He beat Ryan Hall chasing a ball against Leeds and he's fast.

Rau has been consistently one of our worst players, if he could recapture the form he had against Leeds in the playoffs a couple of years ago then he could be one of the best forwards in SL.

It's too early to judge on Blythe but yesterday he had one of his worst performances in a Wire shirt.

I disagree, I think he is a different player to them though.

One thing he does very well is be in position for the deep kicks. He then just runs straight back at the defence. Whilst this allows him to be tackled, it does make us as many metres as possible.

He averages 7.7m per carry
Wellens averages 6.3m
Webb averages 6.6m
Hodgson averages 6.5m

He does make less tackle busts, but he seems to go down to get a quick ptb, I'm not sure whether this has always been his style, or a change in style in response to his serious injury.

Mathers plays up in the line a lot like an extra half, whereas a lot of the others are traditional 1's.

Tackle Completion:

Mathers - 89.4%
Webb - 81%
Wellens - 88%
Hodgson - 77.4%


Errors:

Mathers - 10 (1 per game)
Webb - 11 (0.6 per game)
Wellens - 19 (0.9 per game)
Hodgson - 34 (1.7 per game)

So he makes more metres than the others, his tackle completion is better, and his error count is similar.

He's doing okay by me. Last night they scored a few tries where he had made the try saving tackle. On the next play nobody covered for him.

To be honest I was a bit underwhelmed at our signing of Mathers, not particularly bothered either way.

Watching him play for us I've not once been sorry we signed him. He's always been solid and for me is a much safer bet than Readon at FB. Plus he looks like he wants to be here and play for us and the stats above speak for themselves. I'm really glad we signed him.

And that is a good word for him (apart from the one glaring costly error he seems to come up with per match). I would want more attacking threat from FB.

Thought pickers had a solid game, and McCarthy didn't look out of place at all considering 1st game back from knee op and his debut.

That's quality stuff that Dave, seriously. I'm loving your analysis more & more. I'm with you on this, he knows what he wants to do, it's all simple stuff, positioning, run the ball back straight & hard. I was watching that Leeds game this morning from a fortnight ago, a few times he made half breaks, or threatened to break.

He's as good as anything in SL for me.

But not actually making a break. And that is the point. He needs to beat the first man on the kick return and he never does.

He needs to work on his basic speed and evasion skills.

He did against Hull at home.

He made a break in broken field at Widnes last week too, with good footwork. Kick return, broken field.

His 'strength' is as a 3rd halfback, rather than line breaker, which he will make his share of.

Agree with that, I like a traditional full back that can hit the line out wide and cause an over lap, but right now with our lack of scrum half Mathers is doing a good job of linking up when needed.

I rate Mathers and think Tony Smith did and outstanding bit of business in bringing himhere.

FWIW I really rate Mathers too. As well as those stats he has a hugely infectious, persuasive, enthusiasm for the game and what it means to be in a team.

Plenty other positions in the team which require improvement before the full back berth comes under the spotlight for me. He'll do me fine and he would fit in to a SL winning side no bother. Maybe he's a Republican

No reason why you can't have a line breaker and aggressive kick returner whilst utilising the free role to join the line as an a additional pivot.

The three mentioned earlier (Webb, Hodgson and Wellens) all do it and coincidentally all play for the top three teams in the table.

I would like Warrington to aim higher and bring in a world class talent for this position. I also used to think the same for hooker but it appears that by default we have now got a world class player in that role; question is will he be here next season.

We still need to recruit a winger/fullback, halfback, centre and impact prop forward.

Quote ="mark_m"No reason why you can't have a line breaker and aggressive kick returner whilst utilising the free role to join the line as an a additional pivot. The three mentioned earlier (Webb, Hodgson and Wellens) all do it and coincidentally all play for the top three teams in the table. I would like Warrington to aim higher and bring in a world class talent for this position. I also used to think the same for hooker but it appears that by default we have now got a world class player in that role; question is will he be here next season. We still need to recruit a winger/fullback, halfback, centre and impact prop forward.'" I'm not sure these fullbacks are as 'far ahead' of Mathers as you think, take this comparison right, www.superleague.co.uk/statistics ... eason=2009 Webb has made 8 breaks in 17 games, Mathers 3 in 10, so he'd make say 5 in 17, not much difference. Factor in, he makes heaps more yards and has a similar number of assists & a much better tackle completion rate. I think he's up there y'know.

