Aspinwall

[steve]

rowlands seemed to walk past him for widnes s first try on sunday when he should of got dumped in touch.lets face it rowlands was by no means a heavy weight. Aspinwall is an all round player but he s no world beater and thats what i want!!!!! like i say he s had his chance.

Look at Hodgy theres not much difference between them both. In fact if you asked me I would have kept Briscoe and got rid hodgy and aspinwall.

[Fraggle]

steve posted:
Look at Hodgy theres not much difference between them both.

Au contraire, Hodgy was very lazy in defence and his positioning going forward often wasn't the best. Defensively he was rubbish, not a patch on Aspy. Infact, I'd go as far as saying he was lazy all round, despite the tries he scored. Remember the first game of the season, in the 2nd half he only touched the ball 3 times, the first of which was 25 minutes into the half to collect the ball for his team to drop out. His own teammates weren't interested in giving him the ball!

You can't accuse Aspy of laziness, and I'm sure he's got the respect of players such as Vainokolo and Senior as he always seems to shine against the likes of them.

[GeoffN]

steve posted:
Aspinwall is an all round player but he s no world beater and thats what i want!!!!! .

That's what we all want, but realistically these days we can't have 17 world-beaters out there, and stay within the salary cap! Who would you sign, if you could have anyone? And which players would you get rid of to make room for your choice, because a world-beating player would be on a world-beating wage!
In terms of value for money, I can't think of anyone who would replace Aspi, on a similar wage.

[jinkin jimmy]

what is he on (wage not medication)

[Fraggle]

jinkin jimmy posted:
what is he on (wage not medication)

He'll be one of the 20/20 people, but without international representation I don't suppose he'll be one of the higher earners. I'd be surprised if anyone here knows exactly what he earns, people often like to keep that kind of thing to themselves.

[DaveO]

robjoenz posted:
Sounds like some people get too attached to the past, compare all present players to past players and decide they're 'not from the same mould.'

Aspinwall gets himself a good share of the tries and is solid in defence. He managed to keep Vainakola out of the game against Bradford, good considering he was out of position. He can catch too. He doesn't break the line with every run he takes, but he does sometimes and makes the metres from dummy half. I think he is one of the more underrated players we have.

I don't think people are comparing him with the past players but with players in other teams today. Our squad lacks size and line breaking players and Aspwinall's weakness is in that area.

I never expect him to make a telling contribution in attack of his own making. If he had more pace he would be a good winger with less responsibility for breaking the line but he isn't fast enough.

As a centre he isn't big enough or strong enough going forward. He may be sound defensivlly but I don't think any of his opposite numbers see him as much of a threat in attack. He certainly doesn't have opposition fans worried when his name is read out from the team sheet.

That said neither does Wilde and there is the problem! We are one strike centre short.

Dave

[we_need_a_coach]

Like a lot of our squad, he's just not big enough, we are getting hammered by bigger teams at every game. He's certainly not up to past centres, and I just don't rate him as a winger, he just has'nt got the power.

[GeoffN]

DaveO posted:

I don't think people are comparing him with the past players but with players in other teams today.
Dave

lets see...

Leeds - I'd have Aspi ahead of either Mckenna or Walker, though not Senior (yet)
Bulls - I'd put him ahead of Pryce, Cook, Johnson, and level with Hape.
Saints - not seen enough of Lyon, but level with Talau and Gilmour
Hull - ok, he's not as good as Yeaman or Eagar
Wakey - Domic's better, Demetriou isn't
London - Aspi's better than any of theirs
Wire- ok both Gleeson and Kohe-love are better
Salford - I'd have Aspi over any of theirs
Widnes - as above (unless they play Gazza at centre)
Hudds - possibly DeVere is better
Leigh - don't be silly!

I reckon Aspi is about 6th or 7th best centre in SL.

[we_need_a_coach]

Oh come on, when you have to start listing other teams players its just proving my point, Wigan don't deserve 7th best (in your words), and I think your being a little bias, I'd put him at 11th or 12th at best, its just not good enough for Wigan, and other positions on the field are similar, it's no wonder we struggle against the likes of the Broncos.

[GeoffN]

But we can't have the best players in every position any more - the salary cap point has been made too often already, but it's still true.
There have to be some positions filled by players who will accept, say £30 - £40k pa.
A world-class player would typically be around the £200k salary; so IF we had, say, 5, that would leave £800k to share amongst the other 15, which is an average of just over £50k each.
Not sure exactly what Aspi is earning, but you can bet all the centres I mentioned (as being better than him) are on a higher wage.
You go on to say that other players on the field are similar - Rads? Newton? Dallas? Carney? Farrell (still on the wage bill)? O'Loughlin? Can't think of anyone in SL I'd swap them for, in their positions.