Absolute quality.

He’s had a year of playing on the right wing. Naturally our “good ball” always goes down the left (Hastings/Williams Farrell etc). Done a lot of the donkey work on the right for a year never getting many opportunities.

Now on the left he’ll see himself shoot up the try scoring charts. Deserves it too.

The improvement year on year of Marshall has been outstanding. He’s far superior to Burgess and Manfredi and is quite easily the best winger at the club and right up there for the best in SL. That try today was exceptional and just shouldn’t have been scored under any circumstances. He’s a special player who we must be looking to secure on a better contract, on this form it’s only a matter of time before the NRL comes calling.

Marshall for most would have been at best third choice couple of years back, for some fourth. He now looks first choice he's worked on his weaker areas and allied to his eye for a gap and finishing is now one of the first names on the team sheet. I always remember him talking about his season at Swinton, he was thankfull to them and he said how it grounded him and made him realise how lucky he was to play pro sport. He seems to have carried that with him and used it positivley, you can not question his attitude and commitment for our team . I'm really genuinely pleased for him but not surprised by his rise. Just hope the NRL clubs obsession with size in outside backs puts them off him the lads a gem.

Marshall has always given 100% for the club even when he has been dropped and in my opinion he has just been glad to be part of the club which is a great attitude when you remember that when he was too old for the Academy, he was not retained, but resigned a season or so after.

I also wish that some supporters would stop swiping at Burgess as surely it is better to have a situation of three or even four wingers considered on form for the positions.

It has been the same with the Greenwood/Isa situation in the second row. When Greenwood was signed, he was regarded by some as a great signing and better than Isa. Now since Greenwood has suffered head injuries which obviously has affected his confidence, we get some same supporters now saying that Isa is the better player and Greenwood is rubbish.

Another example has been Powell, not good enough for some, but has always given 100% and played to the best of his ability even when having a poor game.

We now have a far better team spirit in the squad with players competing for places and keeping the pressure on others and with the exception of the Castleford game, been good for the club.

All players have bad patches and should be encouraged, not swiped at like it is with some supporters.

I think you just need to enjoy the current purple patch and not use it as a cane with which to beat supporters whose attitude you don't like.

Genuine fans are very primal. They react on instinct and emotion because they are 100% invested in the team they love. You are never going to stop them talking about their club and discussing the parts of the operation they consider to be weak.

If a player is identified as a problem but then goes on to prove his critics wrong, I think you'll find that most supporters will be more than happy to congratulate him and admit that they were too quick to write him off.

Marshall deserves massive credit for the way he has worked on and improved his weaknesses and as has been said is probably our #1 winger right now. His biggest strength is actually that he can play on both wings. Sounds simple but not many wingers can do it. If he carries on then he has a great chance of an England call up. Makinson is in and then for me it's between our 3, Tom Johnstone and Josh for the last spot and Marshy has to be the early front runner.

I was always one of those who thought that Marshall would have been the eventual casualty of us having so many wingers. It's hard to underestimate how much of a big call letting Davies go was. It ususally takes wingers years to develop the extra strings to their bow so that they can do the extra running & support work to take pressure away from the forwards. Davies was already capable of doing that to a very high level, and could've played that role for 10 years at Wigan if we decided to go with him instead of Marshy.

Someone of Marshall's build will never be able to do that sort of job because of his lack of size, but he really has come on leaps and bounds in using his pace & desire to compensate for it. The amount of penalties he wins when returning the ball just through running quick, straight & showing urgency to play the ball quickly. His improvement under the high ball too has been massive. I still think Dom on form is the best winger in the competition, but Marshall's playing as well as anyone at present and so much of it is down to him clearly putting the hours in to improve.

Echoing all that, but I have another question about Liam Marshall. I've certainly always thought of him as a left-sided player, he seems happier on the left.

But I noticed when he scored his 'wonder try', his first kick (for which he had time to sort it out), he kicked with his right foot. Is he in fact right-footed, or can he kick with both feet ? All the more credit to him if he is. Either way, a wonderful score, and, of course, it's not *just* executing it, it's thinking of it in the first place!

Those stats:

16 carries
154 metres (#1)
9 tackle busts (joint #1)
5 clean breaks (#1)

Reminds me of Brett Dallas with his fearless enthusiastic carries

Are these Tony Clubbs career stats?

Excellent comparison. I bet there's not much between them in terms of speed either. If he's as good for us as Dallas was throughout his tenure I'll be more than happy!

+1

I am delighted that Marshall has put me in my place. I was always pretty vocal of his abilities under the high ball and tackling ability. I am absolutely fine with him under the high ball now and have come to accept that he isn't probably ever going to be strong enough to be a good tackler but he is outstanding in all other areas of his game. If every player was brilliant at everything then they would all be like Greg Inglis. Like yourself, i was disappointed we let Davies go over Burgess but with both players only on 1 year deals it is entirely feasible he could be back. Davies had the opportunity to go to Brisbane a couple of years ago but the club and his family persuaded him to stay and the Catalans move came out of the blue. I think he is going to be a top winger who could just as easily play at FB if required and would rather him do that at Wigan.

New contract until the end of 2023, with an option for 2024.

https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/rugby- ... al-2446226

https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/rugby- ... al-2446226

Well deserved. Lets hope he doesnt rest on his laurels and continues to push his development like he has been

Great news for the lad. Well deserved.

I take it that that means Budgie's off at the end of the season if Manfredi doesn't get injured again?

It's good to see application and dedication rewarded. I've said elsewhere that the improvement in his all round game is 2nd to none. Well deserved.

Have we got any wingers coming through the academy that will be ready to step up? Last ones to come through were Marshall and Davies 3 years ago.

We are probably covered in the 3/4s really

Wingers:

Dom
Marshall
Bibby
French

Centres:

Gilly/New Signing
Zak
Bibby
Hank

Exactly how I see it, with back up from Hanley and Halsall. They’re not wingers but could fill in. There’s time for Burgess to save his Wigan career if he wants it enough but I can’t help but wonder if he needs a fresh start. I hope not because I think him and us may regret it.

It may be that we sacrifice Burgess though to use his cap space to work on signings/contract extensions.

Hopefully Burgess stays because 3 quality wingers fighting for two spots can only be a good thing, but in a salary capped sport you can't keep them all.

But Burgess is no longer a quality player, Hopefully he will be on his way

He definitely is, he just has an issue with form.

Give over, He's been formless since 2017, He need's to be offloaded for the good of everyone