CUT Paul Wellens in half and like a stick of Blackpool rock you will see a red vee and a stickman running through his core.

He has been the big beating heart of the Saints team through glory years and more challenging times and although he will leave a significant hole to fill on the park and in the dressing room, his legacy more than offsets that.

Born into a strong rugby league family – with father Harry a one-time club scout – Wellens' career has been the fulfilment of boyhood dreams.

Very rarely do supporters of any team get to swap their place on the terraces for a role on the pitch, but as a teenager Wellens did that seamlessly and for a remarkable18 seasons he has been an absolute rock.

Although his retirement is not unexpected – anyone at DW Stadium on Good Friday could see that Wellens was playing through the pain barrier and beyond – it nevertheless will leave a huge void.

That Good Friday grimace, and the measures he has sought to prolong what has been an already lengthy and illustrious stint wearing the red vee, underlined to a tee what playing for and skippering his home town team has meant.

When sports reporters say players would 'crawl over broken glass to play for their team', in Wellens' case it is probably true.

As a teenager he was dropped into the side, initially as a half back, but when Paul Atcheson was ruled out with injury Wellens seized the chance to take that full back berth.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Helped to integrate into a side of big characters and world class talent by skipper Chris Joynt, Wellens had a Grand Final winner's ring by the age of 19.

Solid as a rock in defence, both individually and in his ability to organise his teammates, Wellens also, as the terrace chant would tell you, 'catch the highest bombs'.

In attack he may have lacked the pace of a Darren Lockyer or Billy Slater, but when he chimed into the line off the back of the plays Keiron Cunningham, Sean Long and Leon Pryce had put on, Saints invariably prospered.

He is lucky that his contribution and success can be calculated in medals. That glittering collection of team honours – the highest individual awards and a big helping of test caps when there was plenty of competition for the national number one jersey – are tangible rewards for Wellens' application, dedication, skill and full-bodied commitment.

But speaking to him as he reflects on that career you sense that a greater reward has come in the way he has helped steer the ship through turbulent post-Knowsley Road seas to stamp the winning culture on the new breed of Saint and help the club cast off the tag of nearly men that had weighed heavily on their shoulders.

His time was supposed to have been gone last year, but the harsh words he dispensed to fire up his team and the coaching staff after the Etihad debacle was maybe a catalyst for the way Saints attacked the back end of last season.

And of course he was a man of deed, not simply words and who could forget Wellens chipping the ball perfectly for Tommy Makinson to plunder the match clinching try.

Fans will have so many great memories of Wello, one of the town's favourite sporting sons - a fine, articulate ambassador for St Helens and a genuine local hero.