If we weren't looking at Brierley, I'd be disappointed. You can't ignore a record like that.

Jamie Ellis ex of St.Helens and more lately a flop at Hull FC and Castleford managed 34 tries in just 31 appearances while playing for Leigh.

Therefore extreme caution is required.

Indeed. Greg McNally is another who had a similar strike rate. He was picked up by Huddersfield and couldn't make a mark there. Going a bit further back, Neil Turley had a phenomenal scoring record for Leigh in the Championship, but was pretty average when they were promoted to Super League.

That doesn't mean that Brierley won't make it, but his try scoring alone does not mean that he's a SL standard player.

Of course you could balance that with Chris Hill, subsequently Challenge Cup medal winner and Grand Final runner up.

The player isn't necessarily the problem although caution should always be required, whether looking at Leigh or Melbourne Storm.

Ones a forward and ones a halfback.

There is a whole world of difference. Just look at how well Sl forwards have adapted to the NRL, and also look at the lack of demand for SL backs

Ellis started every game to score the 34 tries. Brierley only started 7 games last season the balance coming off the bench, It will be interesting how many tries he scores and creates this season now he is getting decent minutes.
The rumour is he is going to replace Gaz Obrien at Wire, as he has not set the world on fire since he broke into the 1st team, and he is breaking no records in the Championship

Well wonder whether this week's reports on Walsh mean he is back in the books as a decent buy again?

His kicking in the first half was excellent. Average in the second half although it was mostly Isaac John who kicked in the second half. He took on the line and tackled well, including a try saver. Now that I have seen him play I'd say that if he produced that kind of performance in the majority of games, with a substantial improvement on his goal kicking (he kicked 0 out of 3, with one very kickable) and involvement across the full 80 then he should do fine for us. But I have now seen him play once. I'll be looking out for Penrith each week just to see what he is like on a week by week basis before committing myself!!

Anyway, this is all just rumour. Nobody knows whether we are even interested, never mind actually signing him.

I've seen Luke Walsh play a few times now and watched with interest so I think I can probably make a fairly decent assessment of him.

Kicking:

His long kicking is actually pretty good, despite articles that I've read. It isn't the strongest facet of his game and he certainly isn't as good as the likes of Sinfield but it's a lot better than anything we've had in recent years.

His attacking kicks are second to none, the weight of his grubbers and accuracy of cross field kicks and bombs are perfect. He will no doubt create a couple of tries for us this way and it will be a good attacking threat.

His goal kicking is generally very good, it wasn't great in the last match against Melbourne but apart from that he's pretty consistent. Again, much better than anything we've had in recent years.

General play:

This is pretty good too. He is often talking to the players around him and you can see him giving orders to the forwards whilst setting the backs up for an attacking move a couple plays in advance. He likes to get his hands on the ball very often, especially in the opposition half which means he has a good influence on the game.

In terms of distribution, when hitting first receiver for a move he plays the ball at the line which draws in defenders before giving the ball out to players in space. Lomax in particular could have some joy off the back of this. He also very often chooses the right option, knowing when the pass out the back is best or whether to hit the lead man running on the angle. The way he plays is good at sucking in defenders on the early tackles leading to spaces out wide later in the set.

He doesn't take the line on very often at all which is a negative against him, but when he does he looks fairly dangerous and often beats the first man. This looks to be a confidence issue with him and when he's playing against less intense and less aggressive defences in SL we may see improvements here.

He's strong in defence and has a very good technique, often getting under the man to take him down quickly. He generally looks composed in the defensive line and doesn't flap at defenders, no issues with him in defence.

He's a very intelligent player and clearly has a good rugby brain. He does the things that most players don't think to do such as covering the ball in case of a tap back from kicks and tracking across the line when the play is outside him. He put a very nice cross field kick in on the first tackle for a try against Melbourne.

All in all, I'd say he's actually a better all round player than the likes of Dureau and Dobson who have both done well for themselves in SL. I think he'll go very well for us and will be a good signing to direct us around the park. I'm also hopeful his running game will improve as he gains more confidence against some of the weaker SL defences.

The deal should apparently be finalised in the coming week so hopefully we may see an announcement over the next two or three weeks.

We are interested, and we are signing him.

I'm going to stick my neck out and say he's going to be a good buy.

For those asking about why would Penrith let him go if he's any good this is my take on it.

Although SL is catching up to the NRL in some areas we are nowhere near their league in terms of half backs, or backs in general. The standard of halves in the NRL far surpasses anything in SL so anyone who's managed to command so many starting caps in the NRL is going to be good at SL level. Look at Dobson and Dureau, both couldn't get a gig in the NRL but teared it up in SL.

I'm not saying any NRL outcast is good enough from SL, far from it, but in terms of halfbacks their fringe players are more than good enough. The NRL have the likes of Cooper Cronk, Daly Cherry-Evans, Shaun Johnson, Chris Sandow, Mitchell Pearch, Scott Prince, Peter Wallace, Liam Foran the list goes on...

We have Matty Smith, Danny Brough, Tim Smith, Michael Dobson, Scott Dureau, Jamie Ellis, Theo Fages, Luke Gale etc...

We simply can not compete in the halves at the minute and that's why Luke Walsh will still be a good signing for any SL team despite the fact he's not a star in the NRL.

Who did they play this week, and did they win?

Melbourne, they won 12 - 10.