THE Grand Final success may have been the first taste of final success for the vast majority of the Saints squad, but it was also the last hurrah in the red vee for some of the club’s players.

The end of the season has marked some significant departures with coach Nathan Brown heading home to Australia and players Sia Soliola and Gary Wheeler moving on to pastures new, while Anthony Laffranchi and Willie Manu have hung up their boots after long careers.

Brown’s decision to move on, just as the work he has done on rebuilding the team was beginning to bear fruit came as a surprise.

But family reasons - the fact that the Browns had been in England for the last six years – have been behind his return to Australia.

Although his coaching style attracted its fair share of critics during a turbulent first year in charge at Langtree Park, when a chronic injury list put a hole in any plans the club had, it all came good in the end.

He was able to take part in the fairytale ending – leaving with a Grand Final win and the squad in much better shape to kick on in future years.

Brown said: “It was a wonderful experience for a coach to come here to St Helens and what it has done for me is amazing.

“I have never seen a culture like it where they seem to have such a winning mentality.

“St Helens is a brilliant club and it has done plenty for me. Hopefully I have put something back. I am glad we came, but also glad we are going home. It is fitting how it has turned out like a fairytale, winning the Grand Final against all that adversity.”

Also turning home for family reasons is one of Saints’ most popular overseas recruits of all time.

Sia Soliola will ply his trade with Canberra Raiders next term after spending five years wearing the red vee in a stint that spanned the clubs transition from Knowsley Road to Langtree Park.

But he made it crystal clear that had it been purely a professional decision he would still be a Saint for 2015.

He said: “There are some things more important than rugby and that is family, and so although I'll leave with real regrets about leaving there would be bigger regrets if something happened back home and I didn't go back.”

Sia Soliola was pretty emotional when, with his son Israel upon his shoulders, he took the ovation from the west stand after his final appearance at Langtree Park.

Rarely has the roof been raised so visibly for a departing player, but the response shows just how much the big-hitting Samoan has been taken to the hearts of St Helens folk.

The 28-year-old Samoan World Cup skipper, who joins Canberra Raiders next term, said: “The crowd’s tribute was really touching. It's a nice feeling because it shows that they believe I have done my best for the club.

“The club told me that people were crying up there at the end, but I was trying to fight back the tears too, because St Helens is a club that I hold special to my heart.

Signed from Sydney Roosters as a centre ahead of the 2010 campaign, Soliola’s career at what was then Knowsley Road did not get off to the best of starts when he ruptured his patella tendon in training and missed virtually the entire campaign before returning in time to play in the Grand Final.

But he soon made up for lost time, with his fearless crash tackling becoming an instant hit with the fans as well as the opponents’ rib cages.

After appearing in the losing finals of 2010 and the heart-breaker of 2011, Soliola was desperately keen to sign off with a Super League Grand Final winners ring.

That it was done against the odds, with the club missing three of its key playmakers, made the success even more remarkable.

And of course it was Soliola’s determination, with his legs pumping, that pierced the Wigan line and put them on the way to victory in that Old Trafford finale.

Soliola had his own distinctive way of describing it.

“You could say we have come from the grave - you could call it Project Lazarus - I think for us if you could sum it up you'd describe it as a full team contribution,” he said.

Tongan World Cup back row Willie Manu, playing in his first Grand Final at the age of 34, also signed off with a glorious note.

Manu’s deceptively powerful wide running may have been a different style to the blockbusting technique of Soliola, but his ability to commit the tackler and make the ball available posed a real threat to the opposition defences.

He saved arguably his best game in the red vee for the Grand Final – and after lengthy spells in England at Castleford, Hull and Saints Manu can hang up his boots with something tangible to show for it.

There was no sentiment on show when the 17 was selected for the Grand Final, meaning Saints’ experienced prop Anthony Laffranchi was edged out of the 17 by young gun Greg Richards.

But the ex-Australian test forward and former Italian World Cup player was still in the 19-man squad – and enjoyed signing off with a victory as much as the combatants.

Although not the biggest of props, prompting plenty of doubts about Boof’s role in a side that was lacking in size, Laffranchi has been the consummate professional in his three years at Saints.

Much of his role has been off the field in training where his dedication and attitude has rubbed off on the young forwards coming through.

Although a nerve injury to his army threatened to curtail his career prematurely in the early part of the 2014 campaign, Laffranchi was able to overcome that in time to play in the business end of the year.

Meanwhile Gary Wheeler departs for Warrington after another in and out season for his hometown club.

The former Blackbrook junior leaves with plenty of good wishes, but his time at Saints has never really seen him able to get the run of games needed for him to fulfil his full potential.

Quick feet, good hands and a smart rugby brain, Wheeler is a natural footballer – alas his series of unrelated injuries has limited him to just 64 appearances since making his debut in 2008.