And bottling out of testing himself in the nrl and being pretty poo in internationals to boot

Yes i agree , What was it something like 15 GB Caps between 1995/2006

I wish he had played for the wire though. His statue at LP isn't very good.

With sickening regularity against Wires in that certain bleak period

Why has this been hijacked by Stains fans getting lairy? They must be getting nervous about Sunday..

Highlight this thread for a future vault return FMC.

KC bottling it lol. Did you see the guy play at all? I'm not talking about seeing him play in the last few years when he'd gone down hill slightly but KC was the best hooker in the world for years and years.

He didn't play often for GB due to injuries and im pretty sure he retired for international rugby pretty early due to a long standing injury that Nearly ended his career. In fact, he had a op last year on said injury all these years later.

I'm not being biased but Monaghan isn't in the same league as KC was, even when KC was over the hull he was better than Monaghan.

If we are comparing the two, how many times did monas play for his country ? It's about 14 times less than KC.

A little stat also - KC scored 175 tries in his career. That's a unreal stat for a hooker.

And I bet it required a serious amount of bronze to make it life-size too. They were probably on double-time for a month down the foundry for that job.

As for Clarke, I suspect a combination of the emotion of leaving the club and team he loves, weight of expectation on young shoulders, possible injury, getting used to a new team and Wires perhaps trying to modify his game slightly have all been a factor, but the lad is class and by far the best in that position in SL.

The likes of Ratch, Myler and Patton/GOB just need to follow him everywhere - as well as being fast he is strong so will invariably get the ball out of the tackle. Whenever a team played Cas, I suspect the gameplan was to slow the PTB down even more to nullify Clarke - same will apply to us, and we need to overcome that because young Dwyer's effectiveness is based around similar abilities - speed, acceleration and elusiveness.

Asotasi stint has been well documented but to his credit, when during the 10 mins he plays, he is the fastest back up to his feet playing the ball. Clarke revelled behind Big Roy.
I hate to say it but Clark would be very well suited in a Saints team, Saints style over the last 2 decades has been based on quick play the ball at acting half.

Had Cunningham had played for Wire, other than during our Morley years, I doubt very much we'd have got the best out of him. More likely he'd have been our fat scapegoat.

We were just winding up that other lad!

We all know how good Cunningham was.

Piss poor by saints fans but I never expect them to understand rugby league. They understand the game only by trophy counts.We could have the same discussion about pryce v briers and they'd reel off the number of grand finals GB caps etc .... Briers was twice the halfback pryce was in my opinion.

Monaghan was devastating running at defences, his defence was top drawer and he had a good kicking game. ... The reigning man of steel looks poor replacing Monaghan. And I'll guarantee had we replaced Monaghan with cameron smith we would have been disappointed. smith can't/won't run from dummy half and wouldn't have shredded the Wigan defence like monas did on the 09 semi. (I appreciate what he brings to the table before anyone thinks I'm labelling smith rubbish).

Monaghan suited us perfectly when he switched from scrum half to hooker . He tightened up our defence, he put us on the front foot in games on his own (not three dummy half runs from long cunningham Sculthorpe and then pass it around like the entertainers). And he brought a professional attitude. He, again in my opinion, is the best 9 wire have had, and he stands very well in the company of Roby Diskin Newton and Lowes. .. cunningham stands above them all due to his longevity and being in a consistently in a winning team. ..

Saints fans saying Monaghan is not as good as Diskin or Newton and is not in the same league as cunningham is pure idiocy and makes them sound like the man u fans that laugh at steven Gerrard and say he's garbage and luke chadwick has more premiership medals than Gerrard...

I don't know if Monaghan is better than the likes of Newton or lowes (he's 100% better than diskin) but what I do know 100% is KC was better than them all by a long way.

That's my opinion based on performance and not based on winning cups.

For me Lowes was the last of the old school hookers he niggled far too much and that often clouds people's judgement of how 'not world class' he was. For example when he lined up for GB and I think an Aussie ref immediately said "I've heard all about you let's keep it shut" sums him up.... he was a character more than a top drawer hooker. Cameron smith talks constantly at refs but they don't say that to him.

I'm probably being harsh though as I didn't like him then and still don't....

I thought Newton was a better player than Lowes tbh

I think just saying Cunningham was in a 'different league' to monas isn't quite right or respectful. Cunningham was there at the start of superleague and played almost 500 games. We won't get Half that from Clark so even he will struggle to get near cunninghams level of God like status. That added to the fact he was a superb domestic player boosts him further up the ladder of great players. ..
But different league to monas. ..no.... that's to be used when comparing Sam Tomkins and Billy Slater.

Don't ger me wrong, I rated Monaghan and I liked him as a player but KC was another level than Monaghan.

I'm pretty sure if you asked all the coaches in the world who they would have at 9, I think 99% will say KC.

Lost faith in Cunningham as a player when he failed a drugs test.