Quote: sally cinnamon "I would like to agree with you but sadly I have a feeling that once Briers retires Warrington will slip down somewhat because however much people find it hard to accept, Briers is a top class player who has been central to our success in recent years, and when you take him out of the side, there isn't really anybody around that can replace him unless we can land one of the top NRL halfbacks.
Yes Briers was an inconsistent player earlier in his career, when he emerged at similar time to the likes of Cooke, Horne, Thorman, Orr etc, those guys were rated above him particularly in the international pecking order. But where all those guys faded once they got past their mid 20s, Briers improved every year. Take Briers from 2006 onwards and you have a very consistent performer who sets up a lot of tries, his attacking kicking game is first class - look at the try records of guys like Fa'afili, King and Hicks that are targets for kicks. Also his passing and distribution is excellent, he's not just an 'organiser' player that can move a team around the field, there's lots of players can do that, Briers puts on a lot of money balls close to the opposition line that puts someone through the defence.
If Briers had signed for Saints after Long retired I have no doubt Saints would have won a couple of trophies since then, and we would not have won any.'"
Hard to disagree with that really. If we'd had Briers and Smith instead of you the last few years then I reckon we'd be looking forward to winning our 3rd or 4th successive GF rather than dreading the inevitable prospect of losing our 6th instead
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The lack of younger players like Briers in our game now is the reason why we had to gamble our entire future on Eastmond...