect they show will fuel Saints I’m sure.