Woolf Q&A: Filling key roles, Academy, Joe Batchelor's reward and belief in Konrad Hurrell

MC: Looking at the squad you are getting some younger legs in some pivotal positions. How much is your brief to build a squad not just for this year, but to evolve it for the future?

KW: That is my part of my role, in my position, while I am here. It is obviously about trying to have success and trying to win competitions and trophies while we are here.

It is also about making sure when I leave that the club is in a better position and able to continue that success going forward.

When you look at the decisions we have made around your Jack Welsbys and Lewis Dodds that is exactly why those decisions were made an how that has panned out.

MC: Looking at the squad, 17 members have come through from the Academy, and nine of those played in the Grand Final. Somebody is getting something right up there?

KW: The people who run our academy deserve enormous praise. It is not just the fact that they are bringing through players who play in the first team, it is the calibre of those players. Again I point to Jack Welsby and Lewis Dodd as perfect examples.

That is the type of player and person that you want your academy to try and produce.

It is not just the Academy system, it is a number of people around the club who work really hard for that end product. Those people deserve a lot of praise.

MC: The cloud of losing Theo Fages with injury last year did provide one silver lining in that we now know for sure that Lewis Dodd is ready for this level?

KW: You don’t want to see injury to any player and I have sung Theo’s praises plenty of times in terms of the influence.

We can’t forget that he was a Premiership winning half two years in a row and played a big part in getting to the Grand Final and Challenge Cup as well – even if he was not able to perform at his best through injury in that particular game.

I don’t want to diminish his influence over the last few years, but we always knew what Lewis Dodd was going to able to do and the potential he had.

We had the opportunity to see that on numerous occasions in training and in small stints on the field.

It was only a matter of how we transitioned him and made sure he got the exposure and time in first grade without putting him under too much pressure in the initial phases.

It worked out really well – and we had a plan for that happening without injury, one that both Theo and Lewis Dodd were very aware of.

We would have got the same result with where Lewis Dodd is at, but he’s certsainly got a little bit more influence on the team at the back end of the year and that proved really beneficial for him and for us as well.

That is a great position for us going forward.

MC: Another lad who benefited from an injury was Joe Batchelor who seized that shirt when James Bentley was injured. Can we read much into him being given the number 12 shirt?

KW: Yes, you can. Joe has got that because he has deserved it and it means he has got the opportunity now to go ahead and make that his own. Obviously, he is going to have some competition again this year.

We have been able to build depth in the squad and that creates competition.

If you look at what he has done this year and the way he responded I know he is right up for the fight and really wants to make that his own.

That is why it was given to him – and when you perform like Joe did through the back end of the season and through the finals it becomes very deserved and a no-brainer in terms of getting that privilege of a number 12 jersey. That is exactly what happened and it is a credit to him.

MC: There was a mixed response to the signing of Konrad Hurrell maybe until there was the explanation as to why his form had dipped last year. There is now a bit of intrigue as to where and how Konrad Hurrell is going to play in a Saints shirt?

KW: There are a lot of things we need to figure out. I think we have terrific depth and competition for spots at the moment.

Where Konrad plays is exactly up to him and how well he performs through a pre-season and how well he goes when he gets opportunities early next year.

It is also going to depend on how well other players perform in different positions as well.

What I do know about Konrad is this, Konrad at his best is a World-class centre and he has proved that for Tonga and in the NRL for both the Warriors and the Titans, and he also proved that in his early two years here with Leeds.

There are a lot of factors and things that went on in his life that put him in a position where it became difficult to perform at his best in 2021.

I know he is aware of that, but he has certainly got a real drive and is in a position where he gets an opportunity to prove a point.

We are going to give him the environment to do that, but at the end of the day it is going to go back down to him.

Part II will be online tomorrow for Premium subscribers and in next week's St Helens Star edition.