{"id":556008,"date":"2026-04-29T00:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T00:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/556008\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T00:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T00:56:10","slug":"st-helens-coach-hits-out-at-tristan-sailor-critics-with-lavish-praise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/556008\/","title":{"rendered":"St Helens coach hits out at Tristan Sailor critics with lavish praise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>St Helens assistant Lee Briers described himself as \u2018Tristan Sailor\u2019s biggest fan\u2019, hitting out at the playmaker\u2019s critics in a passionate defence.<\/p>\n<p>Versatile back Sailor arrived at Saints ahead of the 2025 campaign from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.loverugbyleague.com\/nrl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> outfit Brisbane Broncos, putting pen to paper on a two-year deal.<\/p>\n<p>Making the same move at the same time and penning an identical contract was assistant Briers, who also coached Sailor at the Broncos during his own stint Down Under.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout last year, and at times earlier on this year, Sailor came under heavy fire amid a campaign which ended with Saints trophyless.<\/p>\n<p>In recent weeks however, he has started to earn plaudits, coinciding with Saints\u2019 rise up the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.loverugbyleague.com\/super-league\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super League<\/a> ladder.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Last year was unfair on him, and this year, people have a different perception\u2026 I\u2019m Tristan Sailor\u2019s biggest fan\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Sailor has grabbed four tries and six assists in nine Super League appearances so far this season.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking ahead of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.loverugbyleague.com\/club\/st-helens\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Saints<\/a>\u2018 home game against York Knights this weekend, assistant Briers said: \u201cI think it\u2019s a bit unfair when I read \u2018Tristan struggled last year\u2019. Tristan didn\u2019t struggle. Tristan was awesome last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know Tristan from being at the Broncos, so I know exactly what you get.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople\u2019s perception is surprising because people perceive that Saints weren\u2019t great last year, but we did alright. We didn\u2019t win anything, but Tristan was a shining light.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast year was unfair on him, and this year, people have a different perception.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTristan is Tristan, very, very, very consistent. He doesn\u2019t miss a training session and he doesn\u2019t miss games.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m Tristan Sailor\u2019s biggest fan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Among the Red V\u2019s off-contract stars, the Queensland native has now scored 26 tries in 44 appearances across all competitions in their colours since arriving at the BrewDog Stadium. The club will soon have to decide whether or not to offer him a new deal.<\/p>\n<p>Briers added: \u201cI can\u2019t speak highly enough of him. Everything he does, he does it with a smile on his face, and he\u2019s the ultimate team player.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe good thing about Tristan is that he\u2019s really coachable. It\u2019s not about me telling him what to do, it\u2019s him coming to me and saying, \u2018I think this works\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m big on empowerment, and Tristan is a really smart footballer, a dream for any coach.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Helens assistant Lee Briers described himself as \u2018Tristan Sailor\u2019s biggest fan\u2019, hitting out at the playmaker\u2019s critics&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-556008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}