Saints academy a genius away from win

[Fairleigh Good!]

St Helens academy were today beaten by Catalan Dragons who scored a last second winner to deny the plucky kids.

The game was dominated in large spells by the young Saints and a few of them made a serious impression. Players like Beattie and Hindmarsh were being physically battered by teenagers and the skill level in the Saints side was fantastic.

Heading for an unlikely victory through some tough defense and pacey attacking, Saints were more than hanging on, they were striding home. One outrageous dummy from Stacey Jones later and they were trapsing from the pitch with their heads down.

Some fantastic young talent heading out the production line at St Helens, I just hope Daniel Anderson appreciates this and finds room for them in the squad. Not easy with so many internationals, but hopefully he can drop a senior pro and bring in two or three of the youngsters.

 

[bartman]

They almost got the win. But Catalans nabbing the last minute victory will do them an their supporters some good.

Saints have a dilemma with so much junior talent available - instead of signing a foreign pro to take the place of any departing imports, the club really should use the opportunity to promote from within.

 

[JasonE]

I still think the pick of the crop that played v Catalans excluding regulars like Graham and Roby, is Scott Moore and Paul Clough with Steve Bannister close behind.
Moore seems to have found his niche' at hooker atm having been mainly a 13, 6 & 7. Apparently he'll play hooker for the Academy this year as well, he reminds me a bit of Gower who was shifted around a lot when he was younger while trying to find his best position. Will be interesting to see what position he finishes up as.

 

[ParraDude_Jay]

Players like Beattie and Hindmarsh were being physically battered by teenagers

Mind passing that message on to the Parramatta Eels forum? They seem to think I'm crazy for not wanting Ian Hindmarsh back at the Eels.

Some real talents in the Saints academy.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

It does beg the question "why so many imports?" Having said that Saints aren't too bad when it comes to imports. I think they could have done without Matt Gidley and I don't know why they need Jason Hooper but at least they are mostly British and obviously put a lot of effort into their academy to get them up to this standard.

 

[JasonE]

It does beg the question "why so many imports?" Having said that Saints aren't too bad when it comes to imports. I think they could have done without Matt Gidley and I don't know why they need Jason Hooper but at least they are mostly British and obviously put a lot of effort into their academy to get them up to this standard.

Couldn't agree more.

Hey ParraDude_Jay
Did you see Ian Hindy v Wakefield on Foxtel the other day ?
he was abysmal.

 

[JasonE]

Still a couple of years away but i'll very surprised if Steve Tyrer dosen't take SL by storm, he's only 17 so by the time Gidley and Talau are finished at Saints he should slot in to the centres nicely.

 

[Fairleigh Good!]

Still a couple of years away but i'll very surprised if Steve Tyrer dosen't take SL by storm, he's only 17 so by the time Gidley and Talau are finished at Saints he should slot in to the centres nicely.

Such a shame that he missed the game. I was looking forward to seeing him test himself against senior pros after watching him look the business in the academy.

 

[International RL]

Yeah if the poms are serious about winning big competitions, they need to promote young blokes. Hopefully if they get rid of promotion/relegation in 2009 (i think) then clubs will have an incentive to use academy sides and build young teams for a couple of years and not panic about staying up each year and buying up ordinary aussies.

 

[geordiesaint]

Clough will be the next one pushing through at Saints hopefully playing instead of Sculthorpe and Hooper a few times next year. Tyrer is definitely one to watch in a couple of years for sure.