Jon Wilkin column

By Jon Wilkin
St Helens and Great Britain forward

The world of sport is very volatile and the recent sacking of Hull coach Peter Sharp followed by Warrington's Paul Cullen and Huddersfield's Jon Sharp only highlight that point.

Comings and goings in the football world have become a very common affair and almost expected at regular intervals throughout a season.

Peter Sharp was the first coach to lose his job this season

In many ways, the recent sackings in Super League show that more clubs are now looking to break out of mediocrity and accept that under-performing is just not good enough.

I just hope that this does not become as common as we see in football where Chelsea believed it was acceptable to sack a coach after finishing second in the Premier League and being the second best team in Europe.

I would like to wish Peter Sharp, Paul Cullen and Jon Sharp all the best in whatever they do and I suppose at the end of the day it's only a job and life goes on.

We enjoyed some good times under Jon Sharp when he was assistant coach at Saints and he will always be a friend to the club.

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I often wonder what people do when they leave the game of rugby league.

I would love to see more players come back into the sport and take up positions, not only in coaching roles, but also behind the scenes in marketing and PR posts.

Many players have much more to offer than grunting and beating people up, although I can see that these skills may be beneficial in some offices!

I worry that the relaxed yet ruthless banter we have every day is not acceptable in the real world.

The size, weight and strength of players is far greater in the modern game

We dedicate a lot of time in each day to winding each other up to breaking point, but ruthlessly pointing out flaws in each other doesn't happen in the real world, does it?

I suppose that is why many players opt to work in a relaxed environment with banter when they finish.

We are very happy with our form at the moment and I suppose that even though we have not really hit our straps yet we are winning and keeping pressure on those around us.

It is so tight this year that the league is still to fully settle and resemble something like what the final standings will show.

We are just hoping to be up and around the top of the table come the play-offs and learn that the last game in every competition is the most important whether that be Wembley or Old Trafford.

We will aim to be at both venues but we have much improving to do before that will happen.

Cayless suffered knee ligament damage against Hull KR last week

I would like to wish Mike Bennett a speedy recovery and we are all glad to hear his shoulder injury is not as bad as people initially feared and I look forward to seeing him back in action soon.

I suppose with Saints losing Jason Cayless and Chris Flannery to injury and this week's opponents the Bradford Bulls without a few players, it once again brings up the topic of injuries.

I would like to suggest that the size, weight and strength of players is far greater in the modern game - a forward a few decades ago would probably be a similar weight to the backs in the game now.

This increased weight and speed only makes the forces involved in tackles a lot bigger, hence more injuries as the human body struggles to keep up.

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Some very interesting information came to light this week about our physio Matt Viljoen.

He likes singing. But better than that, he rates himself a little bit and he even listens to a CD of himself singing when he is in his car.

He claims it calms his daughter and helps her sleep. The CD is full of snazzy effects to make him sound like a cross between Lily Savage and Paul Potts.

It's a bizarre combination that almost works and his meandering tones are best showcased in his cover of Elton John's 'Your Song'.

Matt is a great bloke to have around the squad and everyone enjoys his company. However, despite him being a great physio, his voice is average - we were just being polite to you, Matt!