Saint Toppy

or is it that he refused to respect his boss and his bosses decisions and when his boss refused to do what he wanted him to do he had a paddy and went public. Lets see how he reacts when people start questioning his decisions. His actions show he's not a man to listen & respect other people's opinions exactly like Powell. Any player who questioned his decisions found themselves being pushed out of the club

Given the stories now coming out of the NRL they should be more concerned about his ability to work as part of a team. It sounds very much like he'll be operating exactly the same way as Powell did in that its his way or the highway. There's likely to be yet another mass clearout at Wire next year, with Burgess giving the boot to every player who he thinks doesn't meet his standards. This undoubtedly then means another year of complete disruption and another year of failure on the pitch. Are the Wire board really prepared to wait until sometime in 2025 for signs that he's truly turned the club around and is likely to bring them success - can't see it, can you !!!

He's said he wants to stay in the NRL rather than come back to SL, feels he still has a lot to prove over there. Before going he had a lot of offers, now I wouldn't be surprised if a basket case of a club like the Dragons would be the only one to take a chance on him with his injury & disciplinary record.

Lomax is a great example of a consummate professional who's had to constantly adapt even from a young age. He had to adapt to play on after a fractured skull as a youngster. In his early career he struggled to put the size & weight on so went on an intensive weights programme, but this ultimately led to putting too much strain on his joints & other muscles and a constant stream of injuries. So he changed his training routine completely to focus more on flexibility rather than muscle strength and this seems to have worked for him in being able to stay relatively injury free for the last few years. Lomax & Roby are the kind of professionals you want all your youngsters to aspire to be like.

From what i've see Will Roberts will be the next half back pushing for a 1st team squad place before George Whitby, and look out for Ciaran Nolan. He looks a couple of years away just yet but has the making of a top class 9. Roby is irreplaceable so the 9 short is definately up for grabs next year, but for be the most pressing position to get sorted out is centre. Both Hopate & Hurrell are OOC so they'll definately have to bring someone in to take the 3 shirt, at least in the short term. I don't think Bruines is quite ready yet to step up and i'm not convinced by Davies at all as a centre.

Your right in that most of the players missing were backs, though I forgot to mention Mata'utia who also missed 11 league games (through combination of injury & suspension). Still even with significant numbers of the backs missing only Wigan & Salford scored more points and Saints defence was massively better than any other team.

For me the most remarkable thing about Saints winning it last year was the fact they did with so many key players missing throughout the year. The lost Grace for almost the entire season, Dodd for the vast majority of it, Hopoate played just a handful of games, Percival missed nearly half the year, Walmsley missed the run-in & play-off's and Lomax played half the season having to have a pain killing injection before every match. I, like man other people thought they'd really struggle missing those players, but they still managed to finish top and win the GF. Every team has injuries to key players at various times during a season, the key to a successful year is how well they can cope without those players.

Now confirmed Walmsley's foot injury is worse than originally thought - Gone for the rest of the season and the WC as its a 2 months+ recovery time.

Wire it is then !!!!

Thank You for identifying yourself as one of the Dom Young pantie creamers

Most of the criticism isn't necessarily at Young, more at some of the posters on here continually creaming themselves over him and calling for him to be picked for England at the WC just because he's gone to play in the NRL and didn't stay in SL. Just because he's gone to the NRL doesn't make him a great player and doesn't automatically make him international class and ready for an England call up for the WC. Young does have some talent, but is still vey raw and make an awful lot of rookie mistakes and errors. Not just handline errors & missed tackles but poor reads of the play which many young inexperience players do. He still needs a lot more development before he reaches the level required for an England place.

Except in the Manly game it would see where he couldn't be bothered !!

Not sure he would have made any difference at all. The week before against Manly his first couple of carries he got absolutely smashed and driven backwards each time. He also made some pretty poor defensive reads in that game, but his biggest fault was the play just before HT. Manly broke down the left and Young was stranded taking nobody. Thats fine players make poor defensive reads, but its the fact he just gave up on the play and never attempted to try and cover back or get back into the defensive line, he just slowly walked back. Luckily for them the play broke down and Manly didn't score (though did get a penalty and took the 2), but its was Young's complete failure to even try to get back thats the most worrying.

Addo Carr of his Melbourne days absolutely, on current form, doubtful. He's been awful this year and has probably made more mistakes in this 1 season than in his entire time at the Storm. As for Burton, I just dont get the hype. The Aussie commentators cream themselves every time he puts up a high kick but other than that I can't say i've been that impressed with him as a 6, though he does look a lot better as a centre.

They absolutely wouldn't. Aside from taking Thompson back and may Pangai Jnr I can't think of any other Dogs player i'd put in the Saints team over the current players we have