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You're joking, right?

WTH game was you watching? Slater was playing on one leg and was still awesome in a losing team. He made 1 mistake that I remember when he slipped running back for the ball and went into touch. His ability to take impossible balls at full speed is something Tomkins is a long way off being able to do consistently yet. Dont get me wrong either btw, Tomkins is by far the best player in the SL but Slater is still a long way ahead of him.

I think some are really underrating Slater here. I don't buy the argument that he isn't a creative full back, he's very good at coming into the line and creating tries for his outside backs.

You have to also remember that a huge chunk of the Melbourne left the club after the salary cap infringement, most other teams would've gone into decline, but because Melbourne managed to keep the likes of Slater and Cam Smith they maintained their success. Melbourne are one of the best teams in the world because of the likes of Slater. Slater isn't a great player because he plays for Melbourne.

no i am not do you actually watch nrl or are you basing this on the origin game yesterday where for 70 minutes of the game he was playing on one leg (now out for 8 weeks btw) and still did the most damage for queensland

Absolutely spot on.

There is plenty of fan rivalry in the NRL but Slaters talents and ability are pretty well respected by all that follow the game in Oz regardless of Club loyalty

I think that is one of the things making the comparison harder. Slater has been at the top long enough to have all round respect where as Tomkins still suffers from club rivalry.
There is no doubt to me that Tomkins is by far the best in Super League and would be right up at the top in Aus too, hence the need to compare, yet he still is not respected by the Sts or Leeds fans simply because of who he plays for and he makes their players look silly.
Same happened to Offiah and Hanley before him.
They were great but weren't roundly respcted until later in their careers.

I'd say Tomkins will turn out to be one of the greatest players English rugby league has ever developed.

His ability is respected and acknowledged by the majority of fans. Yes people don't like him but I'd very surprised if anybody said they didn't rate him. Slater is universally respected because he's proved he's the best time and time again. Tomkins in comparison has done nothing really, he has potential but so did Sean Long and Danny McGuire and despite going on to achieve a lot at club level they never reached their potential at the highest level. A couple of injuries could set Tomkins' career back a couple of years who knows? Its far too early to be comparing him to arguably the greatest full back to play the game.

i think people underrate tomkins ability to take the high ball. but i guess well see.

tbf he had a stinker at international level, so he needs to prove that he can step up.
Btw, IMO he certainly will and it may just have been nerves, but time will tell.

He was shocking under the high ball against Leeds the other week. Its the part of his game that needs the most work.

I think Slater has more brain farts in defence then Tomkins.

Like when he handed NZ that game a few years when he flung ball when going into touch. I cant imagine Tomkins doing that.

He was crap under the high ball in Origin BEFORE he got the injury too, and was rubbish the week before under high ball.

I wouldn't have said Slater was [iawesome[/i. He also made an error or two under the high ball and was pretty ineffective ball in hand IMO.

Slater is more a physical anomoly than a RL player. He could well be the finest athlete Rugby League has ever seen.
Tomkins is not far off Slater's skill level however, he will never be as capable as Slater because he is literally a freak of nature.

Wigan fans get a lot of critiscism for being "one-eyed", but i hope you have all noticed that not many are here proclaiming Sam to be some sort of god.

Slater..... Lets see how Sam goes, looks like he is on an interesting journey.

I don't like Slater. That's not to say he isn't a good player. But he is cocky and this cockiness cost the Aussies the World Cup in 2008. TBH I'd like to see Gareth Hock say or somone equally brutal get hold of him and (fairly of course) put him out of the game for a season or two!