St Helens’ slide leaves 10-time champions facing first potential Super League play-off miss

St Helens face the prospect of missing the Super League play-offs for the first time after a defeat by Hull FC on Thursday that left them four points adrift with five rounds remaining in the season. The result intensified concerns about a wider decline affecting results, recruitment and supporter engagement.

Saints arrive at this point as a club with a recent history of success: they are a record 10-time Super League champion side and were world club champions as recently as 2023. Between 2019 and 2022 they won four titles in succession and beat Penrith in the World Club Challenge three years ago, but since then a run of departures among legendary players and long-serving staff, combined with what the club describes as poor recruitment, has coincided with deteriorating performances. No club has been as consistently dominant in Super League as St Helens, the article notes, and it points to Wigan, Leeds, Bradford and Hull KR to illustrate how even former champions have suffered inconsistent periods. With five rounds to go, Saints now look set to miss the play-offs for the first time in Super League history and for the first time in more than 60 years.

Paul Rowley, the former Salford coach who was brought in over the winter to restore both results and the club’s traditional style of play, was sacked last month after eight months in charge. The club says Rowley achieved neither remit, and some of the players he recruited have been described as appalling and are likely to leave later this year. Abi Ekoku, appointed chief executive only a few months ago and the man who made the decision to dismiss Rowley, spoke after the latest defeat: "I completely understand the noise," Ekoku said in the aftermath of their latest defeat. "What I would say is when you’re a big club and you do things right or wrong you expect people to talk about you; it’s when people aren’t talking about you that you should be worried. We can’t take the glory and not the criticism. "St Helens penetrates the rugby league culture in both hemispheres; this is a powerhouse of the game: but the key is not to panic."

There is a general consensus, the report states, that St Helens will again look to Australia for coaching appointments, seeking an assistant coach as they did when recruiting Justin Holbrook, who led them to the title in 2019. Rebuilding the playing squad is identified as a separate and substantial task; the article highlights Jackson Hastings, a former Super League Man of Steel, as a high-profile player who will likely have to leave after an underwhelming season.

Former Saints forward Jon Wilkin addressed the widening gap between the club and its supporters: "There’s a gap between the fans and the club at the minute," he said. "There is a dramatic drop-off and it’s fundamental you retain your supporters ... there’s more going on than just the team." The piece adds that it is plausible the average attendance at the BrewDog Stadium will be less than 11,000 this year for the first time in a decade, and it notes the club has cited an injury crisis—16 first-team players sidelined—as mitigation for poor results while acknowledging that explanation has been used repeatedly.

Off the field, the club has reported annual losses of more than £3m, with the article noting wealthy benefactors currently covering those deficits. That financial position is presented alongside the on-field deterioration to underline that St Helens are facing simultaneous sporting and commercial challenges.

The report warns that reworking the squad will take more than one recruitment cycle and that appointing a new head coach brings uncertainty. It also suggests the club will need time to persuade disillusioned supporters to re-engage if performances and recruitment do not improve.

With four of their final five games against teams above them in the league, the play-off door and their ever-present record is disappearing rapidly.