I see where you're coming from on the Man of Steel concept but you've picked the wrong winger. Look at his stats for last season. He wasn't just a points machine. He had a fantastic season and made a massive contribution to the team way beyond what any normal player in his position would do. Just like Roby is doing this year for Saints.

Unfortunately for Roby, Tomkins is having an even better season. He's playing rugby at a different level now from any other British player in certainly the last 10 or 15 years and possibly longer.

Fans of other clubs might not like it but the lad is just different class.

On that basis giving what is a player of the year award to any other player would be very difficult to justify.

How has he scored 70 tries in 89 appearances by doing that? Did he score them all in the last 6 months?

So basically you would need a seperate award for the backs.

The truth is that Sam has been improving. Two years ago he was a tremendous prospect, no-one knew whether he would be a truly great player but he looked like he might develop into a first team regular and a long term player for Wigan. Last season he really arrived and went from promising young player to genuine SL star - we saw that he was a top SL player and potentially the best player in SL if he continued to develop. At the start of this season he was playing as well as Roby and Monaghan but as the season moved on he has got better and better and better. He has now left them behind and is playing rugby at a significantly higher level than anyone else in SL.

His development has been astonishing to watch, even for a Wigan fan who grew up watching the legends of the late 80s and early 90s and then saw Robinson and Farrell come through into the first team. Robinson is the nearest comparator in terms of his ability to win matches but I think Tomkins in the second half of this season has become an even better player than Robinson, which is not something I would say lightly. Robinson is an all time great of world RL. I think in time he may even eclipse Hanley as the modern era's greatest British player. It's almost blasphemy to say that but this lad is so, so good already and his potential is incredible (frightening I imagine if you're not a Wigan fan). Just how good can be become? I can't wait to find out over the next few years.

Heart says Chase but have to agree I think it will be Tomkins this year as he has been undoubtably the stand out player of the season.

i dont believe a seperate award would have to be specifically for the backs, the qualities i mentioned are not exclusive to forwards. you could also have a straight forward 'player of the year' carrying equal weight. that could be the one for the best all rounder, with the flashy skills and try scoring.
the point i was trying to make is you can be The true man of STEEL without being the best all rounder i.e. the traditional player of the year. if im making any sense?

I cannot disagree with your comparatives between Tomkins and the rest of Super League. It is very difficult to compare players in different positions and Roby offers a team something different to Tomkins but I think (as I have stated before) that Tomkins has been the best player in SL this year by some distance

Again comparisons between Tomkins and Farrell/Robinson are difficult as they are different positions but as an all round player Tomkins can go on and eclipse both

Where I would probably draw the line is Hanley. Any player will have to become something very very special to be compared favourably to Hanley. Unlike a lot of players from the part time era, I actually think that Hanley would be a better player in the modern era as his attributes were 100% suited to modern day rugby. In my lifetime, the Australians have absolutely dominated the sport of rugby league (not now though!!) but I would put Hanley in the top 3 players I have ever seen

Adrian Vowles won it once which suggests its not a 'Best player overall during that period' award, but more of a nod to a player who has done something out of the ordinary for their team.

If Sam is as good as the Goons think, then he'll win it for the next 10 years, just as the likes of Sculthorpe or Cunningham would have dominated it over the past 10 years. But it doesn't work like that.

When is it announced anyway?

That's why I said it was almost blasphemy. Hanley is a rugby god. I have no doubt that he would be as good as any player in the world if he were playing now.

But... Tomkins has been absolutely amazing in the last few months and he's still getting better. I'm not saying he's reached Hanley's level yet but he is on his way to greatness. He now has an aura about him that I haven't seen a player have for a very long time. Other than Hanley and Robinson the other comparator would be Gene Miles in the second half of the season he was with us, when he forged an unbelievable partnership with Offiah. Every time big Gene got the ball something special seemed to happen. That's what Hanley had in abundance and that's what Tomkins has now. (To a lesser extent Jonathan Davies had it too.)You can see the other team start to panic when he gets the ball. It's just innate talent, like these guys were born to play rugby. They can do things that other people can't. It is incredible to watch. It is pure rugby magic.

