So, tonight was Longs last game for Saints, surely this now signals the beggining of the end of the self-dubbed "Entertainers". Personally I can't wait to hear the first scouse "but we lost a lot of good players at the same time, and we couldn't recover straight away, you wouldn't understand"

Nope, us Wigan fans would know NOTHING about the demise of a good team through losing too many key players to quickly



Does anyone else wonder whether Eastmond has what it takes to lead Saints round the park like Long? I think the scousers have lacked direction when Long hasn't been playing this season, and if Eastmond can't then who else have they got that can do that job? Pryce certainly doesn't look up to it.

Thoughts?

Matty Smith maybe??? but I think they could now be in decline.

wouldnt it be best to see what happens next season first?

As for eastmond this season when long was out they lost a ton of games so this season no he doesnt have what it takes but next season it will be sink or swim for him he may well step up we will see

Leeds are still champions and will for the next 2-3 years. Who's era ended? Saints era ended in 2007.

In Eastmond & Graham they still have 2 outstanding players. Scott Moore (is still a saints player I think), and they still have Roby and Wilkin. But Pryce just doesn't look interested last night Stevo was praying for him to do something, truth is he hasn't done anything for a long time. They might have to spend big to get back to the top. But I think they have been in decline for a long time.

Dont miss this:

[urlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/oct/10/leeds-st-helens-super-league-grand-final1[/url

I think you will find we won most games with eastmond at 7.

The bulls away, Wigan home, Warrington away and quins away being the stand out wins.

He also was the match winner against Warrington and Wigan.

Long found a novel way to make himself the centre of attention – as the victim of a high tackle from Rob Burrow, his pint-sized opposite number.

Thats just plain wrong !!

They have been entertaining me loads in the past 3 years grand finals

While in decline I don't think they will go down to the level we were at unfortunately. I think they will just come down to our level now. Only Leeds to decline now and the salary cap will have done its job of bringing the best teams down rather than the poorer teams improve.

In the 6 games you played whilst Long was out didn't you win 3 and lose 3?

Must have a selective memory

My father used to talk about "eras"
There was the mid war era when Wigan had a wingman called Johnny Ring who one season scored I think 68 tries.
Then there was the immediate post war era when Hudds had a good team.
Now we have the Super League/Salary Cap era.
What is obvious though through these "eras" there is one constant.
That Wigan are the most successful club in the game having won more trophies than any other club.
We do need to add to the total and soon but that fact still remains true.
Lets hope IL/MM/SW can keep it that way!

A typical scathing Andy Wilson article.

Each week he picks out someone or some club he doesn't like, and has a catty go at them. What's makes this one unusual is that it's Sean Long and Saints who are in the firing line. Granted, it's difficult to feel any kind of empathy for Sean Long at the best of times, and after his antics of this last week the holier-than-thou Guardian columnist was always going to line him up for a righteous pop. But there was no mention there, I notice, of the ridiculous video ref decision near the end, which took the game out of Saints' reach. Even as a Wigan fan I was shocked by that one.

I thought they were level

Ian Smith should have been VR at the GF. He's been doing well as VR.
As soon as Bentham was announced I said he'd mess up.
The Smith try was ludicrous, he was well in front when the ball was kicked.
Why didn't Bentham give Saints a penalty try when Webb went in knees first to stop Gardner? It was Webb's foul play that stopped Gardner from scoring so why not a pen try?

There were certainly a couple of incidents that massively helped Leeds out, and yet Wilson's article implies that, because Ganson was the referee, the officials were assisting Saints.

That said, I agree with him that appointing Ganson to control a match like that was fraught with danger - for Ganson's credibility as much as for the game's. I don't know whether the worst referee there's ever been - i.e. Cummins - was behind the decision to stop worrying about a ref's place of origin, but it was a bloody stupid one, and it would have been very typical of a man who [idid[/i appear to favour St Helens whenever he was in charge of Wigan v Saints fixtures.

I also thought he was level. However, things like this even themselves out don't they?



It's just that saints have a long way to go before they are anywhere near equal on the dodgy decision front. IMO of course.

Actually the constant you say of Wigan having won more than anyone else only occured some 60 years after RL was born.
Uptil then Huddersfield were the most successful RL team.

What you say willis!

Who bloody asked you?

There was a great quote from Eddie during the match
"Looks like Sean Long will end his Saint Helens career as a loser"

I don't think it was their era. I think at the moment it is Leeds. Three Grand Finals in a row in the salary cap era is an admirable achievement. Still I don't think it will be an end of the Saints/Leeds era until teams catch them up such as us and Warrington.

I think they have their key players replaced. Kyle Eastmond for Sean Long and Scott Moore for Keiron Cunningham. They're in good shape for me there. It is just the forwards they might have some trouble with IMO.

Just on those two understudy's you've mentioned, for me Eastmond is a completely different type of player to Long, there's no doubting he's a game breaker and a great individual but he lacks the kicking game and organizational skills that Saints will miss by loosing Long.

Moore while a good player isn't in the class of Cunningham and nothing he's shown me says he ever will be, so while they do have replacements they're not in the same ilk of the one's there loosing. I personally though that Lunt was the better hooker of the two at the Giants.

I will only say its over if they have a poor season next year.

Speaking to loads of Leeds and Saints fans on the train yesterday and they all thought that Wigan were the team to be feared next year and that we would be the next team to have a dominant few years