We had 10 players missing last week, how do you bring them back into the team without making changes?

Radford needs to keep dropping those that aren't reaching the standards. What good is it if he just decides to let things slide now? He'll lose any respect he's gained from the players. If players continuously fail to reach the required then they are moved out. This culture at our club has to stop, players have been allowed to coast for years. Yeaman being a prime example.

Can you really see Radford shipping out his mate Yeaman

Radford knows who can't tackle - the problem is there's no one to take their place.

tbf yeaman was far from one of the worst players tonight!

Lack of a long-term plan with transfers and contract extensions under Sharp, Agar & Gentle and under Hetherington & Pearson has played a large part.

We still haven't effectively replaced Cooke 7 years on! and i've lost count of the amount of players we've paid to go early.

I appreciate that the changes to the exchange rate and tax rules, and NRL salary cap means its much harder to get quality Aussies & Kiwi's to come over...but we seem to panic buy year after year. Little thought is put in to what we want the team to look like in 2-3 years time and we must be the only team in SL/NRL to spend more money on 2nd rowers and wingers than halves and hookers. Just about every other team gets 6, 7 & 9 sorted then builds from there. We just panic buy a load of squad players and try and fit them all in.

So.... Out of the cup at the first round and struggling to stay with the top 8 after a third of the season, yep I'm convinced!!!!

Yeaman's a lost cause now, this young crop coming through need to grow in a culture that doesn't accept mediocrity.

Yeaman has been finished for a long time. We need a settled pair of quality half backs, a quality winger and two strike centres.

Our squad is not good enough and is made much worse by having an out of his depth coach (again) who thinks he can bully his way through the season. I don't think (or hope) that he'll see it out.

Answer to a different question, that.

Can you see [iRadford[/i shipping out his mate, Yeaman?

No. (even though he is e)

And therein lies (partially) our problem.

Yeaman is a prime example of bad contract decisions by Hull, clubs like Saints only hand out 1 year deals to anyone who is over 30, even if they are a club legend, even if they are playing well...they keep their options open in case that player becomes old and past it quickly. Hull give out new deals out of sentiment, we extended Lynch's contract a year early for example but early in to the 2nd year of his deal (never mind the extended 3rd year) he was looking knackered. We're lucky Cas wanted him as otherwise we'd have been paying him this year to play a very limited role.

I reckon he'd love to. Where does this 'mate' stuff come from? I (sort of) know them both and they're hardly best buddies, no more than Radford and Houghton are. Radford knows Kirk isn't top class, but we just don't have any other option at the moment, Ben Crooks is woefully out of form and Arundel isn't good enough.

Saints signed Willie Manu on a two year deal.

The bin man is our best three quarter.

By far, love this guy.

they do occasionally give longer offers out yes, I believe Meli got 2 years a couple of years ago. But this is rare, and even club legends like Long only get 1 year offers, which given that he did ok in 2010 and looked shot in 2011 was the right decision by them.

I realise that no club has a crystal ball, and that some players simply won't join at all unless a longer deal is offered...but I'm not aware of any club paying off and releasing players at the rate we do.

And if you look on the saints board there are many saints fans who cry foul the saints "sentimental" decision to renew "club legend" Paul Wellens contract for a further year over the off season (and they're gonna hit the wall when it happens again this year

) - but why let facts get in the way

I saw him first. Reserve your love for Joe.

Seriously, Talanoa is quality and requiring better service. Outside Joel Moon he'd be scoring tries for fun. Great work rate out the back too.

Although last week Yeaman came good with a decent performance he should hever have been on the teamsheet in the first place after his shambolic effort against Widnes. The fact that Radford so publicly failed to put his words into practice after his outburst only four days previously makes me doubt his commitment to team selection on merit. That was his chance to demonstrate that the proof was indeed in the pudding and he didn't take it. And he did have alternative options at centre last week.

Rightly or wrongly, the suspicion that Radford has favourites is therefore sown - by his own hand.

Our club's auto-renewal of contracts to players like Yeaman and Horne has stifled our recruitment for far too long.

Our last few seasons of recruitment and retention have been absolutely god awful and handing out ridiculous contracts to substandard players like Crookes, Arundel, Horne, Yeaman and many others who have now thankfully left the club, has left us where we are now.

Well we are not going to get relegated and we are hardly going to be challenging for the league title or the GF so if these players are not good enough why not get some of the youngsters in. Give them the game time and experience of the top flight level they need to move onto the next level. Or are our options that poor when you look outside the main 25?

Look, O'Meley's gone and everything. I saw Tally-ho first.



He'll be a club favourite without a doubt, and yes, our best 3/4 so far and getting better all the time.

Nobody comes close to Joe!