I thought BW was another week away but if he's ready then no problem with that.
Quite a good position to be in.

Don't think BW back till April this was said recently by TS. Be silly to rush him back and risk the surgery he had.

Sandow has looked excellent to date and he will probably prove even more effective as the team settles down. We also know that he thrives with Gidley next to him being the organiser, so let's hope Gids stays uninjured, too. Had a look on the Trust in Widnes forum to see what the Comics are thinking about next week. Some good posts with sensible comments. On the other hand one poster reckons that all on the Wire board are 'muppets who think sandow is on another planet' and another who has worked out that both Sandow and Gidley are 'weak defenders' to be targeted. Sandow has his critics elsewhere but I've never seen anyone ( especially Newcastle Knights fans ) question Gidley's defence.

Sandow's defence is so so, brave yes, good, jury is out.

Gidley though...the guy is a machine and how often do you see a halfback defend in the middle?
His fitness doesn't reflect his age either.

As a slight aside, how can a fan of another club question a player who he will only catch on the Sky games or a rubbish 5 minute highlight reel?
There are 11k people who stood/sat in a stadium who witnessed a player who was totally unplayable.

I was walking back to my car and eavesdropping some Cas fans in front the three main topics of conversation being Good Friday, Ben Roberts and how good is Chris Sandow...that was the reason i titled this thread the way i did.

Cas fan A: Seriously though just how fkn good is that Sandow.
Cas fan B: yeah he was definitely the difference today.

It went further than that but even the despondent Cas fans knew they had seen a masterclass of hb play.

I forget who said it, but Gidley missed a tackle in a recent televised game and one of the commentary team piped up with something about 'although great in attack, Gidley and Sandow have defensive frailties'... I've always heard (and seen so far) the opposite in Gidley. I think (from what I've seen so far, which isn't nearly as much as I'd like) Sandow looks much better in defence than I gave him credit for last year, but is still a weak link. That said, I don't care if he flat out refuses to tackle, based on his offence since he's been here.

Best foreign halfback I've seen in p@b since Phil Blake

Around the 60 minute mark it was a last tackle play and the ball made its way to sandow. The way he shaped up it looked for all the world like he was going to plant a bomb. Then came a little chip over. He failed to recover it but wasn't far off his hat trick. The way he disguises the plays is unreal.
The main reason he fell out with Brad Arthur at the eels was he couldn't play "his game" well it looks like he can here.
The start to this season reminds me of when Grey Mackey first came to Warrington. I think we went 10 on the bounce unbeaten before Brian Smith pinched him to go to Hull.
When there was talk of him coming here I said win or lose he will entertain and put a smile in a few faces. He is doing that.

Alex Murphy ( forgive the likely paraphrase here ) was once asked if he was up for doing a fair share of defence including tackling prop forwards. His response: 'It's not my job to tackle prop forwards'.

It was Phil Clarke who said it during that ludicrously biased commentary against Catalan. He thinks missing one tackle makes you an awful defender clearly forgetting the 40plus tackles he put in against Leeds the last time he saw him play. He was equally quick to call Chris Hill for his poor missed tackle on Junior Sau at Salford however was unable to mentioned that Chilly never missed another tackle in the whole game. Chris Sandow will not fit into his stats package so probably not on his radar.

As for MOS don't forget the last 3 have been from Yorkshire due to the voting system and the refusal of the Tykes to vote for anyone from this side of the Pennines.

Oh we are still here. It's not like he did exactly this at Souths and Parra. Oh wait! Yeah he did.

Sandow is certainly playing with a smile on his face, but you can also see that he is enjoying his game from the exuberance of his play. That for me is a key point, because it is a strong incentive to stay over here rather than be on a tight leash in Oz. And at 27, and with the cash to ensure nobody else poaches him, we may see the little genius for quite a few years in the P&B.

Didn't he start off very well at Souths then continue to be a mainstay for 4 seasons, only leaving when he was offered a better deal (which he said was with his family in mind)? Then he left Parra because of difference of opinions with the coach. I don't want to assume you are, but it seems like you're trying to say that he started out playing well at his other clubs then turned out to be less than?

Ignore Sgt Wilko everyone we sign is sh*te and everyone Leeds sign are world beaters, so Sgt how is Galloway doing?

Being a Wests Tigers follower Galloway is exactly the same as he was in the NRL. His stats are pretty much identical. Anyone who expects anything different don't know the player.

Hills' tacking stats are impressive.
99% completion.
1 missed tacked out of nearly 200 in 6 games.

Is Sandow your marquee player?

Apparently not. My understanding is that Sam Tomkins is the only player in SL where a club has exercised the marquee player option.

Think you're wrong there.

This was from an interview with a leading agent - it could be made up of course.

"Super League general manager Blake Solly defended the role of the governing body, saying: “It’s a matter for both the clubs and for Super League to decide whether that cap goes up, it’s not the RFL just saying it goes up or it goes down, it’s a joint decision. “And the whole idea of the marquee player rule was to allow clubs to go and get those players or keep them. So I’m not sure what more the sport could have done to actually allow clubs to go out and get marquee players.” With the exception of Wigan, who used the new rule to accommodate the return of Sam Tomkins, clubs have ignored the chance to sign a marquee player and Harrison says the explanation is simple.

“They’re all scared to use it,” he said."

I also think he is wrong.
I don't think Leeds have used the Marquee signing.
But I'd bet my bottom Dollar that Marwan has

I could well be wrong. What evidence do you have though? Presumably you've got some information to support your view. I'd be interested to see it as I have no idea who has made a marquee signing. The only information I have is a newspaper article but I suppose that's better than 'I think'.

Yep, Phil Joseph is the sort of player you break the bank for.

MOS Sandow 5/1 Gidley 8/1. Hill is in top 5 of the betting. And currie in top 7. Long way to go, but 3 in top 5 is how strong a start we have made long way to go but exciting to watch the prices tumbling!!!

I don't mean to name drop but I have spoken to Stuart Middleton personally and he confirmed that Sandow was our marquee signing.