Quote ="Blobbynator"I've nothing against Wilkin personally, in fact in comparison to alot of people, you might call me a fan of Wilkin as he certainly takes some unfair stick amongst some of the people who sit around me at Langtree Park and some of my Saints supporting mates also. We badly missed him on Good Friday for example and may well have won that game with him in the halves.'"
I think you might be right there. It wouldn't have taken a great deal of tactical nous to have improven our game significantly at Pie Palace.
Quote As a back up half back I think he's done a great job in recent seasons and I've no doubt he'll step in a do a good job over the next 4 weeks in Walsh's absence despite his obvious erratic kicking at times (which is let off for me by the fact he isn't a natural half).'"
His kicking has certainly been erratic throughout his career as a whole. But I do think there has been a tremendous improvement over the last eighteen months. Cunningham has said that he worked extensively with Sean Long on his kicking throughout the off-season and I think this paid huge dividends early in the season up to his injury.
Like Long he doesn't possess a great deal of distance with his foot. But over forty yards he's extremely accurate. Given the size of our pack having a scrum-half who is able to kick the ball seventy yards is not necessary. Even against the most committed defences this season we've not struggled getting out of or close to our half.
Wilkin's accuracy, especially on his box kicks (pinning the opposition inside his own 20 close to the corner flag) was one of the stand-out features of our early play. But what I really like about Wilkin is his willingness to think outside the box and kick early (say on tackle three or four) when the wingers aren't back and the opposition ends up having to cart the ball back 70m into heavy traffic.
In the first six or seven games this season we kicked early on countless occasions. It broke the back of Warrington's highly-rated pack and Salford were demoralised by half time.
Since Wilkin's injury it seems as though we're always kicking on fifth tackle. Worse still - we're kicking BADLY on fifth tackle. Usually rushed with very little thought put into it.
I really do think Wilkin has a very good tactical appreciation of the game. He's a clever lad and I think this shows in his unconventional approach to kicking. Lord knows we've missed his input in this department over the last few weeks.
Quote The recent problem I've had with Wilkin is he's been poor defensively and hasn't really had any impact as a wide running back rower which is his position. His discipline is also poor and has been poor this season. He averages a penalty conceded every single game and is the biggest culprit in the league this season. Given our injuries he's required at the moment certainly abocve the very average Flanagan, but when all our back rowers are fit we have a problem as we have better options, but Wilkin is the captain which makes him pretty much undroppable.'"
Well, Wilkin isn't big enough to function effectively as a wide-running back row. So it strikes me that your argument is somewhat akin to complaining about a cat not being a dog.
I take your point about him probably not warranting selection above other names in the back row when everyone is fit. But since everyone is rarely fit - I don't see a problem here, either.
The missed tackles issue is a cause for concern. To be honest, I've not really looked at his stats. And certainly not in the context of everyone else's. As for the penalties - you can take the lad out of Hull, but you can't take the Hull out of the lad...
