Season Preview 2025

The Story Of 2024

If you want the shortened version then it’s an alarming slide into mediocrity. But let’s see if we can add some detail. After all, alarming slides into mediocrity don’t just happen. Do they? 

Saints had suffered a last gasp semi-final heartbreaker of a moment in 2023. Paul Wellens’ side’s last act of that season was to helplessly watch on as Sam Tomkins sliced through some tired defence to go over and put Catalans Dragons in the Grand Final. It ended a run of four consecutive Grand Final wins for the red vee, but at that time there were few people doubting that they would be right back in contention at the sharp end of 2024.

Saints did make the playoffs - extending their record of being the only side to have reached the Super League knockout stages since the concept was reintroduced in 1998. But the scraping on their way in was audible as they finished in the sixth and final spot available. It was their lowest league position in 30 years since finishing eighth in the 1993/94 season. 

A chronic lack of pace scuppered Saints time and again, particularly during a five-game losing streak between June 23 and July 26. Champion sides don’t tend to go on five-game losing streaks. Pessimism prevailed. Despite the aforementioned lack of pace Wellens did not escape criticism. His religious devotion to the conservative style of play employed successfully by his predecessor Kristian Woolf was also a huge factor in the slump. If you haven’t got the speed to go around your opponents then you had better come up with something better than five drives and a kick. 

As we have seen before the goodwill offered to a playing legend while he attempts to iron out the flaws only goes so far. You get the feeling that 2025 is a decisive year for Wellens. The arrival of another ex-player - Lee Briers - after successful spells as number two at Wigan and Brisbane has given many hope that if nothing else we’ll see a bit more in the way of entertainment around the back of Tesco this year. But even if that happens will it be enough to keep Wellens in charge?

In the end Saints’ exit from the playoffs - although arriving early at the first hurdle - was surprisingly respectable. Those who feared a shellacking from third placed Warrington under first year head coach Sam Burgess instead saw their side go down by just a single point. George Williams’ drop goal proved the difference. Gallant indeed, but viewed in the context of being 16-4 up at one point it could also be argued that it was a massive disappointment. 

Warrington also ended Saints’ interest in the Challenge Cup, only rather more emphatically at the quarter-final stage. Wire came to town in mid-April and ran all over Saints to the tune of a 31-8 trouncing. In a season of disappointments this was perhaps the biggest. Saints had already suffered defeats to Salford Red Devils and Catalans Dragons at that point but few saw the thrashing handed out by Warrington coming.

The 2025 Recruits 

With a squad that is ageing (and slowing down) before our very eyes there has been some attempt to address that with the recruitment for 2025. Kyle Feldt isn’t a young man but he has been one of the most consistent wingers in the NRL during the last 12 years with the North Queensland Cowboys. He’s pretty much a like for like replacement for Tommy Makinson on the right flank. 

Makinson’s 14-year stay with the club yielded five Super League Grand Final wins, a Challenge Cup success and a World Club title. And the small matter of being the best player in the world of international rugby league in 2018, thus picking up the Golden Boot. When he wasn’t in the lineup you noticed. Now he’s in France with Catalans Dragons it’s vital that Feldt brings his best form.  If he does then he will do the hard yards under territorial pressure and he’s a fine finisher. Not Makinson, but an able replacement.

Addressing that chronic pace issue Saints have also acquired fullback or stand off Tristan Sailor from Brisbane Broncos. Son of former Broncos and Australia winger Wendell Sailor, Tristan’s speed is a desperately needed asset. The fact that he made only 16 appearances across two seasons at the Broncos is a slight worry, but then Saints don’t have Reece Walsh and Ezra Mam standing in his path to selection. The hope is that he will gel effectively with Jack Welsby and make Saints much more dynamic in attack. 

The final recruit is another speedster from the NRL but of the English variety. Lewis Murphy made his name at Wakefield Trinity, impressing enough to catch the eye of the Sydney Roosters scouts. Sadly, he failed to make an appearance for the Roosters in the whole of 2024 and has returned home. Still, we’ve seen enough from his time in West Yorkshire to know that he can shift a bit. His arrival is a boost to those people sick of seeing safe but unspectacular Jon Bennison occupying a wing spot. When he didn’t play in 2024 we were left with Tee Ritson, a slower than advertised operator for whom the Championship is arguably the definition of a ceiling. 

