Jamie Jones-Buchanan believes St Helens need a big rebuild as Eamon O’Carroll’s side missed out on making the Super League play-offs for the first time in the club's history.
St Helens' standing at seventh on the Super League ladder for the 2026 season was confirmed on Friday night after they were thumped 48-10 by Leigh Leopards, while Hull KR's 36-6 win against Huddersfield confirmed the top six.
It was Saints' seventh defeat in their last 10 matches and second heavy loss in a row, having suffered a 28-point reverse to Leeds a week ago.
O'Carroll is due to be replaced by former Brisbane Broncos and Australia head coach Kevin Walters ahead of the 2027 season, and the experienced coach will hope to galvanise the Saints back to their best next season.
But eyebrows have been raised over the team's recruitment decisions this year, with the club also struggling with a big injury crisis. At one stage in July, 16 players were sidelined with injuries.
Paul Rowley stepped down as the Saints coach that same month. Saints had been six points behind league leaders Leeds Rhinos at the time, but had suffered a 46-0 demolition by Toulouse earlier in July - the first time the club have gone scoreless at home in a league match since 1980.
The Saints, who won four titles in a row between 2019 and 2022, have experienced a sudden slump, and questions are being raised over the club's recruitment.
"Nothing is given in sport," Jamie Jones-Buchanan said on Your Site.
"You certainly can't copy and paste from one generation to another because context is king. St Helens probably need a clear out.
"They have some exceptional young talents coming through, but they're arriving at the wrong time, not having the best of experiences.
"Older players there too, who have maybe stayed a bit too long. Contextually, there are some players playing out of position.
"Tristan Sailor and Jack Welsby were really good against Leigh Leopards, you see moments of genius within it. But it's where they are playing and how it all fits together. The jigsaw has just not been great for St Helens."
Over the off-season, St Helens added experienced Australian players Shane Wright, Jacob Host and David Klemmer, while Jackson Hastings and Joe Shorrocks also arrived.
Saints also signed Daniel Suluka-Fifita midway through the campaign, but have struggled to make more acquisitions due to salary cap constraints.
It came after players including Konrad Hurrell, Morgan Knowles, Moses Mbye and Joe Bennison, left over the off-season, while Kyle Feldt was released mid-season.
The club has announced one new signing for the 2027 season, with Solomona Faataape joining from Catalans.
Your Site pundit and St Helens legend Jon Wilkin believes they have not replaced like-for-like and have made "short-term" recruitment choices.
"I've said it a number of times but Saints' recruitment has been shocking," Wilkin said.
"It's been terrible. They've made convenient and short-term recruitment choices. They've not replaced like-for-like and they need to rethink their recruitment strategy.
"There's a lot of young guys who have gone out into Super League who aren't ready. I'm loving that, it is great for them and for their future.
"But the reason they're out there was because you had an old squad at the start of the year that wasn't durable enough to get through a year, and then you signed shoddy replacements for guys who moved on.
"That's why young guys are having to put a Saints shirt on and are getting flogged by Leigh.
"I'm buying the message that it's all positive: 'Hey, we've got a great youth system and some young lads are getting a chance.' But if you look at the underlying reason why they are getting a chance, that's the issue. It's the root cause of their problem, sloppy recruitment over a period of three or four years."
Reflecting on his side's season, and missing out on a spot in the Play-Offs, O'Carroll admitted that learning from this adversity may help his team move forwards in the future.
"I've just mentioned it to the group - it's obviously really disappointing," O'Carroll said after Friday's match.
"It doesn't sit well with me that I've been a part of that, I won't shy away from it.
"This group has had a lot of success, consistent success, so to experience a bit of adversity is good in some respects.
"Moving on now, I feel the conversations with Eamon and Abi, they have absolute clarity in terms of what needs to be done and I've every confidence they'll do that.
"For Kevin Walters to come in, it's probably a great time to come in now and for the club to accelerate forward."
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