Why St Helens have absolutely nailed their new head coach appointment as dilemma hopefully answered

St Helens have absolutely smashed their new head coach signing out of the park in appointing Kevin Walters and it comes down to one man and that’s Tristan Sailor.

Full disclaimer, this article was produced before Saints announced the appointment of Walters and it instead focused on the one question that St Helens needed to ask prospective head coaches: where will you play Tristan Sailor?

Whether the club asked that question of Walters or not is now irrelevant. The fact is that they’ve landed an incredibly experienced coach and more importantly, a coach who has worked with Tristan Sailor before. Both Walters and Sailor were together at Brisbane, during which time the playmaker was used almost exclusively as a full-back, though he’s been moved around a lot more during his time in a Saints top, as the initial article [below] highlighted.

Where to play Sailor has been a dilemma that has, at least in part, brought down both Paul Wellens and Paul Rowley with the club’s big-name signing ahead of 2025 being the biggest puzzle at the club.

That’s in no way to say that Tristan Sailor has not performed during his almost two seasons at St Helens, far from it. In fact, Sailor has actually been one of the club’s best performers with the former Brisbane Broncos man ever-present since signing.

Debuting against West Hull in the 2025 Challenge Cup, Sailor has played in every possible game for St Helens, all 59 of them, however, he has never started in the same position more than 27 times.

Across those 59 starts, the 28-year-old has played full-back 27 times, stand-off 21 times, wing six times, and centre five times. Factor in the numerous mid-game position shifts, including three at the weekend, it’s fair to say St Helens are not getting the best out of Tristan Sailor. And yet, he has still impressed.

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Why St Helens must rebuild around Tristan Sailor

In his 52-game Super League career, Sailor has scored 24 tries and assisted a further 39. He has also made a whopping 6,860 metres in his 50 regular-season Super League games, at an average of 137.2 metres per game, whilst ranking second in the competition for offloads over the last two years (69).

When Tristan Sailor plays, things happen, and Saturday was evidence of that as he scored a hat-trick and registered a hat-trick of assists in a performance that has kept St Helens’ season alive.

The problem is that he did that across three different positions, and whilst that is testament to his incredible versatility and ability, you should not be simply accommodating a player who has such significant output. Instead, you should be making them a focal point of your team and building around him.

Saints have already indicated their intent to do that by signing him to a new three-year deal, meaning he is at the club until the end of 2029, but they cannot waste those three years shifting him from pillar to post. Whilst he’s been very good so far, we won’t truly see the best of Sailor until he is nailed to a position and that’s what a new head coach must do.

Of course, you can still get results without a clear plan for Sailor, as evidenced by Saints making the Super League play-off semi-finals last year, something that they perhaps would have done in 2026 if not for their injury crisis.

But even if fully fit, St Helens would not have lifted silverware this season, not until they establish how best to utilise Tristan Sailor and once they work that out, the rest of the pieces can fall into place.

What next for Sailor under Walters

After watching Saturday’s game at Belle Vue, Saints chair Eamonn McManus will have surely come away with the same logic – that any new head coach must have a plan for Tristan Sailor because he, alongside Harry Robertson in some form of spine combination, is essential to Saints’ success.

In hiring Kevin Walters, a man who has worked with Sailor and worked at the very top of the game, the hope would be that there is a clear plan in place, and one that can get the best out of a player who could yet have many more levels to unlock.

As for Sailor, he spoke after Saturday’s win, admitting: “I felt very good at full-back today, but again, we got the England full-back probably in our team, and lots of great players, so whatever I’m needed, but I’ll try and do the best I can.”

That humility, whilst admirable and clearly team-focused, may well work against him because it allows for coaches to use him as a utility piece when in fact he should be the star with Harry Robertson playing the supporting role alongside.

In hiring Kevin Walters, a coach who has worked with Sailor and has recognised his quality at full-back, St Helens should be able to find a home for the playmaker and transform him from a very talented luxury player whose versatility causes headaches, into a legitimate blue-chip player that could, in time and with the right coach and system, become one of Super League’s elite. What it means for Jack Welsby, well that’s another question.