I can't believe players like Sinfield and O'Loughlin have been included in any sides. They'd walk a game at any superleague club and are the best 2 loose forwards in superleague. It also made me smile when O'Loughlin was described as a workshorse who isn't creative because he's the leading assist maker from loose forward in superleague 2 ahead of a player people would call a creator in Sinfield.

Guys like Thorman, Littler, K Pryce, Platt etc being included in sides i can totally get as for varying reasons they're poor but Sinfield and O'Loughlin.......unbelievable.

Either would be Wakeys best signing in decades.

O'Loughlin is firmly in the former bracket. There's nothing annoying about him. I quite enjoy watching him play, particularly against my own team.



It's clear to me what he brings. However I am able to see the negatives that he brings as well as the positives.

he isnt one of the top two loose forwards in the country though, purdham, cooke (when he's played there) and flannery are better for a start. Assists dont neccersarily mean a player is creative, breaking the line then passing the ball or offloading in the tackle and it leading to a try arent creative as compared to a cut out pass or a well placed kick. He would get into my own teams side, but not as a loose forward, he would be put in the second row, as he is no better than what we already have there.

O'Loughlin would be wakeys best signing in decades? i dont think so.

i have to smile on this subject. Firstly he gives away too many penalties, yet the stats show this not to be the case, although to be fair he did used to not be great in that department.

Next he is no better than players like Cooke who is living off 2 good seasons years ago, next he is not creative yet the stats prove he is the most creative 13 in the league, in a side that has struggled to score heavily unlike Leeds with Sinfield behind him in this department.

Seems to me he has big hair was hyped as a kid and rightfully so, is Wigan captain and is Farrels brother in law.

To claim he was no better than Flanagan an 8 game Sl player shows signs of either straw clutching or extreme bias against him.

Cooke was better in the past when playing at loose forward, no where near as good at 6, cooke can change a game in a way that frodo cant. What stats show he was the most creative 13 in the league? is there a creativity stat?

Who said he was no better than flanegan?

Try assists is a fairly good indicator, although i am sure you will attept to come up with a reason it is not.

From your praise of Cooke i have to wonder if you look closely enough at the gamr rather than the eye catching moments, yes he threw a few nice miss balls but his defence was very poor.

Appologies on Flanigan i am using my phone to accesss the site and its a ball ache, but ASK A SAINTS FAN ABOUT fLEARY, THEY DO NOT EVEN RATE HIM ANYMORE.

11 try assists in 24 appearances is a fairly good indicator? That's pure desperation. He had two assists in 15 appearances in 2008; I take it he was far less creative that year?

I like Lockers, tough as they come, Sinfield I dont rate at all, best signings in decades ? grow up ! Solomona at his best was better than them both put together, and as for British loose fowards Paul Sculthorpe ( apart from his last 2 years) and Andy Farrell were in a totally different class.

I started this largely on a personal wavelength, players selected because the would be in my opinion the wrong choice for my club, due to what they would have to be paid, were massively over rated, or they just annoy me! S

infield is one of the latter!!! for what is worth so is Danny Mcguire, i just think us paying big bucks for someone like him would be the wrong thing for my club!

The discussion re paul sculthorpe is a great case in point, if we had signed him i think i would have given up, it would have labelled us as the "rest home" SL club for years.

dont really see how any trolls from wigan can see the point of this thred, in your lifetime you have never known whats its like to be a follower of a club where every signing more or less has to be right!

Whilst I don't agree that either would be our greatest signing, I think this viewpoint is equally daft for the simple reason we saw the best of Sol for about 20 mins a game, 3 out of every 5 games or so (unless he was in a NZ shirt of course).

Whereas JD has 5 from 26, Fergy had 1 from 24, he had more assists than any other forward in the league by my reckoning on the website.

Yes. So?
My point was that it's a completely meaningless statistic that appears to be quite random. I'm not even sure what it actually means. Given how low it is I guess it might be awarded to the player who makes the last pass before a try is scored. Which tells you nothing.

Daft ? ok, I watched the first 6 games of Kear's start at Wakefield, and our most important 6 games during the SL era for us. Sol was outstanding, the best player by a mile, with a torm bicep at the Bulls he won the game, he led by example, a true World class player IMHO, and without him we would have been relegated, and also IMHO we would have never returned to SL.

Sinfield or Lockers would have made no difference to us at that time, Sol did, thatsd my point.

Exactly, personal views based on a number of facts and most have posted on players that they don't like/annoy them.

Not Solo's biggest fan and i would concede he was not always at his best but on a good day Sinfield or lockers could live with him, so how that would make a certain signing the best in a decade for Wakey i just don't know.

Why do "fans" like you insist on making a reasonable point and then in the near to last sentence totally destroy all your credibility.