Like I said, Tomkins development is not complete. Whether he will go on to be talked of alongside Hanley, Murphy and Boston (many Wigan fans of mature years reckon Boston was as good as and some say better than Hanley, but who can compare the games across those eras?) as an all time great remains to be seen, but he's already a sensational player and I can wait to watch him over the next few years.

On the contrary, Adrian Vowels was comfortably one of the best players in the league that year, if not the best. The list of Man of Steel winners shows that you have to be a top class player to win the award and you do Vowles a disservice to suggest otherwise

Tomkins might someday be able to match Hanley in some elements of his play, but he will never do it while making 40 tackles a match, and, physically, he'll never be able to run or tackle with as much power as Ellery. In short, he might be outstanding, but he'll never be outstanding in so many aspects of the game.

Fair points. I think (quite understandably) your Wigan glasses are on a bit. For example, while Miles was great player, Meninga had a bigger impact on the British game and made his winger (Sean Day?) look fantastic who wasn’t in the same league as Offiah

Fair comment on Hanley, I know you are not suggesting Tomkins is as good as the great man but using him to highlight Tomkins potential for greatness

Also, while Jonathan Davies wasn’t in our game for a long time, he was a very good player (interesting question would be if Davies and Tomkins were both available for GB now, who would you select at full back?)

Tomkins, Davies at stand-off. None of us know yet how good Tomkins might get, but he is a great player already and it is going to be very exciting to watch him grow further over the next few years. Sooner or later someone is going to come along to rival Hanley just as he appeared on the scene after Murphy.

Meninga was an incredible player. I didn't see him play live as often as Hanley but from what I did see of him I don't think its blasphemy to say that Meninga was as good as Hanley. For those too young to have seen big Mal play, just imagine a bigger, better and more powerful version of Inglis and you'll have some idea of how good a player Meninga was. Huge, strong, deceptively quick for such a big man, great hands and a fantastic rugby brain. He always seemed to turn up at the wrong time for Great Britain...

By that reckoning Andrew Johns would be a much worse player than Hanley. That is a massive call and not one many Aussies would agree with.

I do agree though that there is something special about a complete player.
In fantasy rugby league terms it would be interesting to know whether 13 Hanleys would beat 13 Meningas....

Hanley was the all round RL player.

The RFL Awards Dinner is usually in the week leading up to the Grand Final. It was last year anyway

Saddened you do make me laugh at times with your anti Wigan head on.

I will answer that for you quite easily the 13 Hanleys.

The finest player I have ever seen play the game and I have been watching RL since the late 70's.

I had an argument with my dad about Hanley and he says he wasn't fit to lace Alex Murphy's boots,now I never saw Murphy play but I couldn't imagine anyone better than Hanley.

I don’t know who would win out of 13 Meninga’s or 13 Hanley’s (both very very good players) but I know if I saw either of those two teams get of the coach I would be pulling a hamstring in the warm up!

Agreed with all of this, the potential of Tomkins is frightning really, he still has much to learn but is being compared favorably with the likes of Billy Slater in only his third full year of SL. (Matt Parish)

I agree Roby is a great player but by implication you are saying Sam doesn't have steel???? Come off it. Brave as a lion and never will give up, that's why Wigan are going to win the cup (again).

It was close up until about a month ago between Tomkins and Roby but not now. I've said for a little while Sam wins us big games whereas Roby put in super human efforts that keep Saints in games.

A match winner over an effort player for me.

Tomkins.

Which big games in SL has Tomkins won for Wigan over recent weeks?

1 - Tomkins
2 - Chase
3 - Roby / M Monaghan

I'm guessing your getting at the fact that the Man Of Steel award is meant to be for superleague games only but let's face it the players won't ignore the fact he's ripped apart the best 2 sides(apart from Wigan) in superleague in the past month in the challenge cup.

His league form hasn't been too shabby either. I'm sure I read a stat somewhere that's he scored around 20 try's in his last 12 or so superleague games.

Match winner.