{"id":580596,"date":"2026-08-10T17:48:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T17:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/580596\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T17:48:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T17:48:20","slug":"st-helens-decline-reaches-breaking-point-with-stench-of-failure-lingering-st-helens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/580596\/","title":{"rendered":"St Helens\u2019 decline reaches breaking point with stench of failure lingering | St Helens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps the biggest concern as the full-time hooter sounded on another miserable evening for St Helens<\/a> on Thursday was that the anger, along with\u00a0thousands of supporters, had long since disappeared and had been replaced with a sense of apathy.<\/p>\n

No\u00a0club have been as consistent a force in the history of Super League<\/a> quite like Saints. Wigan were almost relegated 20 years ago, Leeds have finished in the bottom half on multiple occasions and\u00a0the other two champions, Bradford and Hull\u00a0KR, have spent extended spells outside of Super\u00a0League. And that is why this is such a story.<\/p>\n

With five rounds to go, St Helens \u2013 world club champions as recently as 2023<\/a> and Super\u00a0League champions a record 10 times \u2013 look set to miss the playoffs for the first time not only in Super League history but in more than 60 years. The defeat against Hull FC on Thursday means they are four points adrift\u00a0of the top six; it now feels like when, not if, that\u00a0playoff run ends.<\/p>\n

This is not a sudden decline. Since winning four titles in a row between 2019 and 2022 and stunning Penrith in the World Club Challenge three years ago, Saints\u2019 legendary players have left, long\u2011serving staff have followed and recruitment has been embarrassing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That has reached breaking point this year. The former Salford coach Paul Rowley was brought in over the winter to not only win games but win in a style that St\u00a0Helens supporters expect, having long been considered Super League\u2019s great entertainers. Rowley was able to achieve neither remit,\u00a0being sacked last month<\/a> after eight months\u00a0in\u00a0charge.<\/p>\n

Some of the players Rowley brought with him have been appalling and will likely follow him out of the door later this year, clearing the decks for a new head coach. The general consensus is St Helens will try to pluck an assistant coach from Australia, just as they did with Justin Holbrook, who led them to the title in 2019.<\/p>\n

The man tasked with finding that coach\u00a0is Abi Ekoku, the new chief executive who is only a few months into the role but has already sacked Rowley. It\u00a0would not be unreasonable to suggest he has a monumental task on\u00a0his hands. \u201cI\u00a0completely understand the noise,\u201d\u00a0Ekoku said in the aftermath of their latest defeat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I would say is when you\u2019re a big club and you do\u00a0things right or wrong you expect people to\u00a0talk about you; it\u2019s when people aren\u2019t talking about\u00a0you\u00a0that you should\u00a0be worried. We can\u2019t take the glory\u00a0and not the\u00a0criticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cSt Helens penetrates the rugby league culture in both hemispheres; this is a powerhouse of the game: but the key is not to panic.\u201d<\/p>\n

An increasing disconnect between the St Helens fans and the club is another huge concern. Photograph: News Images\/NurPhoto\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Finding a head coach is one thing. Rebuilding the squad is another: Jackson Hastings, the former Super\u00a0League Man of Steel, is one example of a big name who will likely have to leave after an underwhelming season. But the biggest challenge of all for Ekoku and St\u00a0Helens is to stem the bleeding and the ever\u2011increasing rift between fanbase and club.<\/p>\n

The legendary former Saints forward Jon Wilkin summed it up best at the weekend. \u201cThere\u2019s a gap between the fans and the club at the minute,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a dramatic drop-off and it\u2019s fundamental you\u00a0retain your supporters … there\u2019s more going on than just the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up to Sport in Focus<\/p>\n

Our picture editors select their favourite sporting images from the past week, from the spectacular to the powerful, and with a little bit of fun thrown in<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Wilkin has a point. It is plausible that the average\u00a0attendance at the BrewDog\u00a0Stadium will be less than 11,000 this year for the first time in a decade and, with the stench of failure lingering, rebuilding trust and\u00a0convincing lapsed supporters to\u00a0buy back in can be tricky if you do not act fast. When the booing turns to indifference, you\u00a0have a big problem.<\/p>\n

The pressure is on \u2013 but does Ekoku know it? \u201cThis is a fanbase that\u2019s been brought up on a diet of success and entertainment. They want a combination of the two.\u00a0You should never take your fanbase for granted but we don\u2019t envisage a drop-off.\u201d<\/p>\n

With four of their final five games against teams above them in the league, the playoff door and their ever-present record is disappearing rapidly. They have also just posted annual losses of more than \u00a33m; not unusual, and they are fortunate to have wealthy benefactors who will cover those losses. But it again illustrates that there are off-field issues as well as on it.<\/p>\n

There are slivers of optimism. A new coach must surely see that building the team around homegrown stars Jack Welsby and Harry Robertson is a must. Their injury crisis this year acts as mitigation, with 16\u00a0first\u2011team players sidelined: but it has also been used as an excuse too many times. They should be performing better.<\/p>\n

In short, St Helens and their supporters may have to brace for further short-term pain. They will not be able to move out all the under-performing players in one recruitment cycle, and a new head coach comes with uncertainty. The headline will be this famous club\u00a0missing the playoffs for the first time, but the issues appear to run far deeper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perhaps the biggest concern as the full-time hooter sounded on another miserable evening for St Helens on Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-580596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}