Saint Toppy

By attack you mean grab !! Lees lost the ball and it was loose. Wright tried to pick it up and Lees grabbed him to pull him back and stop him from picking it up. The grab pulled him in the opposite direction to which he was going to pick up the ball causing him to twist and get the ankle injury. If he'd have grabbed him by the shirt and not round the head then it would just have been a penalty for 'holding back' and not even a charge

I think Saints will be well & truly up for this game after what happened in the SF Saints 26 - 10 Leigh with a Leigh player picking up a season ending knee injury as a result of a legs tackle. Lam & Beaumont to then declare these type of tackles to be dangerous and illegal and immediately call for the offending Saints player to be banned for 6 months

Depends which way your coming to the stadium. Its free parking virtually all along Sherdley Rd. and in the various retail car parks along there like Screwfix. Its about a 5mins walk from parking here.

Saints have now confirmed that Bruines is leaving to join Wire. Good luck to him, pity he never kicked on and started to fulfill his potential while at Saints.

Leeds Academy was a fair way adrift in league points and missed out on the top 4 play-off's this year (Saints finished top and play Hull in the 1st SF and Wigan finished 2nd and play Wire), and at Reserve level the top 2 were Saints & Wigan who will contest their GF. If you look at the Academy roses matches in recent years the Lancs teams have been dominated by Saints & Wigan players and Yorkshire haven't managed a single win in years against them. Leeds & Smith may be starting to turn things around a bit now but their 1st team is paying the price for failings at that level in previous years.

Not a great signing on recent form. Looked absolute class at the Panthers and when he first joined the Eels but i'd say the last 3 seasons have been pretty poor for him. Hopoate is OOC though there was an additional 1Yr option on his contract believed to be in the clubs favour, which I understand they have decided not to take up. I guess he may still stay though if they can't find a suitable replacement

Got to agree with most of this. Leeds 'golden era' had teams with a core of home grown players which they supplemented with some pretty decent signings. What seems to have happened is they've dropped the ball somewhat with their junior development. Yes they're still bringing players through but for whatever reason they just don't seem to be of anywhere near the same quality as they have had previously. You look at the young players who have come through into their 1st team over the last 5 years or so and I cant see any of them who are anywhere near the quality of past players like Burrow, McGuire, Hall, Sinfield, McDermott, Diskin etc. They've ended up with spine players like Myler, Austin & Sezer and now next season Frawley. Whatever way you look at it thats a massive step down from what they've had when they were successful. For Leeds I can't see that changing anytime soon either. The quality coming through the academies of Wigan, Saints and even now Wire look far better than that coming through at Leeds and in much greater numbers.

Afraid not your wrong in this instance. Saints raised a query with the RFL earlier this season after the Lees / Wright incident, and they confirmed that any injury a player sustains is now taken into consideration. If a player sustains an injury as a result of foul play then a higher level of punishment is given. Your out of date and basing it on last seasons rules for assessing punishments for foul play.

Sadly yes. Was told earlier that Saints are talking with Waqua Blake for a move here in 2024 but struggling to agree terms as he'll have to take a massive pay-cut from his current $1/2M Yr NRL salary. If someone had told me 3Yrs ago Saints were trying to sign Blake then i'd have been happy but given his poor form over the last few seasons it looks like just another NRL player coming because its their only option

Never mind, when McDonald leaves you can then sign Brenko Lee

Still not sure how you can think its a shoulder charge, the video clearly shows Hurrell's arm outstretched across Daggers chest on impact ??? As for the charge, because thats the rules this year. If the contact is made after the ball has left the hands its deemed as late and has invariably received a Grade A or B charge with a £250 fine (unless your Sam Tomkins or a Wigan player and in which case any late or high shot is deemed OK ). If there is then a resulting injury then they apply the next available sanction which is a 1 match ban. If it was late and had been a shoulder charge then he would have been getting a minimum Grade C charge and a 1-2 match ban, plus then an extra game for the resulting injury.

