Cameron Phelps - Good Enough to be Full Back?

[cpwigan]

A better post would have been "he has improved, no buts, and up to now he is proving me wrong" To quote someone as not being flawless is quite ridiculous. I have been watching the game for over 23 years and seen few performances in that time that were 'flawless'. Go off what you see and stop trying to justify a position you took last season that now appears to be wrong. There's no shame in it you know....in fact quite the reverse.

Flash the key to any player / team is defence first. Graham Lowe coined the phrase attack though defence and Madge has come along and reinforced that view. Any weak links in defence are under pressure. On that basis Phelps remains under pressure. On attack he remains too greedy. The high shot he got v Crusaders was crazy. A two man overlap and he tries to dummy to score himself. So sorry, the jury is still out here. The best feature of his play thus far have been the kicks IMO. Would he have scored the tries Amos did v Wire. Your fullback should be one of the 3 or 4 best players in the team and Roberts currently fits that criteria.

[Panchitta Marra]

A better post would have been "he has improved, no buts, and up to now he is proving me wrong" To quote someone as not being flawless is quite ridiculous. I have been watching the game for over 23 years and seen few performances in that time that were 'flawless'. Go off what you see and stop trying to justify a position you took last season that now appears to be wrong. There's no shame in it you know....in fact quite the reverse.

Flash the key to any player / team is defence first. Graham Lowe coined the phrase attack though defence and Madge has come along and reinforced that view. Any weak links in defence are under pressure. On that basis Phelps remains under pressure. On attack he remains too greedy. The high shot he got v Crusaders was crazy. A two man overlap and he tries to dummy to score himself. So sorry, the jury is still out here. The best feature of his play thus far have been the kicks IMO. Would he have scored the tries Amos did v Wire. Your fullback should be one of the 3 or 4 best players in the team and Roberts currently fits that criteria.

OK Amos has been superb coming forward, but has he been properly tested at full back with high bombs, players coming through at pace etc.
Phelps is pretty good coming forward from full back, with some pace too.
He has made breaks from the back, although probably not as effectively as Amos.
Would you therefore keep Amos at full back and put Phelps on the wing, a position he played at club level in Australia.
Would you leave Amos at full back and put Phelps on the wing.

[gpartin]

OK Amos has been superb coming forward, but has he been properly tested at full back with high bombs, players coming through at pace etc.
Phelps is pretty good coming forward from full back, with some pace too.
He has made breaks from the back, although probably not as effectively as Amos.
Would you therefore keep Amos at full back and put Phelps on the wing, a position he played at club level in Australia.
Would you leave Amos at full back and put Phelps on the wing.

I don't think Amos has a problem under high bombs as such but he clearly does when he is being pressured by a centre or winger. I think that it is fair to say that the majority of kicks that go to a fullback are from deeper in the field than the traditional last tackle kicks to the corner so he should have more space to deal with them at FB unless teams decide to target him which against the majority of clubs he has pretty much avoided thus far. Even in the Semi V Warrington where he was atrocious he was actually going out of his way to make a catch further infield rather than just attempting to make catches when the ball was kick directly at him, perhaps this indicated we had a weakness in the centre under the high ball which meant Amos was forced to cover more than one position?

[Panchitta Marra]

OK Amos has been superb coming forward, but has he been properly tested at full back with high bombs, players coming through at pace etc.
Phelps is pretty good coming forward from full back, with some pace too.
He has made breaks from the back, although probably not as effectively as Amos.
Would you therefore keep Amos at full back and put Phelps on the wing, a position he played at club level in Australia.
Would you leave Amos at full back and put Phelps on the wing.

I don't think Amos has a problem under high bombs as such but he clearly does when he is being pressured by a centre or winger. I think that it is fair to say that the majority of kicks that go to a fullback are from deeper in the field than the traditional last tackle kicks to the corner so he should have more space to deal with them at FB unless teams decide to target him which against the majority of clubs he has pretty much avoided thus far. Even in the Semi V Warrington where he was atrocious he was actually going out of his way to make a catch further infield rather than just attempting to make catches when the ball was kick directly at him, perhaps this indicated we had a weakness in the centre under the high ball which meant Amos was forced to cover more than one position?

Understood GP.
On current form Amos will score tries from full back or the wing, its therefore a case of does he stay at fullback when Cameron returns to fitness.
I think Madge will put things back as they were at the start of the season.
Irrespective of all this, the Wigan team has been tremendous, with whatever changes that have had to be made so far.
It seems we now have a system where players are more capable of covering various positions, which I dont think was as effective in previous seasons.

