St Helens' season OVER after Hull FC loss as star's future unclear

St Helens’ miserable run continued with a 32-18 defeat at home against Super League strugglers Hull FC on Thursday night.

Live from the press box at the BrewDog Stadium, our five key takeaways….

Saints will not make the play-offs

For the first time in the Super League era, and the first time since 1962, Saints will be missing out on the play-offs this season.

We’re confident enough now to on record state they have no chance of making the play-offs. The reality here is a combination of an injury list which remains extensive, a tough run-in, underperforming players and players who just aren’t ready to compete at this level.

Make no bones about it, the attitude has been much better since that drubbing at home against Toulouse Olympique, but attitude alone won’t earn Eamon O’Carroll’s side enough points to break into the six.

Abysmal quality on show

Our first point almost leads us onto this one… if you watched this game without looking at the ladder, you’d be well within your rights to think it was a clash between two sides at the wrong end of the table.

Thursday night’s game was strewn with errors, making for a low quality affair and a rather poor spectacle.

There were glimpses in there, and some of the tries scored were finished well, including a couple of Harvey Barron’s as he grabbed a hat-trick for the visitors. But the 80 minutes on the whole were a tough watch.

Herman Ese’ese future

There’s been a fair bit of discourse over Herman Ese’ese’s future over the last few days, and Sky Sports alluded to a potential imminent move to a club near the top end of the Super League table in their build-up ahead of his game.

Whether that comes to fruition remains to be seen, but this was among the powerhouse’s best performances since his long-awaited return from injury.

More of the same will be needed from him wherever he’s playing his rugby league, that’s for sure.

Saints’ woes underlined in key statistic

Last season under the tutelage of Paul Wellens, Saints conceded 314 points across their 27 regular season Super League games, an average of less than 12 per game.

Tonight marked their 22nd league game of 2026, and they have already conceded 492 points.

At this rate, they will end their 27 games having shipped a total of 603 points, over 22 per game on average. That damning statistic only underlines their woes this season.

Super League scheduling in question again

Why are games between clubs separated by almost the length and breadth of the M62 being put in the schedule on Thursday nights?

Saints had to go to Hull on a Thursday in the reverse fixture, and all credit to the vocal Black and Whites fans that made the journey to Merseyside, but we’re sure a few more of them would have been present had this game been later in the weekend.

The FC supporters present were put into the corner of the North Stand at the BrewDog Stadium, meaning the traditional away end was completely empty, an awful look for the game.

Friday night sees clashes between Wakefield and Leeds as well as Castleford and Hull KR. Could we not have swapped one of those with this?