Easy to forget Welsby is still only 22; still plenty of development in his game and he knows that. Given Wigan fans saw the rise of Tomkins (the talented one not the other two) I’d have thought Wigan fans would have understood that maverick and smart arris are the different sides of the same coin, depending on the colour of your shirt. Like him or loath him his time is now; he’s top of the try assist charts, becoming ever increasingly senior in the Saints squad and his personal highlights reel is basically complete already, scoring down under in the WCC, at Wembley and the match winner in the 2020 GF.

Obviously being in the hunt for a historic quadruple makes next week huge for us, but it’s the trophy of least concern for me. Given how congested the league is at the moment I don’t think the usual “just get top two; get the home semi and plan from there” is going to work; it’s going to take a run of performances and most likely finish top. We have both an advantage and a hinderance at the moment with the game in hand. If us being knocked out the cup gets the game arranged as not a midweek dirge, then that’s a small silver cloud.

We won the GF last year with long term injuries to Grace, Dodd and Walmsley. The year before it was Fages and Bentley. If we lose Lomax, of course it’s a blow, but we adjust every year, and it’s far more about combinations of injuries which become a concern. Last year ahead of the CC semi we lost Hopoate, Bennison, Dodd and Lomax’s left arm all in rapid succession. The spine was our weakest depth already and we ended up with Davies in the halves and having to hide Lomax at fullback so he avoided contact on his arm. Still took a poor individual performance from a kid on the wing and a rogue one armed pass from Lomax for us to lose that day. Fast forward and we beat Warrington with basically our first choice pack and backline missing. Attitude is everything at Saints this year and we should be confident if Wellens gets that right (that I am less convinced on…) irrespective of who is or isn’t on the field

I was definitely on the fence with that one - whether its 3 or 4 players it demonstrates the tough spot the St Helens squad is in. 

Agree with you there, he is on the downward curve although to be fair was superb last night. He has been used as a battering ram for years and is most certainly injury prone. 

Also agree with our set up. We have very few 22-28 aged players, Welsby and Lees being the only ones of note. We either have ageing players past their best- Lomax, Walmsley, Paasi, Clark, Sironen, Percival etc or ones who are very young with potential- Whitby, Robertson, Dagnall, Stephens. 


It's the 22-28 age range we desperately need.

They're where we found ourselves under Lam, with guys like Smithies, Havard, Partington, Shorrocks, Byrne etc being asked to do a seasoned pros job, guys like Clubb and Lockers being pretty much done and a number of players who just weren't up to standard. We compounded the issue trying to sign somebody like George Burgess to sit in that in between age group as well. A few Saints fans liked to revel in telling us none of our players were good enough and just as then, there are players in this Saints side that can take them forward and things can turn quickly but they've some rebuild job on in this next year or two. 

7 straight defeats to Wire, 3 each to us and Rovers, 2 straight to Leigh. Saints this season are mostly winning the games that they should win but not the games that they need to win if they expect to be thereabouts for trophies. I don't like to dump on coaches but I don't see how Wellens stays beyond this season without an absolute miracle. But, as others have said, this isn't a situation a change of coach will easily fix. It needs a squad rebuild as well.

I almost feel guilty questioning his inclusion Stu, as I think he probably would be in that group were it not for his wholehearted playing style. Even last night he was still throwing himself at the defence harder than most of your forwards! He's still a talent when fit but, unfortunately for him and Saints, he's not at his best often enough.