Happy to oblige!!
If Vastman was being unbiased and you were scathing how did you leap to the conclusion he was in agreement with you, it doesn't add up at all, but then again little you post does.
In case you haven't noticed we aren't a team of world beaters all our players have strengths and weaknesses otherwise they'd be elsewhere.
A number of our players would be surplus elsewhere but they are here and while they are if they make every effort, their foibles will have to be accepted.
To start pulling someone to bits before a try has been scored in anger is ridiculous, but hey.......

like ive said in several posts why did we give mathers atwo years contract when no one else wanted him ,no one will answer .I think youl find my feelings were known during iast season and the third point vastman may not be entirely in agreement with me but as i read it hes nearer my view than yours .you say my posts are hard to understand i dont know why in less your trying to wind me up I DONT RATE MATHERS

How do you know that no other club wanted him?

The nonsense, the misbelief that your proving a point when you're not, sucking up to Vastman in order to throw me off the scent and now the capital letters are back!!!
It's got to be NGB4C
It all makes sense, as he seems to have disappeared!!
£5 please!!!

He just knows!!!
Makes a change for him bagging Blaymire!

How do you know there wasn't anyone else intertested.

You keep saying you're prepared to wait and see this season but yet you hardly post on no other topic and how exactly are people who've given you reply's on this topic biased because that's what you've intimated. Everyone's just a fan of Trinity with different opinions, the way you've been constantly banging this drum about Mathers, some could say you're biased.

and how are people wind up merchants just because they don't share you're opinion, I'd love to hear that one. People have given reasonable answers from what I can see but yet you've given no answers.

Any chance of us stop bagging Mathers, he's great bloke who wears our colours with pride and represents our club on and off the field to the best of his abilities and does it well, ok he might not be the best full back we've ever had but he certainly isn't the worst, he's still a decent full back IMO
My 4 boys are just starting out in their rugby careers and if any 1 of them turn out to be half as good or achieve in the game what Ritchie has then I will be a very proud Dad

i only post on subjects that mean something to me ,check my posts ithink ive posted on possibly on about three i didnt realise i had to post on most.I think i said vastmans post was unbiased if you take that to mean everyone elseis biased so be it. In your opinion peoples answers were reasonable they didnt convince me at all . The last question shifty brens right i just know, not even the club announced they were in afight to sign him , im off to bed

I ask again who else is out there thats any better that would come to the Wildcats.

Yes we have Cockayne,Sykes and Smith who can play at full back at the club but I dont think they are any better than Mathers.
Move them and you lose what they give to the side
Cockayne - comes in off the wing and gains ground and helps take the ball up well
Sykes - who would we play at 6 to complement Tim Smith
Smith - feel he will better serve us at centre.

How about this we have the money we go for WHO.

Thankfully, you haven't put this years (or last years) together.
Our coach and Mr Glover, have been sufficiently happy to REWARD RM with a 2 year deal, get over it and if you sopport Wakefield Trinity then, you should support the players.
If someone plays really well, they will be applauded and if they play badly, then some questions may be asked but, obviously our coach and management think Richie is good enough to justify a 2 year deal.
Knocking any of the players at this stage doesn't help anyone apart from satisfying a few ego's on forum's like this.

Every player has positive and negative aspects of their play and Richie Mathers is no different. He is obviously more noticeable as a fullback, but for me he's been the best player we've had in that position for some time.

I was as frustrated as any fan after he made basic mistakes against Bradford but it does happen. I'm happy he's signed a two year deal, and as we've seen this off season there has been little to no movement with regard to new signings for SL clubs because the quality just isn't there.

Terrified, no really.

I'm not sure why we are arguing about being biased.
It's hard to explain without sounding like I'm preaching but here goes.

I think most people are simply giving their opinion of whether they think Mathers is a good player or not. That is not a view influenced by bias. Just because it is a strong view and the opposite of your own does not make it biased.

If we start talking about who should be Captain, and you are influenced by your opinion as a player rather than as a Captain, then that is a biased view.
If a Cas fan comes on and starts giving their opinion, they could be biased by his performance at Cas that is not strictly relevant to us, though obviously could be considered as an overall view.

Those that are so ardently against him are simply more passionate about the subject, whether right or wrong.
Personally, he doesn't generate that kind of feeling for me. I think he is ok for us but that is just my 'unbiased' opnion.

Well said Pop's

I think he's a Mr Marmite anyway. I personally liked him at cas but he whinges and whines like there's no tomorrow, and he does my tree in for that.

I think his tackling is terrible, but positioning is great so he doesn't make many tackles per game. It's smart in a way.... But I'd rather call him a poossay cause I don't like him as a person lol

I'd rather have Mathers, than Santas little helper

Took me a second read to get that one


I'm clearly on a slow day! I'm all caught up now though....everybody carry on!

well that's fair enough, but clearly a SL winning coach wouldn't. Obviously you're a far better judge like.

Each to their own and all that

He mat be a past winner but, he aint won much for some while now and he aint gonna be winning anything (apart from a possible wooden spoon) for the foreseeable future

brilliant

Cheers Dave, I thought you'd like that one

I thought not.

In that case, cut out the personal attacks - it got very boring sometime last year and I certainly have no interest in going back there.

I actually like our back line this year. Ellis n Chase in the halves, with Webster, Shenton, Carney and Dixon.... But yeah, Owen at fullback is my concern. I'd personally put Dixon or Jordan Thompson there for the high ball, but Owen's steadlily improving positionally, which is pleasing.

Like we've said though, there aren't that many quality full backs to pick from.

However there was a comment on here earlier which was garbage, saying coaches sacrifice defensive qualities in full backs for offensive qualities. ....we'll never beat the aussies saying things like that

Disagree as it's my post you are referring.

If you look at most NRL Fullbacks their attacking abilities clearly outweigh their defensive abilities. Even the likes of Barba and Slater are miles better in attack than defense. It's the defensive structure throughout the teams where we usually lose out to the Aussie and probably because they are more clinical under pressure.

Again another old fashioned view of things. Superleague is not the game played in the 40's/50's/60's/70's/80's and probably not even the way we played in the nineties. It and other sports have evolved so much that most teams/players are having to change certain parts of their games. Think some people have to accept things for what they are and move on.

Yes I'm with Supercat on this. Defense now means taking a high ball not tackling.
Gaining yards on a kick return is much more valuable than being able to make super tackles.
Handy to have some idea but not no.1 skill for FB any more.

i don't see why it needs to be sacrificed though? humans aren't computers with o many gig of memory, where once it's full they can't possibly practice anything else without deleting something...

catching a high ball is a skill I admit but not one that requires specialist training - Mathers has played super league for about a decade, he should be able to tackle.

In fact I'll rephrase that, ANYONE who plays super league should be able to tackle. They didn't get scouted at amateur level by dropping off them