Quote ="mark_m"No reason why you can't have a line breaker and aggressive kick returner whilst utilising the free role to join the line as an a additional pivot. The three mentioned earlier (Webb, Hodgson and Wellens) all do it and coincidentally all play for the top three teams in the table. I would like Warrington to aim higher and bring in a world class talent for this position. I also used to think the same for hooker but it appears that by default we have now got a world class player in that role; question is will he be here next season. We still need to recruit a winger/fullback, halfback, centre and impact prop forward.'" I'm not sure these fullbacks are as 'far ahead' of Mathers as you think, take this comparison right, www.superleague.co.uk/statistics ... eason=2009 Webb has made 8 breaks in 17 games, Mathers 3 in 10, so he'd make say 5 in 17, not much difference. Factor in, he makes heaps more yards and has a similar number of assists & a much better tackle completion rate. I think he's up there y'know.

Rather shows that stats are somewhat misleading as surely you are not saying Mathers is in the same class as Webb? I know which one I would rather have in the number one shirt.

Just out of interest who is the leading fullback in SL based on stats?

But does he really? He makes more yards than these fullbacks you are comparing him to, so if they make more breaks, the basic stuff they do must be really crap.

Go on do some digging who is the leading fullback based on stats alone?

Cheers!

To be honest it surprised me that Mark singled out Mathers, as for me he has been a real positive influence on the team.

Like Wires71 said too, his attitude and enthusiasm is a great asset.

Webb has been a shadow of himself this year. Surgery in the off season, no doubt very little of a pre season, missed a few rounds. Not looked the same.

Webb of 2009 : No difference.

Webb of 2007 & 2008 : Of course, Webb was outstanding.

I'd say, naked eye, Hodgson & Briscoe have been the most impressive this year. Webb & Greenshields standards have slipped.

I also like that Melling at Quins.

I am not saying he has been a bad asset to the team but I think we could do better, there are a few things about his core skills that I really can't get enthusiastic about. He certainly still isn't the player he was at Leeds.

Then again, look at Vinnie Anderson last night and the loss of his pace. Remember the try he scored at the Millennium Stadium a couple of years ago?

Back to the original topic.

IMO Blythe had a shocker. Lots of errors and seemed a liability when he had the ball. to be fair the lad has not had much first team action this year and i imagine it can be hard to just slot in and be upto spead. Saying this, FWIW i dont think he will become a stand out SL player. I'm not sure he will make the improvements needed but i hope he proves me wrong.

Pickersgill seemed fairly anonymous tonight, could reallt fault him but i dont think he really stood out either. Again it cant be easy slotting back into a team when you have been playing elsewhere for most of the season.

As we are on the subject of mathers, I really rate the guy. He might not make the most breaks on kick returns but as someone has shown with the stats he does make good yards, Lots of tackles and few errors. Add his positive attitude and communication skills he seems to have on the pitch, especially with the wingers then i think we have got a top class bloke.

Pickersgill was only on the pitch for 2 small stints so how on earth you can start slagging the lad of is beyond me. He's a good forward and a real nice lad and i hope we see him sign a permanent deal with us next year. Likewise Penny i thought had a reasonable game and did what was aksed of him. Warrington's sliding defence was shocking at times and Wigan always had the numbers.

Blythe i agree was poor.

Also loving the stats Tickle, but Mathers offers so much more...he demonstrates behaviours that I hope all of the team will eventually adopt. His enthuasium is amazing (him and Penny must have about 10 red bulls before a match, as they just seem so pumped), love how he celebrates errors we have forced, big hits, the first one to slap a player on the back when they have messed up...that stuff is just priceless. It's the TS effect. Speaking to Leeds fan at last years millenium magic after a disappointing first half, I moaned about our lack of togetherness - players never celebrating tries or forced errors, going off as indivduals at half time. Leeds fan stated that Leeds were like that before TS was there.

In my eyes Mathers signing and Tony Smith appointment are the best things that have happen this year...oh and Wembley

Rant over..sorry

I've a feeling he'll be on the bench. TS never leaves him out if he's fit. Any chance Mickey Higham might make the final?

Dave T's stuff is good. He's really raised the bar over my perfunctory statistical analysis. I must do better

I bet though he gets vexed off like me when people selectively adopt / reject the validity of stats to suit their arguments.

That's the flaw with stats isn't it though, generally they can be used to prove almost anything, I just try and use them to support the odd argument rather than prove it outright.

I must admit, when you get a statement like 'x never breaks a tackle' or 'y misses more tackles than he makes' I always enjoy nipping over to the SL website. I must admit I really like that section of the website, and the only stat I would like to see on there would be a minutes stat (how many minutes each player has played). I believe they do this on the NRL website.

If they were able to display what percentage of each team's salary cap every player was on, that might make comparisons between given individuals a bit more realistic.