Sky Sports site - It was me!

[Matthew]

And yes; I was trying to highlight wellens short comings!

http://www.skysports.com/experts/expert ... 74,00.html

[Fraggle]

Matthew posted:
And yes; I was trying to highlight wellens short comings!

http://www.skysports.com/experts/expert ... 74,00.html

Some dazed and confused Sky muppet wrote:

"Still Paul Wellens is a great bloke as well as a great player so I won't complain if he wins it this year."

Well, that's obviously what they base the Man of Steel on. Is he a great bloke? Nah, give it to someone else. Clarkey, you're an idiot.

BTW, excellent question Matthew. Typical of Phil Clarke not to really answer it but to me there are fullbacks at lesser clubs who do a far better job than Wellens does at St Helens.

[Matthew]

Fraggle posted:

Matthew posted:
And yes; I was trying to highlight wellens short comings!

http://www.skysports.com/experts/expert ... 74,00.html

Some dazed and confused Sky muppet wrote:

"Still Paul Wellens is a great bloke as well as a great player so I won't complain if he wins it this year."

Well, that's obviously what they base the Man of Steel on. Is he a great bloke? Nah, give it to someone else. Clarkey, you're an idiot.

BTW, excellent question Matthew. Typical of Phil Clarke not to really answer it but to me there are fullbacks at lesser clubs who do a far better job than Wellens does at St Helens.

Personally I always thought that wellens had about as much character as a bus stop!

After watching DV embarass him the other week; it struck me how often he would get run around if he didn't have stains defence to help him. I took Phil's non answer to mean that he agreed with me; but didn't want to upset Eddie by saying anything bad about his beloved wellens.

Everybody outside of st helens knows Barrett should win man of steel and probably get runner up too. Who knows it might create a bit of discussion!

[GeoffN]

Matthew posted:
And yes; I was trying to highlight wellens short comings!

http://www.skysports.com/experts/expert ... 74,00.html

That's an excellent letter, Matthew.

Clarkey, as usual, sidesteps it, but it's interesting to note that earlier in his article he quotes OPTA stats saying

"In total, the 17 men in red and white made 388 tackles, a record for a game in Super League. When you consider that Wellens, Gardner and Meli only made 14 tackles between them..."

Which exactly supports your argument.

[lancaster warrior]

I like this bit of Phils Clarkes reply:

"We've seen St Helens 14 times on Sky Sports this season and in most of them Wellens has been great. I've watched him play in the other games, matches against teams in the bottom half of the table, with pretty small crowds and not a lot of excitement present."

Does this mean that when not on sky, Phil goes to the stains games? Has he let the cat out of the bag and finally admitting he supports stains? Also when he says "pretty small crowds" thats a typical sts home game isnt it?

[weststand-rich]

Matthew posted:

After watching DV embarass him the other week; it struck me how often he would get run around if he didn't have stains defence to help him. I took Phil's non answer to mean that he agreed with me; but didn't want to upset Eddie by saying anything bad about his beloved wellens.

To be slightly fair when DV went the length of the field Wellens was up against a 3-on-1 overlap so anything DV did would have resulted in a try. After 3 years of playing against him Wellens probably took one look at him, thought "no way is he going the length of the pitch" and bought the dummy.

I'd agree though, it's easy to shine a in a good team.

[mike binder]

Times change, rules change and life moves on. I can't wait to see Big Maurie doing some damage against the Kiwis.WELLENS FLATTERED
Hi Phil, After watching nearly every televised game of Super League this year; I have noticed something and as a result would like you to ask a question. I know that Paul Wellens and Trent Barrett are in line for the 2007 award, but do you think that Wellens would have been man of steel in 2006 if he played for anyone other than St Helens? Firstly I would like to say that Wellens is very good under the high ball and his support and positional play is good; I am certainly not saying that he isn't a good player. However I feel that he would have less of an impact if he played for a "lesser" team. St Helens have the best defence in the competition; this means that Wellens has to make less one-on-one tackles; it also usually means that Saints' opponents have to kick further due to making less metres against the St Helens' defence. This gives Wellens more time to position himself in preparation for a kick and more space to run. It also means that he is a lot fresher from having to make less tackles. Whilst he is a very good player, I don't think that he would make the same difference if he played for, say, Harlequins or Salford. Also whilst his positioning is very good, Wellens is not the fastest player around. David Vaeliki is probably the slowest back at Wigan; however he still had more than enough pace to get away from Wellens in the recent game at the JJB. This is something that I think would be exposed far more often if Wellens did not stand behind the best defensive line in Super League. I agree that St Helens would not be as good a team without him - however I still believe that they would have won as many trophies; as for me the key to St Helens success is largely their half-back and hooker combination. I would be interested to hear you opinion. Matthew