[Dobby]

Flash the key to any player / team is defence first. Graham Lowe coined the phrase attack though defence and Madge has come along and reinforced that view. Any weak links in defence are under pressure. On that basis Phelps remains under pressure. On attack he remains too greedy. The high shot he got v Crusaders was crazy. A two man overlap and he tries to dummy to score himself. So sorry, the jury is still out here. The best feature of his play thus far have been the kicks IMO. Would he have scored the tries Amos did v Wire. Your fullback should be one of the 3 or 4 best players in the team and Roberts currently fits that criteria.

I couldnt agree more. Phelps is so overated by some that it is hard to believe. It kind of reminds me of how people think that Feka is a great player because he does one big, barnstorming run per game. Phelps seemed to become a favourite with some last season, despite often playing poorly, simply because he tried hard and kissed the badge a few times. He has done okay at full back but he is not exceptional by any means. Indeed I think Roberts is a far better all round full back and is much more of a threat.

Phelps during his time at Wigan has had far more chances than anyone, largely to try and justify his signing. He has been tried at hooker, wing, centre (where he failed in each position) and laterly full back where he has done better. Have any other players had the chances that he has had?

His defence is very poor and he is poor under high kicks. He is also very greedy in attack and often doesnt pass when he should. Yes he chimes into the line well at times and does do some nice balls however you wouldnt expect anything else for a stand off playing at full back, McGuire does much the same when he has played there for Leeds. Indeed you could accuse Phelps of doing this too much at times and getting in the way. Full back is a free role in many respects and it is a position where it is easy to look very good, particularly when you are not being tested in defence. He is doing a decent job there, but no better than Roberts has done in the last 2 weeks, and certainly shouldnt be an automatic selection by any means.

[Panchitta Marra]

Flash the key to any player / team is defence first. Graham Lowe coined the phrase attack though defence and Madge has come along and reinforced that view. Any weak links in defence are under pressure. On that basis Phelps remains under pressure. On attack he remains too greedy. The high shot he got v Crusaders was crazy. A two man overlap and he tries to dummy to score himself. So sorry, the jury is still out here. The best feature of his play thus far have been the kicks IMO. Would he have scored the tries Amos did v Wire. Your fullback should be one of the 3 or 4 best players in the team and Roberts currently fits that criteria.

I couldnt agree more. Phelps is so overated by some that it is hard to believe. It kind of reminds me of how people think that Feka is a great player because he does one big, barnstorming run per game. Phelps seemed to become a favourite with some last season, despite often playing poorly, simply because he tried hard and kissed the badge a few times. He has done okay at full back but he is not exceptional by any means. Indeed I think Roberts is a far better all round full back and is much more of a threat.

Phelps during his time at Wigan has had far more chances than anyone, largely to try and justify his signing. He has been tried at hooker, wing, centre (where he failed in each position) and laterly full back where he has done better. Have any other players had the chances that he has had?

His defence is very poor and he is poor under high kicks. He is also very greedy in attack and often doesnt pass when he should. Yes he chimes into the line well at times and does do some nice balls however you wouldnt expect anything else for a stand off playing at full back, McGuire does much the same when he has played there for Leeds. Indeed you could accuse Phelps of doing this too much at times and getting in the way. Full back is a free role in many respects and it is a position where it is easy to look very good, particularly when you are not being tested in defence. He is doing a decent job there, but no better than Roberts has done in the last 2 weeks, and certainly shouldnt be an automatic selection by any means.

What's your solution then Dobby?

[cpwigan]

I think it is hard to say if the team will change in the present season. You might see changes for next season. IIRC, we have to reduce our overseas quota by 1 as do all SL clubs, so that might be a factor.

[GeoffN]

I think it is hard to say if the team will change in the present season. You might see changes for next season. IIRC, we have to reduce our overseas quota by 1 as do all SL clubs, so that might be a factor.

I'd expect Bails to be the one to go...though of course in addition two more would need to go to make room for Smith & Slater...

[cpwigan]

The day we start having threads is Slater good enough to be our full back then we will beack where we belong

[weststand-rich]

I think it is hard to say if the team will change in the present season. You might see changes for next season. IIRC, we have to reduce our overseas quota by 1 as do all SL clubs, so that might be a factor.

Are we at present not already under quota. I seem to recall some comments from the last fans forum attributed to IL basically saying we're currently under quota and if we wanted to sign an Aussie now we could?

Am I right? Please correct if I'm skewed.