Have you even watched the incident ??? Before Dagger passes Hurrell's feet are planted, shoulder dipped and arm out to make the tackle. There's not a single player in the game who could have pulled out of that tackle and neither was it a shoulder charge by any definition. For once the disciplinary have brought exactly the right charge consistent with other charges throughout the season. Where players have been committed to tackles but the ball has gone they have been handing out Grade A or B charges with a £250 fine. If there's an injury resulting from that tackle they apply the next sanction up which is a 1 match ban.

It wasn't a shoulder charge at all. A shoulder charge is where a player has their arm down by their side and makes no attempt to wrap the arm in the tackle. At the point of contact Hurrell's arm is diagonally out across Dagger's chest not down by his side

I didn't think that was a particularly dirty game but then I realised Salford play Warrington next week so Cullen was always going to find plenty of Salford players to charge. Saints play Wire the week after so you can pretty much guarantee that we'll get a good half dozen charges from this weeks game against Leigh

Watched Frawley in the game against Brisbane the other week where he was awful, and the commentary team mentioned he was leaving and likely be going to SL. I thought then who would be stupid enough to take him given how utterly useless he was at the Giants and how poor he's been even as a reserve grader this year at Canberra. All they need now is to sign Brenko Lee and Leeds fans can look forward to a 3 way relegation battle next year with Cas & Fev

He got a Grade B charge which is consistent with the majority of these tackles this season. I'm assuming he got the 1 match and not just the fine because of the injury which again is consistent.

I need a hearing test then, I'm sure I can hear the Ref say "OK, OK, play on"

Behave !!! His shoulder was already dipped and his feet planted to make the tackle before Dagger released the ball and the contact was shoulder on shoulder, no head contact whatsoever. Under the current rules almost all the 'late hit' tackles like this have attracted a Grade B, £250 fine punishment this year so i'd expect the same for Hurrell. Almost irrelevant though given he went of injured and is unlikely to play against Leigh this week anyway.

I doubt he would have been playing anyway as Knowles would take his place as he was just being rested for a niggling injury this week.

Is it good business? Wire paid £185K to take him there and he’s now leaving in a free transfer. that said he’s not the player he was 4-5 years ago but whoever Saints brought in was always going to be a downgrade on Roby.

I think most Saints fans were probably expecting him to get plenty of game time especially when they've had Percival, Hurrell & Hopoate missing for long periods plus stand in centre Batchelor as well. It says a lot about where the club thinks he's at as a player when he can't get any game with pretty much every centre missing. Saints also have a pretty good young teenage centre coming through in Dayton Sambou who was Englands MOM in the recent academy game against France so I guess the club probably see more potential in him than they do in Bruines.

Hearing rumours that Wire are trying to sign Saints reserve centre Wesley Bruines. Burgess knows him as he played for South reserves for a year. Bit of a strange move for him if he does go there given there are at least 4 other centres ahead of him in Tai, Ratchford, King & Wrench TBH he's been a bit of a disappointment as he came with big raps as a youngster having loads of potential. He's been training with the 1st team squad all season and he's looked OK with ball in hand but defensively he's been absolutely awful both for Saints reserves and when on DR with Swinton. If he's going to make it at SL level then he's got an awful lot of work to do on the deficiencies in his game.

Realistically this is the last chance Saints will have to close the points difference gap with Wigan & Catalans so it will be interesting to see whether Wellens changes tactics to really go for it. Their last 3 games are against Leigh, Wire & Hull so likely to be closely fought matches. Saints need 1 more win to guarantee a top 4 finish, they need to win the next 2 to guarantee a top 3 finish, and probably need to win all 4 remaining games and rack up at least 1 big score to get a top 2 finish.

Saints should hopefully get a few more players back this week. Lees is definately back, Hurrell should be back given he could have played last week but the club decided to not risk him and give him another weeks recovery. Sironen having a fitness test on Friday and may also return but given his recurring hamstring issues I suspect they may also give him more time until they're absolutely sure he's fit.

Thinking about it I can remember another one, Jamie Foster refusing to dive onto a loose ball at Bradford and just letting them score. Think that was his last game in a Saints shirt too.