Saint Toppy

And what about Shedingly ? Having 1 shiny new stand doesn't make it an adequate stadium. The south stand is partly closed & one the verge of falling down and the away supporters end is just a few concrete steps in the open air. Their main stand isn't much better and all we hear from the whino's is a 'promise' that they will renovate. Shedingly is 3/4 sh*t hole and the RFL should grow some balls and stop ar*e kissing Hetherington & Co and apply the same rules to Leeds as they have to the other clubs with poor stadia - A warning letter that they must renovate it or risk losing their licence !!

Players develop at different rates. Look at Joel Tompkins, years older than his brother and 18 months ago looked destined for a life in the lower leagues. Inuries gave him his chance back at Wigan and he's developed massively since

I'm pretty happy with this signing. He's not the finished article yet and I dont think Saints will see the best of him next season as there's always a bit of a settling in period when a young player leaves him hometown club where's he's spent his whole career and moves to a new one (Long, Sculthorpe & Newlove were all pretty average in their first seasons but turned out to be fantastic players). Is he currently as good as Gidley or Lyon were - no - Lyon was a freakish talent and Gidley was an established international who has seen & done pretty much everything in the game, but I do think Shenton has the potential to become a really top class centre and his style of play will fit in well at Saints.

Because Bentham is Hetherington's bit*h, he will never give a decision against Leeds whoever they're playing ! I was surprised Ganson never sent him off. The guy does make mistakes but he's one of the few Ref's who has the balls to brandish a red card. I can only guess that he didn't get a clear view of the incident (couldn't see the point of contact), sought the advice of Bentham and wasn't given any, hence had no choice but to only place it on report.

You mean like the 20,000+ wire fans who wen't to Wembley last year but have been nowhere near the HJ this season !!!

I'm sure Mr Hetherington will classify Ablett's tackle as just being 'mis-timed' and state that Bailey just has an 'unusual running style' and instruct the judiciary to clear both players of any wrongdoing

The club stuck by him with his off field troubles, so unless he's been a naughty boy again I can't see why they would wan't rid of him, especially as he's playing some of his best rugby since around 2006.

All signed on free transfers - Damn good pieces of business from the Saints board !

I thought the Bulls were skint ? where is the money coming from for the transfer fee for Pryce ?? because there's not a cat in hells chance of Saints letting him go for free !

Jeeze if these 2 are the level of your ambition then you'll be out of the play-off's for years to come. Gardner is non-existant with out top class centre inside him (he's had Gleeson, Lyon & Gidley) and Meli will cost you as many tries as he scores with some absolute howlers (though he is pretty good when he can be bothered). At Saints there will quite a bit of room left under the cap for next year. KC, Gidley, Maurie & Fozzard are definately leaving. Meli, Flannery, Dean & Wellens have not yet been offered new contracts (though I'd expect Wellens to sign one soon). With only Perry signed so far (with Shenton likely soon) there's going to be money to spare. I'd expect at least 1 more forward from the NRL to be added and huge new long term deals offered to Graham & Eastmond and other improved deals for some of the other youngsters like Ashurst, Dixon, Lomax, Foster, Emmitt & MaGennis.

Bradford cant blame this, its been tough times financially for most clubs. There's only really been Warrington & Leeds who have been splashing cash & signing players over the last few years. Look at Wigan & Saints, they've hardly made any signings (concentrating more on bringing their own youngsters through) and yet they sit 1st & 3rd on the table

and I suppose the only geometry that should get a point would be rectangular then ?

I'd like to see the Magic weekend as a 'Home Grown' Round where clubs can only select 17 players who have come through their own system's. Not only would it increase the rivalry if combined with local derbies (imagine 17 local Saints lads against 17 local Wigan lads), but it would also force clubs to invest even more in their own youth set up's. If clubs knew they didn't have 17 lads who could play 1st team and they would get a real hammering they would soon rethink their development policies.

If Shenton signes for Saints i'll be very happy. He's not in the same class as Newlove yet but he has plently of developing to do. I remember when Newy first came to Saints he was brilliant in attack but his defence was somewhat dodgey and it took another couple of years before he became a truly world class player. Hopefully Shenton will develop the same way. Saints will have a pretty decent set of backs with Shenton, Soliola, Lomax, Pryce & Eastmond in it next year.

