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.

Obviously you know the details then and why he wasn't suspended ?


You lost faith of a whole career of top class rugby by a top class player over something you don't know anything about.

i'm not bagging Cunningham, he was voted superleagues best ever player wasn't he? That's the territory we are in with KC....

but 50% of the worlds coaches probably never saw Cunnigham play. . And Really? they'd choose him over Buderus (Australian version not leeds) Cameron Smith Robbie Farah...etc etc ...

you have to agree hooking despite its "samey samey" role can produce a variety of players, Roby and Darryl Clarke are experts at running from Dummy half, Cameron smith however isn't, but with smith its like having an on field coach in the team. Former Hull kr Star Josh Hodgson is really impressing in the NRL with his kicking game in particular.
Cunninghams strength was his strength. So many players said he was the hardest player to tackle rather than some prop forward or a strong running second rower.
Monas could scoop up the ball one handed at pace and hand off with his other and make cross field runs and put someone through a gap, at Saints making that cross field run and finding that gap was Long's (and before that and much more so Goulding's territory).

they all had skills the others didn't. no one had everything but I love watching them all....and Cunningham did it year after year for many years that was his difference, that alone is a special skill.

I could talk about them all day long I played hooker once or twice you may have guessed.

Quote: St pete "Obviously you know the details then and why he wasn't suspended ? You lost faith of a whole career of top class rugby by a top class player over something you don't know anything about.'" Because it was suspended for 12 months www.theguardian.com/sport/2003/j ... ncanmackay www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/240813 ... -test.html www.mombu.com/sports/rugby/t-kei ... 82051.html I could go on....

Quote: St pete "Obviously you know the details then and why he wasn't suspended ? You lost faith of a whole career of top class rugby by a top class player over something you don't know anything about.'" Because it was suspended for 12 months www.theguardian.com/sport/2003/j ... ncanmackay www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/240813 ... -test.html www.mombu.com/sports/rugby/t-kei ... 82051.html I could go on....

I mean 99% of coaches would choose KC over Monaghan.

None, that I can remember.

Doesn't that tell you something ?