So Who’s Out?

As well as Makinson there are a couple of other notable departures. Lewis Dodd believes his own press enough to have taken the bold step of joining South Sydney Roosters while Sione Mata’utia has retired from the game aged 28 to pursue other opportunities. 

The buzz around Dodd began when his nerveless drop goal secured a World Club Challenge victory over Penrith Panthers at the start of 2023. Since then his overall contribution has been underwhelming. The debate raged throughout last year on the reasons for that. Was it the achilles injury he suffered a couple of years ago or was it the shackles placed on him and the team by the uber conservative Wellens? We will no doubt find out by keeping an eye on the NRL this term. 

Meanwhile for Saints it means that one of Sailor or Welsby will be paired in the halves with 34 year-old Jonny Lomax, currently held together by blue-tac. Still, Moses Mbye is still around and he was arguably Saints’ most impressive field general throughout 2024. If all that fails then youngster George Whitby waits in the wings.

The other members of The Departed are a mixture of fringe players, youngsters and recruitment disasters. In the latter category Waqa Blake had a fine NRL career behind him when he arrived at Saints at the start of 2024. Yet to call his performances underwhelming would be a monumental understatement. 

The former Penrith Panther and Parramatta Eel endured a woeful year in Super League. We all remember his mystifying failure to score at Leigh when given the freedom of the Sports Village. That was the nadir but the truth is that his one season at Saints was littered with performances which can only be described as half arsed.  He was so poor in fact that he has not been able to secure a deal with either a Super League or NRL club and will spend 2025 with the once mighty Bradford Bulls. Which is kind of fitting when you consider how far both player and club have fallen. A perfect metaphor, the pair deserve each other.

Sam Royle was always going to struggle to get game time in a crowded second row unit. Even with Mata’utia gone he still had Curtis Sironen, Joe Batchelor and Matt Whitley to contend with. Royle made 28 first team appearances following his 2021 debut. He is a steady performer who never let anyone down in that time but nor did he convince you that he was ever going to dislodge any of his more illustrious colleagues from the 17 on a regular basis. 

Ben Lane (2 appearances) and McKenzie Buckley (1 appearance) are the others to leave the club although it has recently been announced that Jonny Vaughan and Dayon Sambou have agreed to join Wigan from 2026 when their contracts expire. In the context of new deals for Harry Robertson, Whitby, Noah Stephens and Owen Dagnall it is perhaps a surprise to see Vaughan make the move. He had a breakthrough year in 2024 making eight first team appearances. 

What’s The Expectation?

There is always a high level of expectation at Saints even if the evidence of the previous season would seem to advise caution. When you have won as regularly as Saints have and when you’ve never missed a playoff series you don’t get a pass for a season or more of quiet underachievement. There’s no time for cruising when you’re serving a fan base which has developed an increasing amnesia on what it’s like to be also rans.

Bringing in Briers and former Bradford boss Eamon O’Carroll to help Wellens has only heightened the optimism among many. And besides, we can’t be as bang average as we were last year, can we? 

What Will Really Happen?

If Saints repeat last season’s ennui then it’s very hard to see Wellens making it through the year. The anticipated change to a more entertaining style of play may help him but ultimately it’s a results business. On the plus side Super League hasn’t been at its strongest in recent years. Without a spark Saints may still prosper just because of the sheer depth of their squad compared with most others. And can the likes of Hull KR and Leigh go again and feature in the big playoff games come September? 

A policy of cautious optimism might be the path for Saints fans to take. A pre-season shoeing by Salford in Morgan Knowles’ testimonial hasn’t steadied any nerves even if that was a Saints side shorn of half of its regulars. There’ll be huge pressure on Wellens to overturn that result when the Red Devils come to Saints for the Super League opener in a week’s time (February 15). He won’t shirk it, but as we sit here today there have to be major doubts about his long term future at the helm.