Didn't think you'd know.

I am amazed Tony Smith put him in against Catalans deliberately to take the hard hits when his defence is so poor. In fact, he appears to have become one of Tony Smith's first choice squad already. Now, I wonder why that is. Oh yes, because he is a very reliable player.

You might aswell give up people seem to think that Clarke is useless and only makes tackles when he is the 3rd man in despite him being one of our best defenders

Admittedly I dont trudge through stats but using Morley as a comparison to Clarke is poor, end of.

Myler got targetted by the Catalans in the SL fixture, thats why he was left out. Not because Clarke's defense is better.

I picked out Morley because he does miss a fair few tackles but no one ever mentions them. Just like no one ever mentions Higham's appalling dummy half passing.

If Clarke's defense wasn't better and therefore worse or best equal to Myler's surely Catalan would just target Clarke and get even more joy?

The Anti-Jon Clarke cannot be swayed. The guy has been great for us at times since returning from injury, especially when you consider he was out for the best part of a year.

And I personally think he will only continue to improve in this squad with Smith in charge and bring it on I say.

Which season did Jon Clarke have the highest percentage completion rate for tackles in the whole of Super League?

Nothing wrong with Clarke's defence for me, he's never struck me as being a weak tackler. Seeing he's been out of the game for 12 months imo he's done really well to slot back into the side. He has to be applauded for playing in pain last year before his ankle break was diagnosed. A lot of players wouldn't have continued to play with pain killers but he did. As for the 'walkover' tries, are we slagging our own players for backing up now? New one on me.

All third man in, Paul.

I don't care. He's the Emile Heskey of rugby league. Hated by fans who like the glamour players but loved by coaches and team mates cos they are vitally important to the whole.

No, we're slagging them for being Jon Clarke.

Im under the impression Myler was left out initially because Catalans wanted to rough him up. Not because Clarke is a better tackler? So I agreed with it from that point of view.

I just had a little peek at the old stats anyway for a laugh. Yes, Clarke's distribution and reliability in directing traffic round the middle are good, but those more essential and quality attributes required to being a hooker or half are simply not there. Especially when you actually draw a Statistical comparison with our other Hookers and Myler himself.

Check it out yourselves.

I thought they [iwere[/i the essential ingredients of a dummy half.

Ah Jon Clarke, a riddle wrapped in mystery inside an enigma. I've never heard a man being booed so much by his own fans even before taking to the field. I think before this season is out, I'm going to be saying something to those morons who stand near us who constantly boo him when he comes on and cheers when he goes off.

Erm no. Just the scoring of two easy tries hardly justifies the term 'excellent' being thrown into the disillusioned Clarke support.

You are the one who mentioned the tries!

Me too.


So ISDBI, you think that Tony Smith has got it wrong by putting Clarke back in the side?

Only easy because he backed up if he never backed up we would not have scored. I guess if Clarke was one on one with the full back and passed to Myler to score you would say he is rubbish because he never rounded the full back to score himself?

Yes but there is far more to being a hooker these days. And certainly a half back. Running from dummy half, taking on the line, marker and general defense etc.

You can't deny it.

As for the tries, ofcourse I'm very happy whoever scores. But Im sorry, using those to fuel the debate positively for Clarke is mediocre, at best.

Jon Clarke may not be the perfect rugby player but he is very good. Good vision, fantastic kicking game in open play, and a great link up player. I've said for years he would be an excellent loose forward.

Also defensively very strong.

As far as your comment about the three man tackles I won't even bother explaining how this benefits by slowing the play the ball down as I seriously doubt you'd understand it.

Wrong. I responded to somebody else who used them when referring to Clarke as being excellent.

Two months ago it was "Clarke won't get near the 17 when fit" yet within 3 weeks of being fit he's in the starting 13.

How does that work?



ps you can't beat a bit of Clarkey debate to get people talking rugby instead of tickets, seats, coaches, face-paints, etc

Ha, jesus lads one at a time here .... I'm guessing we'll easily topple the 100 mark here.

Anyway, yes it benefits slowing the play the ball down but doesn't mean he's individually a good defender. Which is what I'm indicating here lets not forget.

No they didn't. They didn't mention the tries. You did. Read back.

To be fair, I should have known better than to open up this can of worms.

Wouldn't try and deny it.

Have you watched Jon Clarke in the last few weeks other than to count his missed tackles?