As per previous posts Saints need to get the best out of their juniors. Saints now need to create a marquee not bring one in. Penrith did this, no reason why Saints cannot. They have just as many if not more juniors than Penrith. Poor systems were in place for so many years under dud coaches so hopefully Flanno gets the best out of this and Saints are in good shape for years to come like the Sharks are now. If we see Saints still bottom 4 next season but all the junior teams competing in finals then that is a good step. All eyes will be on the junior development seeing they have no luck in the market of luring NRL players. With a new club coming in, it will be even harder.
I am hoping the Couchman's, Sloan and Lomax in a year or so are the 4 marquee's that every team will want in their team but will be committed to Saints and putting pride back in the jersey.
JDB prior to court case was the best back in the comp. Hopefully Flanno can bring him back to his dominant best. I also do believe that Jacob Liddle will surprise the NRL next season. He was good under a poor coach in 2023. He will be even better under Flanno and I feel he may be a 80min hooker for Saints. He just has to stay injury free.
You cannot blame Saints as they are trying to land the big fish and throwing big dollars at players but unfortunately the damage Hook and Hunt have done is going to take so much longer to repair which we are slowly finding out. The BOD screwed up big time with that stupid decision of extending the dope an extra year. Both would have been gone by now as Hunt would have also left to be with his pal.