Jeffries never realised the potential he showed as a kid. On his day he was good but those days were few and far between.

. . . . and, IMHO, when the going got tough . . . . Jeffries usually went missing. Constantly. And then usually went on to state in the press that [i"some people ought to look long and hard at themselves in the mirror'[/i. The man must have been a chuffin' vampire . . . . with a picture of Sam on the wall behind him

Exactly.

The Wakey fans told us this when we signed him. They were right.

Those are words you don't often see together!

They were also right on Solomona (fitness, errors and penalties conceded), although IIRC he was OK for a season.

Jeffries is a bit of an enigma, granted. But the criticism here is way over the top. How many players stood up when things were tough? Virtually none. Jeffries is principally a support player, he is as good as almost anyone in SL, anyone (including Macca) who expected him to be the main creator is daft. Having said that his stats for assists are better than most in SL. If ever there was a player who disappeared inside his cauliflower ears when things get tough, only to ever appear when the team was dominant it is your greatest scrum half of the 20th century.

As you've reposted your mantra for the zillionth time, forgive me for pointing out for the zillionth time that when things got tough, we won . . . everything. Several times.

You need to reformat your HDD and reinstall your backup "Yes but no but yes but we won all those things DESPITE Deacon" argument.

Heath L'Estrange for me. Slick player who in my opinion didn't get the game time he deserved at Manly

I remember the 2003 cup final being one of the closest games we played in our successful period and it being a heck of a tough game. Deacon was instrumental in that win.

Sorry! Forgot to login as harigeorgeson

1 Robbie Paul
2 Tevita Vaikona
3 Leon Pryce
4 Shontayne Hape
5 Lesley Vainikolo
6 Michael Withers
7 Paul Deacon
8 Joe Vagana
9 James Lowes
10 Paul Anderson
11 Daniel Gartner
12 Jamie Peacock
13 Mike Forshaw
14 Lee Gilmour
17 Stuart Reardon
18 Lee Radford
19 Jamie Langley
20 Scott Naylor
22 Karl Pryce
26 Chris Bridge
27 Rob Parker
29 Stuart Fielden
30 Richard Moore

And as I have said before Susan Boyle would have stood out playing with that squad. When it got tough you had nearly 20 international class players to tough it out. Now you don't, why is it therefore Jeffries fault? Why doesn't the greatest scrum half of the 20th century now tough it out?

Did Deacon escape criticism last year? IIRC he did come in for a smidgeon.

He was the only halfback left standing for the second half of the season. His partner at 6 was often Mike Forshaw.