PHIL SAYS: Your question is one of the best that I've ever received, but impossible to answer. Who knows who would look good if they were playing at Salford this year?


We've seen St Helens 14 times on Sky Sports this season and in most of them Wellens has been great. I've watched him play in the other games, matches against teams in the bottom half of the table, with pretty small crowds and not a lot of excitement present. This is when Paul Wellens stands out. He is able to perform at or close to his best in every game, and not a lot of people can do that.


It's obviously an advantage to have great players around you, but you still have to deliver. If you asked the players in Super League who they think is the best full-back the majority would say Paul Wellens (although Pat Richards has had a great two months there recently as well).


The fact that you mention Harlequins is interesting. Mark McLinden is a great player and would score many tries if he'd been in the Saints team this year. I suppose that you need some luck in life in being at the best team when you're at the peak of your career.


I also agree with you about the importance of their half-back and hooker and I will be looking at this in our Grand Final build-up.


The only people who could really answer your question are the players, but they will of course be biased towards their friends and team mates. Still Paul Wellens is a great bloke as well as a great player so I won't complain if he wins it this year
great post

[Lazy J]

weststand-rich posted:


To be slightly fair when DV went the length of the field Wellens was up against a 3-on-1 overlap so anything DV did would have resulted in a try. After 3 years of playing against him Wellens probably took one look at him, thought "no way is he going the length of the pitch" and bought the dummy.

I'd agree though, it's easy to shine a in a good team.

The first job of a full back in defense is tackle the guy with the ball, if he offloads to someone else its upto the rest of he team to tackle them, by takling no-one he just looked a muppet, DV beat "the best in the league" by running in a straight line!

If speed bump wins MOS again it will be down to the amout of smoke blown up his backside by eddie and stevo.

Listen to the commentary if wellens watches the ball go dead its a skill to work out how far the ball will roll and no-one else can do it. wellens is a good player playing in a good team, but double MOS dont think so.

[Matthew]

weststand-rich posted:

To be slightly fair when DV went the length of the field Wellens was up against a 3-on-1 overlap so anything DV did would have resulted in a try. After 3 years of playing against him Wellens probably took one look at him, thought "no way is he going the length of the pitch" and bought the dummy.

I'd agree though, it's easy to shine a in a good team.

Wellens decided to cover the pass and offered DV the outside believing that with DV's carthorse like pace he would be able to catch him. Unfortunately for wellens; while DV maybe slow - he's not as slow as arguably the slowest fullback in SL.

A weaker defensive line would mean more line breaks - which would mean:

1) wellens total lack of pace would be regularly exposed by people running around him (and in the case of players like young penny from wire - probably hop past him)

2) wellens would be more fatigued from having to chase/tackle more - so he would have less input into their attacking moves.

[weststand-rich]

Matthew posted:

weststand-rich posted:

To be slightly fair when DV went the length of the field Wellens was up against a 3-on-1 overlap so anything DV did would have resulted in a try. After 3 years of playing against him Wellens probably took one look at him, thought "no way is he going the length of the pitch" and bought the dummy.

I'd agree though, it's easy to shine a in a good team.

Wellens decided to cover the pass and offered DV the outside believing that with DV's carthorse like pace he would be able to catch him. Unfortunately for wellens; while DV maybe slow - he's not as slow as arguably the slowest fullback in SL.

A weaker defensive line would mean more line breaks - which would mean:

1) wellens total lack of pace would be regularly exposed by people running around him (and in the case of players like young penny from wire - probably hop past him)

2) wellens would be more fatigued from having to chase/tackle more - so he would have less input into their attacking moves.

I don't disagree with you Matt. He's good, but not that good. Kris Radlinksi at a comparable age would have put him squarely in his place.