St Helens have confirmed the departures of seven players following the conclusion of their 2024 Super League campaign. The Saints saw their hopes of getting their hands on silverware come to an end last weekend as Paul Wellens’ side lost at Warrington Wolves in agonising fashion.
After doing enough to send the play-off eliminator to golden point extra time, St Helens could do little to prevent George Williams from slotting the one-pointer Warrington needed to progress to the semi-finals and break Red V hearts.
As such, as the dust settles on their season, the club have now confirmed seven players have been released. A number of the names on the list have already seen departures confirmed with Tommy Makinson and Lewis Dodd set to join Catalans Dragons and South Sydney Rabbitohs respectively, while Sione Mata’utia will be returning to Australia after four seasons in Merseyside.
Mata’utia hasn’t got a new club lined up but has spoken about the possibility of stepping into retirement.
The club have also confirmed that Fiji international Waqa Blake has left the club after spending just one season at the Totally Wicked Stadium. Blake made 24 appearances for the Saints and scored 11 tries but struggled for form over large periods and was dropped late in the campaign. He’ll be moving on to pastures new in 2025.
Sam Royle will also be leaving St Helens, with the forward being released after spending four seasons in and around the first-team picture. He made his debut in 2021 and went on to make 28 appearances for the club. However, he was instrumental this year as the club’s second string won the Reserves Championship.
Homegrown talents Ben Lane and McKenzie Buckley were also members of that reserves line up and both men will be leaving the club when their contracts expire.
Interestingly Konrad Hurrell was not named on the list, despite coming to the end of his St Helens contract.
