Didn't like seeing Fa'aflli on defending kicks chasing back If i remember correctly. Going forward under the high ball. I don't remember anyone better. I remember him being shifted to centre towards the end and seeing what looked like a world beater at times.

Fa'afili had his flaws but he seemed to attract more stick than he deserved. Everyone was quick to have a moan when he made an error but explained all his tries away as Gleeson putting them on a plate for him. He wasn't a winger that was going to excite the fans, given his style of play. Fans like wingers with pace who can go the length of the field and guys who can do that will get the benefit of the doubt from the crowd - everyone was rooting for Kevin Penny to make it when he went through a bad patch, and Allan Hunte who could be lazy was also a popular figure because he scored some burners for us. Fa'afili was the slowest winger I can remember at Warrington. He was basically a kick receiver and someone who could finish well from close range because he had a strong build.

Fa'afili's skill set was quite similar to Joel Monaghan, although JM was better. We used them in similar ways. JM benefited from playing in the TS era when we were winning Challenge Cups, whereas Fa'afili played in the Cullen era when we were signing lots of big names but always seemed to be the same underachieving side, hovering on the fringe of the playoffs. Fa'afili was probably judged in a more critical way because of the frustration of the fans during that era. I wonder whether if you swapped the eras where those two played, if JM would have attracted more criticism, as he was also a winger that didn't have great pace, and if Fa'afili would have been given an easier ride from the fans.

You could make a similar case for Mike Wainwright vs David Solomona. Solomona was a better player but they had a similar skill set (Wainwright had better stamina and work rate, Solomona better at creating magic plays, but they were both ballplaying forwards). Solomona may have been seen as a frustrating luxury in the Cullen era and Wainwright could have been seen as an underrated gem if he played in the TS side. I always thought Wainwright would have worked in the Saints side of the era if he'd been there instead of Bennett or Stankevitch.

Wainwright was a good player for us in his second spell. Cullen seemed to believe in him whereas DVDV never seemed to rate him. Moving away did him good because at the end of his first spell he had a really bad time where he was making handling errors, the fans were getting on his back and DVDV was making it clear he didn't think much of him. He came back a better, more confident player from his spell in Salford.

The stick Mike Wainwright used to get was totally unjustified, another one of those players who crowds seem to scapegoat for not always apparent reasons.

For those of middle age Gary Sanderson Roby muller Paul ford roger O'Mahoney just a few who were most underrated... No doubt there's many more

Agreed. Mike hit a period during his Wire time where the team around him were pants. If he wasn’t so loyal, he’d have been playing for England not Scotland. I look at what moving to Wigan did for ex Wire forwards on an international scale.

Loved Roger.

Yeah i think Lineham is an all round better winger than Charnley, but the wire faithful have this weird obsession with him.
He's a quality player who doesn't do anything wrong, but when he has a game where he's quiet and doesn't do anything and Lineham plays better and harder than him him he still gets over looks and Charnley is the best thing ever. I find it utterly bizzarre.
There was an instance in one game where charnley scored a few times from simply being in space with nobody near him and took the ball and simply ran forward and fell over the line. Where lineham scored 2 really hard tries going round and through multiple defenders yet NOTHING got mentioned of his tries afterwards, and the club and fans were all praising perfect Charnley i Genuinely don't get it?
I tell you who i used to like but nobody seems to rate him was Mark Gleeson, he never did anything wrong, tackled well above his weight, and was fast and made some good breaks. I liked watching him on the field and thought he was massively underrated.

I never had the feeling that Gary Sanderson or Roby Muller were underrated by Wire fans.

How about...drum roll...Ashton Simms?

As a 'sort of' outsider looking in, I'm looking forward to how this goes ...

Erm, unless we're now looking at bang on good to average players who move on and we don't really miss them, then I'm not quite sure how he fits into 'underated'.

For me, underated might be someone who we struggle to replace either from within or through recruitment, and I don't think we're significantly worse without Sims (but that's not to detract from the contribution he made whilst he was here).

I was hoping Gelling might replace Bridge...but that has seemingly gone pear shaped

it was interesting watching the leeds play off game from 2013 on FB last week, both stef and westwood spoke in glowing terms and said exactly the same thing about grixy.

Our last GF final season he and Hill were our only frontline props, has to be worth something.

He turned up with a decent reputation. Turned out to be distinctly average.

Not exactly the definition of underrated.

I think underrated is better suited to players who fans of other clubs don't see anything special in, but who their own fans see every week and get to see and appreciate their contribution to the team.

With that in mind, I'd say Mike Cooper is presently our most under rated player.