Trent has been named in the NSW side for Origin II next Wednesday. Seems to me they need something! (as do we....)

Thats great news for him and i hope he does well.

Ive not actually seen him play for Cronulla but looking at their early season results didnt make pleasent reading from a Cronulla perspective although in the match reports it seemed that Barrett was playing well.

I was watching the Bradford/Wigan playy-off match last night when we came back to win the game when it looked like Bradford had the game won. Barrett was outstanding that night and his pass to Calderwood for the try in the corner was as sweet as they come and some of the hits he would put in when we were trailing reflected his will to win.

A true Wigan great.

Just about to post the same thing, definitely needed for the blues! Abit more direction in attack. Abit light on the forwards though for the 2nd game which is abit worrying, will miss Luke Bailey big time.

no he isn't

lets not start all that again girls - I not you shyed away from the 'legend' tag though

Really? One good season, one disappointing one, then asking to leave early in his contract?

Fantastic news for Trent, will be great to see how he gets on and best of luck to him.

If only he was still at Wigan mentoring Sam

The Blues are still going to get pasted.

The 'disappointing' season still saw him take us to the GF semi.

He was at least as effective for us, if not more so, than Jamie Lyon was for you. And there are probably more Saints fans who cream themselves about Lyon than they do about the holiday Meninga spent in your town, and that's really saying something.

How's he got in the team at the start of the season they were slating him saying he was past it, and now he's in the Origin squad. Good luck to him, probably wont make a scrap of difference but here's hoping for a series leveller.

Probably because Lyon won trophies with us, including MoS (Roby didn't deserve it yadda yadda) and didn't decide he'd had enough and go home early.

Barrett was very good in his first year, but even this board was criticising him in his second (" if he can't be bothered he should go home now" etc). I'm probably also swayed by the fact he was pap against Saints for 2 years.

Good player, but a Wigan great? He's up against some stern competition there and doesn't come close for me.

Good luck to him in Origin though.

Lyon was hardly great against Wigan, DV owned him more often than not.

Does make you wonder about that second season though.

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I imagine most of them won't even have heard of Meninga. But even the odd Saints fan that has heard of him won't rate him.

Meninga was arguably the most complete RL player ever (and certainly the best player I've seen in c.25 years of watching the game), but that's irrelevant. His power, pace and brilliant hands count for nothing. It was pre-SL, you see. Apparently they were all amateurs back then, unfit and pretty useless all-round compared with today's Soopah Doopah "athletes".

What does an Aussie coming over here for one season have to do with the standard of British RL?

The seasons didn't overlap then and playing over here didn't preclude you from playing for Australia.

Under the same conditions I'm sure we'd see the likes of Inglis (who looks as dominant a centre in the Aussie competition as Meninga did and may even go on to better him) and Slater over here for off season cash. But guess what? GB would still get smashed until we did something about the intensity of the league and the juniors we develop.

Barrett isnt and never will be a wigan great. hes a great player who played for wigan but thats something entirely different

well put

Barrett should do well......hes pretty good at making an average/ poor team look good on his own and giving them half a chance as we all know!

Not the best 6 in comp by a long way, NSW are going to struggle. NSW are not a poor team just no where near as good as the Maroons, Barrett isnt going to be able to make them look good at all.

I agree, great player but not here long enough to become a legend. He was IMO excellent for us both seasons and yes including the 2nd.

In his second season what happened there was IMO that teams were able to do to Barrett what they do to Hock now. That is gang up on our most effective player because they knew we have not got anyone else they needed to worry about! They could afford to commit numbers against him because no one else was much of a threat elsewhere on the pitch. Stop Barrett, stop Wigan. It's the same now, stop Hock, stop Wigan.

Dave