Wainwright in the 2004 season for example had the highest missed tackle rate, the 3rd highest penalty count and 4th highest error rate in the entire side.

In the 2005 season, again highest missed tackle rate, 2nd highest error and 2nd highest penalty count.

He improved a bit in 2006 with 3rd, 6th, 3rd in those stats.

2007 back to 2nd of the missed tackle count behind Briers and 4th on penalties although his errors had reduced.

I'm sure he is a very nice chap and all but he can't escape some criticism.

Do you class Wainwright and Jon Clarke as "heroes" or was your post tongue in cheek (as I suspect).

Which other heroes have had their reputation deflated on here?

I didn't actually bring Jon Clarke's name into it....tbh i always thought he was a valuable team member ,nothing special but reliable at 9 & good in defence & Wainwright was really just a club player who turned up & did what was asked of him.

I think Roy was the classic so called superstar who was expected to do things but didn't & was crucified on here ,with Trent Waterhouse before him, Then Vinnie Anderson who seemed so good at Saints but was only a shadow of his former self playing for us. Need i mention Rauhihi & Sullivan & Rodwell's gang of misfits,although i don't know if the forum was up & running then.

Let's please not write a revisionist history on Wainwright

He was also second highest tackler, second in marker tackles, third in carries and actually joint fourth in errors along with 3 other forwards, so its not like 4th is particularly damning.

As i recall cullen used to work him to death as is backed up with these stats, and at the time lots of people did wonder why the hell wedge never got subbed despite clearly being shagged out. You get the same with westwood now, missed tackles and penalties down to fatigue. But its down to how much work they actually do.

I'm never gonna say he was a superstar but he was a workhorse fixture in the side.

EDIT, 3 other forwards, as westwood wasn't a forward then was he.

I quite liked Wedge for his hardwork, not a superstar as you say, and some of his decision making on passing was poor and he was prone to Knocking on. My post was in reply to that where the poster couldn't understand why he got some criticism and I suggested some areas that could be picked on.

i've made this point on here before, and i stand by it, wedge got more unfounded criticism while here, because he wasn't paul sculthorpe. Both came through same time, wainwright was injured while scully was on the rise in 96 and part of 97, when scully left, we were left with wainwright.

Plus them offloads, which were good offloads, we just didn't seem to care to back them up. They weren't rauhihi chook it the fook anywhere ones.

Doesn't that sort of imply he passed to no-one?

I would like to see his 'knock-on' stats.

I agree. He followed in the shadow of Skully.
He was always going to be judged upon that high standard.

To bad Wedge isn't with us now, we've lacked a loose of his calibre for too long.
I don't know why since we dispensed with him and moved to a different type of player?
Since Forshaw until the present day, the ball playing skills has disappeared from our team. I miss that.
How I wish we could find a loose like John Pendlebury. Still if we did, I doubt very much TS would ever play him, we'd end up bolstering the pack with poor lower grade pack players instead.

Not SOME criticism, he was lambasted and scapegoated. And the offloads were NOT passing to nobody, he consistently got his arms free and offloaded EXPECTING his team mates to back up. Perhaps his biggest error was thinking any of them would actually bother. If you know your team mate has that skill shouldn't you be following him around like a dog follows a bitch on heat?

Rauhihi had similar problems when he made breaks & nobody backed him up.