Not frustrated with Sam T anymore.

[Kiwiseddon]

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about frustrations I had with Sam T and his decision making with the ball in hand. I felt that his options were sometimes wrong and if he had a little more composure, he could be a better player.

Well.....

Last night against KR, I felt that he was pretty much flawless. He did knock a ball on when catching but other than that, his decision making was good and he looked every bit the star we know he is.
His inside ball to his brother for the last try was a peach!

Nice one Sam......Thanks for proving me wrong!

[Kittwazzer]

Had to chuckle at the comments around me at his second try:

GIVE IT!!!!

GREEDY BUGGER!!!!

WHAT A TRY!!!!

[cpwigan]

I hope folks realise he is a full back now

Sam and Joe Mellor could never play in the halves together. Now Joe can play 6 with Sam at FB and that works.

[Wes]

Wow Cherrie Pie wipe your mouth, Sam will be a 1 club man . . . . I hope

[cpwigan]

It may be Cherry that Sam does a Lockyer and moves to the halves from full back as he ages and slows down. The club IMO tended to keep Sam and Joe apart in the Academy because it would not have worked as youngsters. IIRC, they often played Howarth as a first pass link to balance Sam at 6.

If an older Sam moves to the halves then perhaps that opens the door for Matty Russell. I do not see him as a SL winger. I loved watching Nicky Stanton as an Academy Winger but at SL his size would have been an issue like it would be for Matty IMO.

I think Joe would have got games last season but for his injury which he has done incredibly well to come back from but physically it may have doner him the world of good as you alluded to.

I think Powell is a Cooper Cronk style HB and personally I like at least 1 such HB in my teams. I also think Sam is the nearest thing to Bill Slater out there and IIRC (not at all sure) but Billy started as a half back.

If Powell does not emerge then 4/5 years down the line one of Taylor, Williams, Hampshire certainly will. Would have loved rto see Owen Farrell play for us. Not be.

[Kittwazzer]

Fully understand what you're saying CP but realistically, how long can you expect the likes of Powell and Russell to wait. More to the point, how long before other clubs come sniffing around?

[DaveO]

As for Sam, it's obvious that Madge had an excellent reason for moving him to fullback. He's been outstanding at fullback yet some people still felt he was better in the halves and criticised him for not doing well in the big games.

There is a very astute little post in the thread on rlfans about the game v HKR you may have seen since it is about two or three below one of yours by user Bill_Barlow. It says this:

"No tries down the right side and generally no attacking threat down that side til the death and the game was over, if i was playing Wigan id make sure we stiffled their left side attack and just target Sam on the end of the move ala St George and Wire. "

Wire will IMO do exactly that once again and each time we play them and they will target Sam at the end of the move.

Poor sides like Quins and Salford aren't capable of doing that but even they know to put bombs up for Sam.

Do you honestly think Sam would make it in the NRL as a full back playing against astute coaches and top sides week in , week out? I don't. Now you could argue since we only play Wire a few times a season and we won't be playing St. George any time soon we can get away with it but surely that is not the point.

[Wes]

I think the reason for attacking the left is because of how we are coached Im sure we can attack down the right too, also Sam will be a threat against top teams and to be honest with Finch now coming too and Tommy at 9 if teams concentrate too much on Sam other players can/will punish them plus when Hock is back thats another dimension in it self, you dont have the most line breaks and try assists for only turning it on against the quins and salfords so to speak. We will win the wire and when Sam gets MoM against them these types of comments will be erradicated!

Wow Im argumentative today!

[cpwigan]

St George won the NRL in 2010 attacking left side 99.9% of the time. Most teams have a left side bias. Far more players can pass right to left than left to right. Sam could play FB in the NRL with ease and be one of the top 5 FBs in their comp. Sam is the nearest thing to Billy Slater.

[yoda warrior]

As for Sam, it's obvious that Madge had an excellent reason for moving him to fullback. He's been outstanding at fullback yet some people still felt he was better in the halves and criticised him for not doing well in the big games.

There is a very astute little post in the thread on rlfans about the game v HKR you may have seen since it is about two or three below one of yours by user Bill_Barlow. It says this:

"No tries down the right side and generally no attacking threat down that side til the death and the game was over, if i was playing Wigan id make sure we stiffled their left side attack and just target Sam on the end of the move ala St George and Wire. "

Wire will IMO do exactly that once again and each time we play them and they will target Sam at the end of the move.

Poor sides like Quins and Salford aren't capable of doing that but even they know to put bombs up for Sam.

Do you honestly think Sam would make it in the NRL as a full back playing against astute coaches and top sides week in , week out? I don't. Now you could argue since we only play Wire a few times a season and we won't be playing St. George any time soon we can get away with it but surely that is not the point.

We have created some tries down the right with sam ,a corker against catalan comes to mind. Most players are better left to right so we will prob always be better down tha side. Another reason for the left side being more effective might be the Finch, Hoffman combination. Everyone can see they like to work together, and can read each others games. I think in the big games we'll see Finch use Hoffman as a short ball instead of a dummy alot in the early part of games in an effort to keep the outside back defenders back a little bit and give sam a little bit more room to work in later in the game.