By Jon Wilkin
St Helens and Great Britain forward |
  New arrivals: Potter and Puletua |
We've had a couple of very interesting weeks at Saints. The club has announced that Mick Potter will succeed Daniel Anderson as coach and it has also confirmed the signing of second rower Tony Puletua. Both men will join us at the end of this year's campaign, so I'm reluctant to talk too much about them just yet. What I will say is that Potter has done very well in France with the Catalans Dragons and everyone here at Knowsley Road is looking forward to working with him. As for Puletua, he is a huge man who will certainly make his presence felt on the rugby league field.  | It's not hard to see why a lot of supporters, who can roll out of bar and be inside the stadium in a matter of minutes, think the weekend is a great concept |
My thoughts have been focused more on the current campaign rather than new additions for 2009, and this week we are gearing up for another trip to Wales as Millennium Magic takes centre stage again after a successful debut year in 2007. I still have my reservations about the two-day event as far as the players go, but it's definitely a big hit with the fans. Cardiff is a great city and the Millennium Stadium is an amazing venue. Throw in a few derby games and it's not hard to see why a lot of supporters, who can roll out of bar and be inside the stadium in a matter of minutes, think the weekend is a great concept. | 606: DEBATE |
As I said, I am still unsure as to the benefits for the players, not to mention the clubs. It seems to disrupt our normal routines and denies a large home gate for one of the teams. I still enjoyed last year very much, although it was weird warming up on the pitch next to the stadium in front of NO fans and right next to the Wigan players. The warm-up degenerated into a psychological battle in which both teams tried to get the edge by making more noise than the other.  St Helens beat Wigan convincingly at last year's Millennium Magic |
This year Saints have equipped each player with a megaphone to ensure we emerge triumphant. Which reminds me... there was a Catalans dude shouting into a megaphone when we played in France. Our fans are loud but, come on, they couldn't compete with that. He created quite an intimidating atmosphere. Anyway, our game against Wigan, it's the last game on Sunday and is bound to be a very heated affair. Our first aim is for a good performance. If that is good enough for victory, all the better. We always strive for perfection at Saints and have yet to reach it for a full 80 minutes, so we'll keep on trying.
| 
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
Bookmark with:
What are these?