Friday night's 34-6 home defeat by Leeds Rhinos was an unpleasant reminder of Saints' place in Super League's pecking order in 2026.
It took time for the tries to come. Saints were in the game on the scoreboard when they trailed only 6-0 after half an hour. Yet even then it was evident that they were losing the ruck. The Leeds ball carriers were making metres much more easily than those of Saints. That allowed the Rhinos to win better field position and eventually capitalise. This was no hard luck story.
Two days before the game interim Head Coach Eamon O'Carroll surprised us with inclusion of Jonny Lomax in his 21-man squad. Lomax - who announced this week that he will retire from the game at the end of the season - had previously been ruled out for the remainder of the campaign after suffering a broken jaw in June. Courage has characterised his career but this seemed bold even by his standards.
With Jackson Hastings out of the rest of the regular season through suspension and George Whitby beginning his recovery from an ACL injury Saints would have had no specialist halfback available had Lomax not put his hand up. But it was still a surprise and a slight concern to see him named in the starting lineup come game day.
Despite hanging on a little after Chris Hankinson's opening try there was evidence of the sort of grit Lomax is revered for in the early going. Even a 10-minute spell in the sin-bin for Daniel Suluka-Fifita didn't force Saints to concede again. The prop was sat down by referee Marcus Griffiths for a late hit on Presley Cassell. In fact it was Saints who went closest when Deon Cross made a sensational catch to go over in the corner but Tristan Sailor's pass was ruled forward.
If there is a moment where Leeds assumed total control it is probably Jake Connor's 20/40 kick. The stats section of the Super League website doesn't have a separate column for these rare events but what it does tell you is that Connor leads the way in 40/20 kicks with five. Nobody else in Super League has more than three.
It was part of a pretty masterful performance from Connor whose high risk approach and on-field spikiness have routinely led to accusations that he is overrated. On this evidence he is very much in the conversation for a starting berth in the England side for the World Cup in the autumn.
He ended with three assists - taking his league leading tally to 42 - and landed five of his seven attempts on goal. All but one of which were from difficult angles. One was a penalty from a long way out which he should probably have done better with than hitting the post. It was a rare blemish. Two of his assists were with the boot as he placed perfect kicks towards the Saints in-goal to allow Ash Handley and Brodie Croft to score.
As good as Leeds were once they got into their stride Saints started to crumble. The defence offered for Cameron Smith's solo try which stretched the lead to 12-0 was barely worthy of the term. Suluka-Fifita was the first to miss the Wakefield-bound forward, before Jake Davies did so twice either side of the sort of Sailor effort which convinces many that he should not play at fullback.
As an attacking strategy it works as it gives Sailor space to use his speed and skill. That's in keeping with the modern idea of a fullback. Yet they are still expected to be able to make a tackle when the line is broken. The question of what to do with the former Brisbane Broncos man is a conundrum that will be among the priorities for Kevin Walters when he takes over in 2027. The pair have worked together before when Walters was in charge at Brisbane so familiarity may help.
You have to credit Smith with a piece of inspiration, but it was an embarrassment from a Saints point of view. They made Smith look like prime Rob Burrow running away from us in the 2011 Grand Final. All three defenders have to be stronger there. Davies maybe gets a pass. A lot of smoke has been blown up his posterior since he broke into the first team but his efforts here were reserve grade stuff. It's a reminder that he is a player still in development, and of how heavily Saints have been forced to rely on players in that category amid the injury crisis.
It wasn't just that one play where defensive mishaps occurred. Saints right edge was particularly vulnerable all night. Nene Macdonald - an ex-Leeds man who appears to be unpopular with both sets of fans - was guilty of leaving his defensive post to try to stop Leeds all by himself on more than one occasion. He got close once, getting his fingers to a Croft pass but failing to reel it in. It cost him and the team as Connor and Handley exploited the space to put Harry Newman over.
The biggest problem with Macdonald has been his lack of availability. He's never had a run in the team due to what appears to be a failing body. But he hardly endears himself to the fans when he tries to take short cuts defensively, especially when they don't pay off. He might have earned better reviews if he had secured the interception and taken it down the field. But even then it's doubtful he still possesses the pace to have gone the distance.
He's already reportedly been offered to other clubs so it is unlikely he will be Walters' problem. Yet he's the latest in a chain of centres in recent years who hang around without doing very much of anything. Konrad Hurrell and Mark Percival are other recent examples of the genre.
For a time there was a very real possibility that Saints could be held scoreless at home in the league again. That hadn't happened for 46 years until Toulouse came to town in July. Another occurrence would have been a catastrophe even allowing for the greater quality of the opposition this time. It was avoided when Jack Welsby - a rare positive at centre because the lad can play anywhere - ran around and away from Lachie Miller for a stunning long range try. It was helped by Lomax's magical inside ball.
That got Saints off the mark to much relief. But if you're looking for other Saints highlights you're probably limited to Shane Wright's try saver on Tom Holroyd in the opening moments of the second half. It was given by Griffiths but overturned on review when it was evident that Wright had got underneath the Leeds man.
But you know what? Your ordeal is not over. Despite this fiasco of a performance Saints are not yet completely out of the playoff race. Eleven defeats from 25 league outings signifies quite strongly that they aren't good enough, but the league is very accommodating to the mediocre. Leigh's loss to Huddersfield means that should Saints win their last two and the Giants beat Hull KR or Leigh lose to Wakefield, Saints could still sneak in.
The other complication is that Saints' final pair of league fixtures are at Leigh this weekend and at home to Hull KR. They need to win both to have any chance. That seems vanishingly unlikely if the standard served up in this one is repeated. But then you think of the way Saints demolished Wakefield recently, or that first half pummelling of Castleford before Hastings' red card and the hope returns.
Except that Hastings won't be involved and the evidence of the Castleford game after his exit and of this one against Brad Arthur's men suggests he's more pivotal than fans are comfortable giving him credit for.
So we may well have been put in our place by one of the title favourites here, but it's still not impossible that our place may yet be good enough to rescue that record of having played in every Super League playoff series.
It's not that we believe. Not really. We just refuse to turn the life support off.
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