A 33 year old Makinson would be daft not to take on a couple of years down in the South of France. A new environment at a club still pushing for honours which will set him up nice for retirement. Its not like going over to Australia, you're literally a 90 minute flight away from family and friends.

Did you see the Sam Tomkins interview last year from his home in France, stunning. I can't see him moving back to the UK for some time. Why would you? what a life!!

His house on Lee's Lane before he went to France was none too shabby either but give me the south of France any day

Our record in bringing through top quality backs in the last few years isn’t the best. The club is getting the rewards if being patient with Harry Smith but there hasn’t been much else. Hopefully Eckersley, Douglas and Farrimond can be the ones that turn that tide.

On the flip side we’ve had forwards coming out of our ears. I remember going to one of the last London Skolar pre season games and the young Wigan pack was stacked, with guys like Byrne, Havard, Shorrocks, Smithies, McDonnell, Rushton, Partington etc turning out.

I think it’s indicative of the British game in general. We’ve always had quality forwards but lack real quality backs at times particularly centres.

We’ve matched Australia in the pack numerous times but it’s the backs where they’ve had the upper hand on us.

True enough. I suppose when you look at our very best backs over the last couple of decades, they’d still fall short of guys like Inglis, Slater, Mitchell, Tedesco etc. If you’re a freakish athlete in this country you’re likely to follow they money and look toward football or other sports and that limits the amount of top quality backs we bring through. In fairness I do think we’re looking as strong as we’ve done in a long while in the outside backs. Guys like Farnworth and Dom Young are those sort of big, quick, powerful athletes we don’t produce very often (with the NRL obviously helping to round them off).

Agreed. Farnworth and Young are bucking the trend.

So did Williams.

Makinson? Really?

Good player but surely not?

He's certainly in the conversation where wingers are concerned.

It comes down to how highly you value wingers.

I think not too long ago they were regarded as simply finishers.

They obviously brought something to the table but there influence was generally at the attacking end of the spectrum.

I think Jerry, Hall and TM probably lead the way in changing that in SL along with their coaches which has seen them being crucial to exit sets but also being expected to do the finishing too.

I think wingers stock has risen significantly in regards their role in the team in the last decade, and rightly so.

i'd go back to Charnley and Richards at Wigan when MM 1st came. Very rarely did Sam run the ball in but offload to one of the wingers, who took in 1st and then 2nd balls, with George Carmont / Martin Gleeson also taking in early drives (add in Gelling too). We've used our backs for a long time for exit sets, its just we were very effective last year compared to recent seasons

In terms of a try’s per game ratio, guys like Makinson and Hall trail well behind a guy like Charnley but both are far better all round players IMO (or they were in Halls case) and for the reasons pointed out above. In terms of all time Superleague wingers, I’d probably have Makinson towards the lower end of a top 10 but he’d definitely be in that conversation. Makinson and Hall are two guys who reserved their best for England as well, so that helps their reputations.

Golden boot winner.

He’s 33 and still the best winger in SL

Which is why he always finishes top of the try scorers list.


Oh! Wait a minute...

What is your hypothesis based on?

The fact that Makinson plays for St. Helens.

It’s between Makinson and Ritson for me.

Longer than you think. I remember chatting about Carney and Dallas and discussing how much yardage work they do and how they started the sets for us. That’s probably 20 years ago.

Fair point.

Go back further to when Robinson and Offiah used to take the ball in from their own twenty on a regular basis.

With the corner flags in play Makinson would be no more than an above average player.

In an era when they would get a lot more 'special attention' than defenders would get away with now.

If ever there was a post that highlighted how little Wigan fans know about rugby this is it.

He won’t sleep toneet now

Just explain why you think Makinson is currently the best player in SL rather than sidestepping the issue.