It's been a long time coming but we saw something resembling a Saints team in Saturday night's stirring win at Wakefield.
Not many of us went into this one with much confidence. Wakefield are a genuine playoff team in 2026 under Daryl Powell. Meanwhile Saints have veered from one shambles to another for much of this year. Coming in to this one they had lost three in a row, following defeat to Wigan with losses at York and at home to Hull FC.
Yet after a tight first half which saw Trinity lead 16-12 at the break, Saints blew them away with a display of skill, commitment and quality. Despite the tedious claims of the Sky Sports pundits and commentators it doesn't get us back in the playoff race. But it does lead you to ask 'where has this been?'.
While Saints ran in eight tries the win was built on some much better go forward from the pack. Matty Lees, George Delaney, David Klemmer and Noah Stephens are all still out injured so the contributions of Alex Walmsley and Daniel Suluka-Fifita were key. The latter had arguably his best game for Saints with 163 metres while the 147 eaten up by Walmsley showed that his importance endures. These two helped set a platform that we need far more regularly.
The old adage is that the forwards decide who wins and the backs determine by how many. Tristan Sailor had a huge say in the latter. The former Brisbane man scored a hat-trick of tries, had a try assist and ran for just a few metres shy of 200. And it all came about after interim head coach Eamon O'Carroll kept faith with him after an enforced - initially temporary - positional change.
Jack Welsby started at fullback but was forced off for a head injury assessment midway through the first half. Saints were trailing 10-0 at that point so losing such a vital cog - even temporarily - was a setback. Sailor moved from centre to fullback to cover. When Welsby returned it was he who filled in at centre and Sailor stayed at one. O'Carroll explained later that he just felt the side found a bit more rhythm with Sailor at fullback. He persisted with it and it proved a shrewd decision.
By the time Welsby returned Saints had taken the lead through Sailor's opening try and the first of a double for Lewis Murphy. So if it ain't broke. And it's not as if Welsby is totally alien to the centre role. He played there numerous times as a youngster while Lachlan Coote was occupying the fullback role. Including in the 2020 Grand Final win over Wigan when his late try won the trophy and began his Saints legacy. O'Carroll was quick to acknowledge Welsby's contribution.
It will be interesting to see if he stays in the centres or reverts to fullback in the last four games of the year. Now that Harry Robertson is viewed as a stand-off there are fewer obvious centre options. Which is precisely how Sailor ended up there in the first place.
The much maligned Nene Macdonald made a rare appearance and actually scrubbed up pretty well for his 121 metres. That tally included some useful carries in awkward field position. Yet Macdonald's frequent absences and his air of being rather too relaxed at times have made up the minds of most fans. And seemingly the club, with recent reports that he was being touted around other clubs. Meanwhile Mark Percival - a man recently described on these pages as more of an idea than a reality - remains so.
Like Macdonald, Murphy has been linked with the exit. His two tries were typically well taken. Perhaps more pointedly he was error free. If he can keep the mistakes out of his game then maybe there is a player there. But he remains injury prone, again hobbling off and seen later with ice on a quad muscle. He's appeared 15 times this term but just 25 times across his first two seasons with the club. Sean O'Loughlin would blush at that record.
The Welsby/Sailor dynamic wasn't the only tactical success for O'Carroll. Shorn of Daryl Clark for the rest of 2026 we have been relying on youngster Tom Humphries as well as Jake Burns at the number nine position. This week we saw Joe Shorrocks move into the role which allowed Jacob Host to start at loose forward.
Host is finding some form after a broken leg disrupted much of his first season with Saints. Meanwhile Shorrocks' job at dummy half is simpler than at 13 where there is too much emphasis on him as a ball handling link man. One game is a small sample size but it seemed to work better for both men and the team.
Wakefield also helped matters by charitably deciding to be desperately poor. Their 13 handling errors is the same number made by Saints in what was viewed as a pathetic display against Hull FC last time out. Powell's side capitulated in the second half. A lot of that was down to what Saints did well, but a decent chunk of it was also due to a fairly horrific day at the office for a team previously in excellent form. They did not look like a team battling for a top-two spot. But nor were they allowed to.
Of course, this season highlight doesn't fix everything. Saints are still going to miss the playoffs irrespective of how many times Dave Woods and Jon Wells have us in 'must win' territory. Though the performance cheered us all up greatly it also asked us to consider what might have been. Wins over York and Hull FC before this one could have put us above Leigh Leopards going into the final four games.
Those are wins which this performance suggests we might have expected. But a glance at the fixture list shows that as well as Leigh we still have to face league leaders Leeds and reigning champions Hull KR in the run in. That shows that it was still a long shot even without the disappointing results of the last two weeks. But there would have been a sniff. And never write off the...anyway.
Whatever we go on to achieve we will have done it with a still implausible injury list. While we wait on Murphy we're also digesting the news that George Whitby picked up an ACL injury against Hull which has ended his season. It's probably trashed the first half of next season for him too.
All of which raises questions about whether Jackson Hastings could be retained or could Lewis Dodd return from Catalans Dragons. I'm not crazy about either option. Hastings is not the player who won Man Of Steel in 2019 while going back to Dodd feels regressive.
None of us were on the phone to the Samaritans when he left for South Sydney. We had spent a year criticising his inability or unwillingness to do anything except launch another bomb. The incoming coach - who is thought not to be Shane Flanagan despite reports linking the much travelled 60 year-old - might get a tune out of Dodd but it all feels a bit too much like going back to an ex. That rarely solves the problems that were there before.
These are questions for another day. This column has dished out the criticism of the players when they've let us down as against York, Hull and the cataclysmic event that was Castleford away. Now let them take the plaudits for an impressive dismantling of a real contender.
And let them show us it is repeatable.
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