Yes Sinfield and O'Louglin would probably get a game at most if not all SL clubs and certainly at Wakey. Both are good players and your point is well made.

Alas the arrogance and stupidity of a fan of a "big" club kicks in. This bizare assumption that any of there players would immediately walk into a "lesser" club and become top dog is pathetic. Doesn't work like that, RL's history is littered with big name players who have left the safety of a big club surrounded by great players only to crash and burn when left to fend for themselves.

I won't assume this would happen to O'Louglin or Sinfield but unlike you I'm not stupid enough to assume it couldn't.

Even giving both the benefit of the doubt I still think you are wrong in that typically arrogant Wigan way in your assumption that they would be the signing of the decade! Give it a rest, O'Louglin isn't even IMO one of Wigans best signings in recent years and you have signed some duffers. I wouldn't mind so much if Wigan were a great team, but O'Louglin is an OK player in an OK but not champion team. We may only be little old Wakey but we know real class when we see it and we don't see it very often at Wigan thse days. I'll take Tomkins as a potential Trinity legend and that's about it.

In the last 10 years Trinity have had on their books, Poching, Solomona, Domic, JD, Watene, Ellis, Brough to name but a few. All those players have been better SL players whilst with us than O'Louglin has at Wigan and a match for Sinfield on many an occasion. More to the point they have done it the hard way at a club where nothing comes easy and where you have to stand up and be counted.

To think that the cossetted and spoilt O'Louglin could out do the efforts of any of those is insulting and laughable.

Even by RLFANS standards this is a belter!

yes they are and that is the problem the game is in a bloody mess in key positions they are the best loose forwards in a bloody bad bunch

Both been voted in the top 3 loose forwards in the world over the last 2 years by coaches on both side of the world.

This topic is an odd one, as has been stated earlier i would wager Terry Newton would be in many peoples teams, but now he has signed he is a tough player, no longer a thug. I look forward to the reaction when Newton smacks some one in a dirty bit of play, which he will sooner or later, from the opposition fans and the Trinity fans response. Not having a pop at Newton by the way I rate him although he has gone off the boil over the past 2 years he can still on his day mix it with the best.

We then have posters slating players and the stats that support them, even claiming the player that provides the killer pass not to be creative.

Rather than in most cases highlighting who is a good player and a bad player, it more validly shows what the posters prefer in a style of player, and a bit of bias, rather than looking at how they contribute and the part they play in their respective teams.

We also have posters stating the likes of Wigan can afford to risk and have on signings, often under the previous administration losing that gamble, but EVERY new signing is a risk. I would go so far as to say this year Trinity have taken 3 massive gambles on player recruitment.

Newton.....injury problems, age and form, although i do think the form is down to poor coaching at Bradford.
Morrison......see Newton on age and form and x 2.
Tronc........from what I have seen a great player but by all accounts he has not come cheap, Wayne Bennett warned Wigan off him because of his financial demands, and while I think he will go well in the SL it only takes one bad tackle to see the lad injured, or a loss of confidence/not settling in and his form dropping and the club have a big investment not giving value for money, again see Wigan for that problem.

The key to the cap is getting value for money or better form from a player in relation to there cap value, Wakefield have been very good at this in the last few years, the acid test now comes when big money signings are added, and with a thinner squad they must perform.

Top 5 no doubt

Not any more. Mate its a fact, he also warned Wigan off Mason (personality) and O'Mealey (dud knees).

Its not a personal dig and every Wigan fan knows the recruitment under the old regime was shocking, but times change, but yet opposition fans are still stuck in the past.

Newton will always be a thug in my book and I'm not fickle enough to change my views just because he now plays for Trinity. Having said that I'm glad that Trinity no longer have him as an opposition. One, he is still capable of producing and changing matches and two, his team mates are less likely to be on the end of a cheap shot.

What been wrong with morrisons form? been excellent for braford when he's played, one of the best second rowers in sl when on the pitch. His only problem is that he has been injury prone these last few years, but that doesnt mean he will be for wakey, chris feather was regarded as an injury prone player then had an injury free season at cas.

Try assists should be a fairly good indicator, but they only count the last pass as an assist, when cas beat wigan away last season sherwin created every try didnt get a single assist because he didnt provide the last pass for any of them, so no assists arent neccersarily a good indicator. As someone has pointed out in 2008 frodo only got 2 assists in 15 appearances, using the logic that assist are the indicator of creativity he must of had virtually no creativity in 2008.

As for cooke yes i do watch the game thanks, cooke when played at loose could change a game in a way O'Loughlin never could. From your praise of O'Loughlin have to wonder if you look closely at any players that arent playing for wiganicon_wink.gif

I know quite a few saints fans that rate flannery, i dont think he is a fantastic loose forward just better than O'Loughlin as he has more strings to his bow.

I meant form.