A big reason I say it’s not critical is when you look at Jack Welsby’s trajectory as a direct comparison. He made 1 performance in his debut year at the same age, followed by 11 the next. Robertson will probably surpass 11 this year so he’s already ahead of where Welsby was.

If our back line next year at full strength is:

Welsby/Sailor
Feldt
NEW SIGNING
Percival
Murphy
Welsby/Sailor
Lomax

Then Robertson could be next in line for any of 1,6,7 or even centre and he will pick up plenty experience and appearances covering various positions like Welsby did. Let's not forget Welsby's most famous moment in a Saints shirt actually came from him playing left centre that night! So I am not worried about Robertson having to have a starting spot nailed down just yet. He can comfortably rack up double figures again whilst playing understudy next season. He’ll still only be 19 at that point.

I’m confident the club will feed him in the right way for the long term good.

I was definitely on the fence with that one - whether its 3 or 4 players it demonstrates the tough spot the St Helens squad is in. 

Agree with you there, he is on the downward curve although to be fair was superb last night. He has been used as a battering ram for years and is most certainly injury prone. 

Also agree with our set up. We have very few 22-28 aged players, Welsby and Lees being the only ones of note. We either have ageing players past their best- Lomax, Walmsley, Paasi, Clark, Sironen, Percival etc or ones who are very young with potential- Whitby, Robertson, Dagnall, Stephens. 


It's the 22-28 age range we desperately need.

They're where we found ourselves under Lam, with guys like Smithies, Havard, Partington, Shorrocks, Byrne etc being asked to do a seasoned pros job, guys like Clubb and Lockers being pretty much done and a number of players who just weren't up to standard. We compounded the issue trying to sign somebody like George Burgess to sit in that in between age group as well. A few Saints fans liked to revel in telling us none of our players were good enough and just as then, there are players in this Saints side that can take them forward and things can turn quickly but they've some rebuild job on in this next year or two. 

7 straight defeats to Wire, 3 each to us and Rovers, 2 straight to Leigh. Saints this season are mostly winning the games that they should win but not the games that they need to win if they expect to be thereabouts for trophies. I don't like to dump on coaches but I don't see how Wellens stays beyond this season without an absolute miracle. But, as others have said, this isn't a situation a change of coach will easily fix. It needs a squad rebuild as well.

I almost feel guilty questioning his inclusion Stu, as I think he probably would be in that group were it not for his wholehearted playing style. Even last night he was still throwing himself at the defence harder than most of your forwards! He's still a talent when fit but, unfortunately for him and Saints, he's not at his best often enough.