20 Years of Super League: 2009, a year of departures, disappointment and a dodgy try as Saints end season trophyless

The quietly-spoken former St George full back inherited Daniel Anderson’s squad, minus Willie Talau and Nick Fozzard who had gone to Salford and Hull KR respectively.

In came man-mountain Tony Puletua, below, who had plenty to do given injury meant Jason Cayless’ last year in the red vee was limited to six sub appearances.

Saints started the year well, with a 17,009 crowd watching them defeat Warrington 26-14 with centres Matt Gidley and Lee Gilmour grabbing a brace each.

And although they slipped to a first defeat against Hull KR at Knowsley Road since 1985, they chalked up the wins routinely at the start of the campaign.

The fans, however, were dissatisfied with the style of play. Much have this was put at the door of the new boss.

However, he was dealt a tough hand given the tweaking of the rules in and around the ruck had hit teams like Saints more than any.

In previous campaigns Saints had based their game around quick play the balls which allowed the likes of James Roby and Leon Pryce to punish back-pedalling defences.

The tolerance of slow rucks, the advance of wresting and rauming nullified that threat and led to arguably the dullest, dourest season Super League has witnessed to date.

Fans who trekked down to a muddy Bridgend, where Tom Armstrong’s try (Above) provided the only points in a woeful match against Celtic Crusaders would vouch for the dull play.

And yet there were still some exciting moments, with Saints beating Leeds in the league and then knocking them out of the Challenge Cup at Headingley.

With Sean Long injured, Jon Wilkin (above) steered the ship in the halves and his two 40/20s were part of a masterful display that helped Saints to a 22-18 win.

A 19-12 Maundy Thursday triumph at Wigan – Saints’ last Easter success – in front of 22,232 kept the season ticking over nicely, with four tries from Puletua in the 68-22 win at Castleford leaving them in a good position.

Although a home defeat by Bradford followed by a heavy Magic defeat by Wigan at Murrayfield set a few alarm bells ringing, eight consecutive wins followed until a defeat at Salford and, two weeks later, a home defeat by Wakefield added to disgruntlement over the style of play.

The biggest shock was yet to come – and although missing Sean Long, Saints had been expected to see off Huddersfield in the cup semi-final.

Alas, Nathan Brown’s Giants, who had mastered the new interpretation of the rules, triumphed 24-14.

A deflated Saints limped to the end of the regular season with their only win in the last four games coming against a depleted pre-Wembley Huddersfield side.

It probably did not help the atmosphere in camp when it was announced that Long, above, a veteran of so many of Saints’ summer era successes, was not being retained and was to join Hull at the end of the year.

Saints had big designs on Kyle Eastmond, below, who had filled in along the back line, to take a grip of the number seven role going forward.

So confident were they of Eastmond filling those boots, they even let Matty Smith leave the club.

Wins over Huddersfield Giants and Wigan in the play-offs booked a fourth consecutive Grand Final appearance against League Leaders Leeds.

Sadly, it was not to be a winning finale for departing talisman Long and the underrated Gilmour.

Although Eastmond’s try and three goals had given Saints a 10-9 lead on the hour mark, a Kevin Sinfield penalty and then a debatable Lee Smith try from a Danny McGuire kick sealed their fate.

The video ref ruled Smith was not offside from the kick so it was a disappointing end to a season that left Saints without any of the three trophies for the first time since 2003.