Re: Team for 2024 : Wed Oct 25, 2023 7:58 am  

Ellis won't be missing out. If he's fit and it's a big game, he'll be playing. Easily our best prop and one of the 1st 5 names on the team sheet imo.

Re: Team for 2024 : Wed Oct 25, 2023 8:07 am  

sergeant pepper wrote:

This time last year, especially waiting for us to announce Wardle, we were told it's always down to the current side to go 1st?

Either way, nothing has been announced about who he's going to, more just about him leaving.

Announced now with a decent write up.

Re: Team for 2024 : Wed Oct 25, 2023 8:31 am  

sergeant pepper wrote:

Ellis won't be missing out. If he's fit and it's a big game, he'll be playing. Easily our best prop and one of the 1st 5 names on the team sheet imo.

Really came into his own this year, took on a lot of the burden with our injuries, if only he was as big as Matautia.

Re: Team for 2024 : Wed Oct 25, 2023 10:06 am  

sergeant pepper wrote:

Ellis won't be missing out. If he's fit and it's a big game, he'll be playing. Easily our best prop and one of the 1st 5 names on the team sheet imo.

Spot on. I think there plenty of room for improvement yet as well. I think he’s the most underrated player in Superleague going off this past 12 months. In the GF, I think it was Phil Clarke who said his form had been ‘up and down’ but other than missing games, his form has just been up and up.

Re: Team for 2024 : Wed Oct 25, 2023 11:09 am  

[quote="stpatricks"]Really came into his own this year, took on a lot of the burden with our injuries, if only he was as big as Matautia.[/quote]

Sione Matautia = 6'2" 16st 4 (from Sts website)

Kaide Ellis = 6'3" 16st 6 (from Wigan website before they stopped putting those stats on)

PS Apologies if you were joking.

Re: Team for 2024 : Wed Oct 25, 2023 11:30 am  

sergeant pepper wrote:

Ellis won't be missing out. If he's fit and it's a big game, he'll be playing. Easily our best prop and one of the 1st 5 names on the team sheet imo.

Yeah I rate Ellis highly too and agree that overall he was our best prop over the season.

Puts himself about and obviously a physically fit lad. Personally I don’t mind his disciplinary record as long as he isn’t retaliating to verbals.
Havard, quite rightly, gets the plaudits because of his age and his exceptionally high level of fitness however, he’s had a few injury issues which hopefully are not going to effectively his game longer term.
Byrne for me still has the most potential. At times for me unjustified criticism has tainted his progression and I always enjoy it when he’s pitched against Walmsley when I think we see the “real” Liam Byrne.
A long long time since we had so much potential in our front row and that’s before our recent recruits.

Re: Team for 2024 : Wed Oct 25, 2023 12:12 pm  

Dai Jones wrote:

Sione Matautia = 6'2" 16st 4 (from Sts website)

Kaide Ellis = 6'3" 16st 6 (from Wigan website before they stopped putting those stats on)

PS Apologies if you were joking.

Its a joke referring back to a Saints fan saying they have no worries about their front row next year and that Matautia could play prop as he was bigger than Ellis

Re: Team for 2024 : Wed Oct 25, 2023 12:16 pm  

Itchy Arsenal wrote:

Yeah I rate Ellis highly too and agree that overall he was our best prop over the season.

Puts himself about and obviously a physically fit lad. Personally I don’t mind his disciplinary record as long as he isn’t retaliating to verbals.
Havard, quite rightly, gets the plaudits because of his age and his exceptionally high level of fitness however, he’s had a few injury issues which hopefully are not going to effectively his game longer term.
Byrne for me still has the most potential. At times for me unjustified criticism has tainted his progression and I always enjoy it when he’s pitched against Walmsley when I think we see the “real” Liam Byrne.
A long long time since we had so much potential in our front row and that’s before our recent recruits.

Byrne just needs to find his top gear a bit more often and if he can do that, he could be extremely good. His form for about 6 weeks prior to his injury was pretty special, so we just need to see a bit more of that going forward. It looks like Smithies will leave, so Byrne would be my man to help support Brad O’Neill in being the leaders of our aggression and line speed at the start of games.

Re: Team for 2024 : Wed Oct 25, 2023 12:21 pm  

I'm a big, big fan of Byrne and have been for a while. He's only recently turned 24 so loads of time for him to really reach his potential & sort out any consistency stuff.

I've said before that, if we let him go to a Salford etc then a Leeds, Wire or even Saints will be snapping him up in a couple of years time.

I really hope he stays and smashes it for us.

Re: Team for 2024 : Wed Oct 25, 2023 1:09 pm  

[quote="stpatricks"]Its a joke referring back to a Saints fan saying they have no worries about their front row next year and that Matautia could play prop as he was bigger than Ellis[/quote]

I assumed it must be. Apologies