I agree with Wires71's point about Joe Philbin. In 2019, he was at the top of his game, producing that barnstorming run to score the opening try in the Challenge Cup final, and being selected for the Great Britain tour to the southern hemisphere*. Where has that kind of form gone in recent years?

* In fairness, I should point out that Jack Hughes was also selected for that Great Britain tour, so maybe it wasn't such a great indicator of form!

Plenty of data about players “form” in the years post ACL injury recovery to consider.

Good point.
Selective memories for some.

You can have all the data you want, and recovery from a major injury obviously takes time, but it still comes down to a simple question: when players are selected to play, are they doing the job you require of them?

Where is the selective memory? Of course it's bad news for a professional player to suffer any injury - especially one as severe as ACL which will jeopardise long term recovery. Philbin's injury was June 2022, it's now nearly 2 years later.

I stand by my point his impact has declined to negligible and his work rate is not enough to justify the position for a team that wants to compete with Wigan and Saints. If you don't agree or don't like the point - then fine. Are we supposed to ignore the fact that we can improve on the position ?

I think 2 years is what it takes to get back on the horse after an acl.

A year to fix the injury, the following pre season would be written off and the season of games will be mostly conditioning back to form.

Throughout that return, and player is never going to be peaking and will come in for a barrage of criticism.

I thought it was more questioning his place in the side on current form rather than a "barrage of criticism".

Seems to me some players get a pass, and others get crucified.

Philbin works really hard, has a great engine and can make the occasional tackle bust. However I don't think he's ever been at the level we need to compete with the best, possibly mainly due to his stature. If you want an 'awesome foursome' (in the rugby sense of course) then Vaughan & Harrison and probably Musgove and possibly even Bullock (who has just been given a new 2 year deal) get in there as they're genuinely big men. Philbin isn't. No criticism, it's just the way it is.

That's a bit daft. No problem with questioning his form currently, but Philbin was one of the best around in that 2019 season: instrumental in our cup win and a GB tourist at the end of the season.

I think Philbin is a good hard working Wire. One or two (without mentioning name of course) love throwing a bit for some reason but that's how they are. Happy to see Bullock get a deal & hope he stays fit. Wire going well.

He was very good in 2019 and that's 5 years ago now.