Quote: Major Tom "There's a lot more to defence than tackle percentage decided by opta. Sean O'Loughlin has a similar missed tackle percentage and if anyone calls him a bad defender it's pistols at dawn i'm afraid. What they do is charge up at the ball carrier to stop them in their tracks, this can lead to misses but also oftens stops the other team doing what they intended to do.
McIlorum is great at winning the collision and controlling the ptb, this is very important and isn't show in stats. As people like to point out he hurts the opposition, often legally sometimes illegally but he's more controlled now. He's only been penalised 8 times this season. He also makes great cover tackles, traps people in goal on kick chases, he's basically everywhere in defence.
He's become better in attack as well though. His distribution looks great now.
The main thing is he plays his best in the biggest games, taking on the opposition's biggest best forwards and often winning. His best performances have been in play off games and Grand Finals. Look at the Magic game this year, we were missing O'Loughlin, Farrell, Flower, Clubb, Pettybourne didn't have Joel back yet and McIlorum stood up took it to the Leeds pack dragged them into a fight and won us the game. He was head and shoulders the best player in that game.
Compare that with Clark at Wembley were he got pretty much shown up for me, that's the environment he'll be in for England and I'm not sure he's ready yet.
Having said all that Roby is so good I'm not sure we'll need anyone else. If they're going for an interchange hooker I say start McIlorum bring on Roby but i would be happy to see Roby do the 80. McIlorum should be in the squad ahead of any other hooker though and he will be.'"
This.
Plus Roby and Clark are fairly similar, though Roby is streets ahead and I agree his game has developed way beyond his scoot trademark of a few years ago, he's a different class. Meanwhile MM gives us another option, a different style. Roby has to be the first choice and I'd also be happy if he did 80 most games and we only saw MM in spells, but I'd take him for the options he brings.
If anyone thinks a bit of 'mongrel' is outdated, just look at how Ennis got under Cam Smith's skin a few weeks ago when they spanked Melbourne and how MM got under Leeds' skin at Magic. Ennis is a master at putting players off their game and while MM isn't as much of a WUM, he certainly lets his opposite number know he's there and will be in their faces all game, walloping them around the park.