His attacking stats are very good, but his overall game is nowhere near Roby, in fact I would say Hodgson has the edge on him as well.

Chris Hill for me

I made this point to someone else. Clark and Roby are two different types of player.

Everything Saints do is off the back of Roby. He makes more dummy runs than any other hooker in the league and they play very much direct and then spread it out later on.

By comparison, Cas don't; look at their stats at hooker for any of our players - we barely register at dummy half because we like to play open rugby and spread the ball out across the line.

Allowing for this helps to understand the stats a bit more. Roby's defensive stats are excellent, no denying and he is clearly a benchmark in Super League. However, in attack it's easy to see why he clocks up so many carries and metres when taking into account the above. Not a criticism, just pointing it out that he's the pivot that makes Saints tick. Despite this, he's only made 60m more and he plays 80 minutes every week too (again, another point to consider when judging stats).

As for Hodgson, Clark beats him in attack and defence. He has 80 missed tackles compared to Clark's 31 or alike and he's only made more tackles because KR have had to do a lot more defending (again adding some context to the stats).

Clark for MoS
Burgess for Young Player

C Hill

Stats are not your friend in this argument...

ignoring the Roby vs Clark argument (which should of been killed dead at the weekend) what you say about Hodgeson is false...

Hull Kr as a team have made LESS tackles than Castleford this season (8044 vs 7957) so as a percentage Hodgson is getting through a much greater proportion of work compared to Clark. In attack, Hodgson has only made around 100m less over the season, and a similar strike ratio (11:11 vs 13:10 try's:try assists) - there is little to choose between them statistically... At best Clark is marginally ahead, but it is far from clear cut...

Since you pull up one thing in particular in missed tackle, one of the major arguments I've seen made in favour of Clark is that he plays x minutes less than Roby so it's not fair to compare Roby's work (almost twice the number of tackles) to his. Surely the flip side of that argument is that his tackle percentages should be up because he's doing far less work?

You're not accounting for the missed tackles too, which don't go into the tackles column. KR have missed far more tackles than Cas and so the total tackle attempts (tackles made, missed tackles) is more for KR.

Even accounting for that, Hull Kr have made 100 tackle attempts more than Castleford, Hodgson has still made 200 tackles more, and is thus making a far greater overall contribution in defence - as per my original statement.

It seems to be the in thing to praise Clark at the moment and everyone has jumped on the Band wagon. I'd agree that Roby has been better. Roby would be in my top 3 along with Peacock and Hill, all have been immense this year.

Young player of the year would be between Burgess at Wigan and Clark.

That said there is no chance Roby will be in the running for MOS as he wasn't in the dream team.

How so? Isn't one voted for by journos and the other by players?

Yup, Saints have gone into the season without a recognised standoff and spend half the season with their scrum half and fullback pivots injured. EVERYTHING is on Roby. The last few weeks he's even been regularly passing from dummy half and doing a run around so he can act as a half back. He also tops their tackle count be a mile.

Saints just finished top of the pile.

Saints (for whom Roby does everything), just towelled Cas in the playoffs.

The award is called Man of Steel. Robes would be a fitting winner. It will be interesting to see who the players vote for. When does the short list get announced?

What about Sarginson for young player of the year? Whenever I see Wigan on SLFT or see you play on Sky he seems to be scoring or assisting.

Had a decent first season with us, but nowhere near as consistent as Burgess IMO.

rlOPTA Statsrl are saying what most Saints fans are thinking - James Roby is immense.

A season score of 724.75. That's a big jump up from the next best of Liam Farrell(632) and two guys touted as Man Of Steel contenders Jamie Peacock (61icon_cool.gif and Chris Hill (563).

Lies, damned lies, and all that, but its still quite an indicator.

Chris hill for me, awesome every time he plays. Daryl Clark is easily young player of the year.