I agree about Hicks, what a winger he was. Responsible for one of the most exciting and elating moments in my whole history of watching the Wire; the clinching try in the CCSF against Wigan in 2009.

Criticism would be fair if we new how much money he was on. If he was on top wack, you could say "hang on, I want someone with pace on the wing for that"

Monaghan has no pace at all, but he is strong and appears to get going quickly. The hits the line at pace as well, and reads the game well. Very rare I think to myself, he should have scored there, especially from short range.

The only issue is when he is supporting a break. A few times this season, I've seen players make breaks, and they have had to slow to wait for support.

I don't get the criticism of Myler. He hasn't really kicked on this season, but most of the squad has been disappointing for the majority of the last season.

Myler's pass is very good, he links superbly on the left hand side, we have undoubtedly missed him in that regard. His short range kicking is pretty good, but Briers takes care of that when he plays.

Briers missed plenty of games last season and we scored plenty of points with Myler calling the shots. Including against Saints and Huddlesfield at home, where I recall him setting crucial tries and being very influential?

Whilst I think some of the criticism of Joel Monaghan is over the top on here I do agree that on the evidence of what we have seen at Wire, Chris Hicks was better than he was, which makes you wonder why Hicks never got any representative calls.

Joel Monaghan played State of Origin and for the Kangaroos, Hicks played a couple of times for NSW Country in the City v Country game, that was the closest he got to representative honours.

Monaghan's try scoring record was better in the NRL, 92 in 173 games compared to 81 in 201 for Hicks, so perhaps he caught the eye more. But given how good Hicks was here you wonder why he didn't get further in the game in Australia.

I would also say the same about Pat Richards tbh as well, how come he never played State of Origin? I would have put him ahead of Joel Monaghan, I would have put Darren Albert ahead of him too and he never played for Australia. JM played for Australia at a time where they were pretty strong in the outside backs so he must have been impressive in the NRL.

I think it was 13 games into Hicks career with us before he made a mistake. At all. Sublime player.

Just take a look at the comedy antics from Greg Eden, Anthony Gelling, Josh Charnley, Luke George etc tonight for the proof.

the hicks v j monas debate is fascinating..agree with hicks being better cos of the trys in the final and the one that sunk that lot at widnes but now the lad has gone and many thanks for the memories..we now have joel whos scoring some great trys..for me hes the best winger in super league atm...

Didn't he play in the centres during his time in Aus? I believe that's where he got representative honours. Hicks/Richards were both out and out wingers, so perhaps making comparisons with them during their time in the NRL is a fruitless task.

Hicks may have had more pace/agility but you can't argue with the quality of Joel's finishing, both this season and last. I was concerned with his level of performance earlier this season though (I would have dropped him after that awful showing against Widnes, where he didn't look interested) but he's really upped his game in the past few weeks and won back my admiration.

matt king played wing in aus and played centre with as just good effect over here..in fact 2nd row....certain players can do this and do it well..i.e just look at who packs down in a scrum when attacking or defending

didn't do so bad again

48 trys in 42 starts is a crap return!

one thing about Joel is his anticipation and he NEVER gives up on a kick.. he has also developed a finishing style which means he rarely puts a foot into touch.

That last try was a great moment. Thought he'd missed his chance by not challenging for the kick first time.

wonderful player and his trys per match is truely exceptional.if he played for saints or leeds we`d have them 2 off sky creaming themselves every week just like they do over roby and sinfield

Joel is slow for a winger but has lots of other attributes including great strength and a good leap.

Hicks has / had the lot.
Now he really is one of our best wingers in the SL era.

wasnt hicks a speedster in nrl? he was a great finisher but didnt know much about him in his time in nrl heard he did 100m in 10. summit?