If the bulls fans see Potter as their saviour then they're going to be very disappointed. He has experience and a fair amount of tactical knowledge but his personality (or rather lack of) means he isn't able to bond with the players and impart all that knowledge onto them. He simply isn't able to motivate and get the best out of players the way other top class coaches can. This type of personality also doesn't go down too well with ther fans and Potter's reluctance to speak to them makes him seem passionless & disinterested. He's by no means the worst coach Saints have ever had but he's a long way from being the best.

Typical lazy jounalism - Graham has already said he is looking to go to Oz and has appointed an aussie agent to find him a club but want's to see out the last year of his contract with Saints first in 2011. Good luck to him when he does go, his workrate and ability to do 80mins will go down well in the NRL.

Woeful performance from Saints bar a couple of players. Roby was great again and Lomax is really showing his class now. Catalans peppered him with the bomb all night (cant think why when Meli was on the other wing) and the kid took every single one of them under pressure, returning them with interest on a couple of occasions. As far as i'm concerned they can leave Gardner out for the rest of the season and play Lomax. The only other plus we could take from the game was the debut of Lee Gaskell. He made a couple of mistakes but scored a great individual try and also looked to have a great boot on him. Give him a year or 2 to get a bit more physical strength and I reckon he will turn out to be a top class player. Bar Roby, Clough & Graham the Saints forwards really struggled against a big Catalans 6 and the gamble of playing a half fit Puletua & Hargreaves didn't pay off. Catalans were well worth their win, their enthusiasm & attitude was far better than most of the Saints players.

Forget about opinions and look at the facts, Saints V Wigan has the biggest combined crowd (home & away fixture) and they attract the biggest TV audience. Add in the fact that between them they have won more trophies than any of the other derby clubs combined, this makes this derby the biggest by a long way !!

Some teams seem to get more than their fair share of the 50:50 calls go their way. Over the last few years Leeds have certainly had this in the big games (Millenium magic Tansey off-side try, 2009 GF Lee Smith Off-side try, last weekend against Saints McGuire knock on before the try). Over time they do tend to even themselves out. Lest just hope a dodgey 50:50 call goes against Leeds in the CC SF next month that sees them knocked out by Saints (no chance of this happening if Leeds lovers Bentham, Smith or Silverwood take charge)

He's been outstanding in U20's this year and can play 6 or 7 (though 6 is his favoured position). He absolutely took Leeds apart in the U20's game last week scoring & creating try's for fun. My only concern with him is that he's quite slightly built and may find the physical aspect of a match against the Catalans tough going, but if he can get some time & space I think he will go well.

He hasn't even had that this season, in the games i've seen him play in his kicking has been pretty average with the exception of a few good short kicks near the try line. Brough is nowhere near good enough for Internationals. He has a bad attitude on the field, causes disruption in the squad off it, and is nothing special in the skills department. There are at least half a dozen other established players i'd pick ahead of Brough and a similar number of promising youngsters.

Oh dear - Thats Bradford not making the paly-off's for (insert number of years of new coaches contract) years McDermott has a shocking record (even taking into account the limited resources he has a Quins) and Potter has reduced Saints to a "1 out" style that is boring as hell to watch. Saints have lost all their flair by having to stick to his robotic style gameplan. Actually come to think of it this style is perfect for the Bulls, they just need to go back to having a dozen 17st players in the team to make it work

The dodgey video ref's call aside, I think what really cost Saints the game were the 3 injuries during the match. Not just becasue 2 of them were the main playmakers but mainly due to the lack of rotation available in the pack in the 2nd half. There were too many player out on their feet in the last quarter and once Leeds got ahead it was nigh on impossible to come back. Had Leeds lost Sinfield, McGuire & Clarkson I doubt they would have snatched a win.

I missed the broadcast but apparently Eamon McManus was on BBC radio Manchester on Thursday night and said that the stadium contractor has been appointed this week. The name of the contractor will be announced next week along with a start & expected finish date for the stadium. About bl**dy time !!!!

No it isn't If they dont have an Academy then they have to demonstrate to the RFL that they are the ones who are developing these kids who play with the amateur teams. Maybe Lobby can enlighten us as to how exactly Leigh are developing these kids in a way that matches the level of development they would receive from playing in an Academy ? Oh and Lobby, before you give us chapter & verse about how Leigh has the best amateur teams in the country go and check the results as to which town has the best youth team (U16's in the county) - i'll give you a clue, its NOT Leigh !!!