Jack Welsby will replace Lachlan Coote as St Helens full back in 2022

Welsby, who has filled in at centre, wing, stand off and loose forward since making his Saints debut in 2018 as a 17 year old, has been handed the opportunity to nail down his own starting position next season.

The club have every faith that this Jack of all trades can literally be a master of one - the number of the jersey he is about to seize. 

Having blossomed into a big game match winner this past 12 months with killer plays in the 2020 Grand Final and the recent Challenge Cup Final, Welsby has grown in confidence - something Saints have taken on board in replacing a key player like Coote.

Lachlan Coote and Theo Fages. Pic: Bernard Platt

Coach Kristian Woolf explained: “I have made it clear that we wanted to keep Lachlan Coote and he has been a big part of the success this past couple of years and our team, both on and off the field.

“We want to enjoy the influence he is going to have for the rest of the year.

“If you look at his last couple of games they have been the best games this year and I know that the character he is, he is going to want to give us his absolute best to help us finish the year and hopefully we can give him some success on the way out.”

Jack Welsby at Wembley

Saints will not replace Coote with an external recruit - rather they will allow Welsby to return to the spot he was first ear-marked for when he broke into the squad as a teenager.

“We are going to elevate from within and have enormous faith in Jack Welsby going forward. We think he is going to develop into a really good player,” Woolf said.

“Our plan was always to eventually to give Jack the opportunity to become our full back. It is up to him to then make it his own.

“We would have preferred Lachlan to hang around and prepare for that transition a bit longer.

“But now that that has happened that opportunity is going to go to Jack.

“He has definitely grown as a player.

"He came up with a big play in the Challenge Cup Final, but if you watch his game closely he came up with some really big plays before we got on top and before he went to six.

“He has been able to experience a lot of Super League for 12 months and has grown in confidence with every game and has certainly growing in where he sits in our team and how our players view him and the confidence they have in him.

"He is starting to realise the influence he can have at this level.

"When we give him the opportunity to go back to full back, which is the position he is most comfortable with, he is going to take a lot of learnings from playing a lot of different positions and that is going to help him back there.

"And he is going to take a lot of understanding as well."

"He has shown that every challenge that has been put in front of him he has risen to and above and I have no doubt whatsoever that he’ll make that position his own and to do a good job with it."

Jack Welsby with the Challenge Cup sporting the tattoo of the Grand Final win on his right leg. Pic: Bernard Platt

Welsby made his debut in 2018, and had a run of games at full back in 2019 when Coote was injured - games that were all part of his learning curve.

"We have to realise that it is a really tough thing for a 17–19-year-old to come into Super League and show that they are up to that level straight away.

"It is the consistency, intensity, speed and the pressure – and a lot of things that contribute to it being difficult and that is why not many 17–19-year-olds actually play Super League on a consistent basis.

"Through experience and learning how to deal with that – and getting confidence in yourself at that level and your own ability.

"That is how players become genuine super league players.

"That is where Jack is at the moment and he realises what he can do in this competition and the confidence to go out and do it," Woolf said.

Welsby is 20, the same age assistant coach Paul Wellens was when he finally seized the starting number one shirt in 2000.

When it comes to having mentors in that role, Woolf does not believe there could be anyone better than his right-hand man.

“Wello is an outstanding mentor for Jack – but he is for every player in our group.

“With him being a legend of the club in the same position, then I don’t think Jack can ask for a better mentor,” Woolf said.