Tomkins is a good player - no argument there.

But the lad is out the game so much and comes in with bits of show piece magic (sometimes)

The likes of Roby or Westwood play a totally different game, solid and in it 100% of the time.

Roby and Westwood both put as many tackles in 3 games as Tomkins DOES all season. End of Chat.

One attribute i look for in a fullback is the ability to put in 30-40 tackles a game. That's really what a fullback should be doing.

Perhaps this is why i loiter on RL forums and have never been offered a coaching job.

hey ho


By the way, Tomkins probably has about 3 times more tackle busts that those two combined.

Love the comments about Farrell and Richards not being the best players in SL. Richards' 2010 season was absolutely sensational (and as a Wigan fan who has seen the likes of Offiah and Robinson I don't say that lightly) and as for Farrell, well with the greatest of respect to Cunningham, who I think was an amazing player, Farrell was the best British player of his generation.

Tomkins should have won it last season, he made a huge impact on his team and SL.

Westwood and Hardaker.

Roby and Hardaker

I posted this on a similar thread on one of the other boards.
Whilst I have seen a lot more of my team than others this year, I did have the pleasure of seeing two absolutely towering performances by Ben Westwood against my team and Wigan in the space of a couple of weeks.
He was outstanding in victories over the other 2 teams in the top 3 of the league. Whilst you might not think of him in the same way as Tomkins in terms of [idoing things no one else can[/i, it takes a special player to stand up so well and so consistently no matter how big the game.
Without wanting to suggest that the award name should effect the type of player that wins it, Westwood leads from the front, never takes a backwards step, dominates his opposition in defence and attack, takes countless high shots - only to take the ball up again and again without flinching, works hard and (according to wire fans) does it to a consistantly high standard every week.

If we had a half back playing as well as this 2nd row does, I reckon he'd have walked away with the award by now.