Bridgey

I think people are bit off with Bridge to be honest.

For a start, he's made all told including CC Games, probably getting on for 30 appearances this year right, which given last year and that horrendous injury he had, is a massive achievement. You put that up against say Reardon who had the same injury, and he hasn't managed a game back yet, so I think Bridge must have worked bloody hard to get back, and then, to try and get back to some level of fitness & form which is required in SL as we see every week, if you're off it, even a tad, it shows you up.

Right, then there's the performances thing, in SL alone, 7 tries & 10 assists, I can recall him setting up tries in the QF, SF & Final too, at key moments, massive moments in fact, so that's a minimum 13 assists for the season, what's peoples problem ? Folk keep throwing Martin Gleeson back ? He's not Martin Gleeson, has he ever claimed to be, he's Chris Bridge, he does some things better than him, some things worse, fine. But the stats look fine to me.

Then folk say about his 'mood', well Gleeson was hardly enthusiastic during his tenure was he, certainly the last couple of years. If Bridge had such a bad attitude, he'd have been gone, FACT. There was one bloke in our squad who clearly had a bad attitude, and he was gone, pretty quickly at that too, so he can look as surly as he wants, he must knuckle down day in day out under Smith, because if he didn't, he wouldn't be here, FACT. Folk seem to make judgements about him all the time, based on how happy he looks during an 80 minute rugby game, folk should see my face at work.

I don't think he's any sort of messiah, far from it. I think he's a good right centre who'll be another who'll benefit from an off-season, because last year must've been pure rehab, trying to get back from a horrific injury that folk seem to have forgot. He clearly lets himself down now & again off the field, and that could well in the end be his undoing, but he's not alone y'know.

I know I stick up for him on here, and it amuses some, and that's cool. I just think it's unfair the level of criticism he seems to attract, folk were fine when he was 'biscuit', now he's shed that tag, he's 'not Gleeson', or as Padders keeps saying "NL1 standard", when I think what he is in fact is a solid SL player, who's clearly got talent, has had his share of on & off field problems and like alot of others under Smith, appears to be using Che's arrival as a fresh start, re-building his career, and hopefully the best is yet to come. He's had a blemish since then, but that appears to have passed, but in the main, has done whatever Smith has asked of him, and been a key member with ball in hand & his goalkicking in us winning the Challenge Cup.