You know what....

I'm still not convinced by Monagahan. I know he won the semi-final for us and he's looked good at times in a few other games, but he's not consistently controlling the ruck like Cunningham and Newton did in their prime, never mind Smith or Buderus (NRL version).

I wont take this post seriously. Think Chester Wire is stirring up some doo doo.

No, I'm deadly serious.

I know where you're at, I referenced consistency at nine, it's that we want to see. I want to see a MOS contender, that's what I want.

That said, there's no other nine in the competition that can do what he can do, when he's white hot, he's outrageous.

This'll sound like a dig at a player, I think you like him as well, so here goes, but I know what I mean, so shush.

When Monas is poor, like say Saturday just gone, he's about as effective as Clarke ever was, probably marginally better as his defence is cruel.

When he's hot, last week, semi final, hull at home last year etc, he's insanely brilliant, up there with the best.

Soooooo, he's a step forward for me. Some days, he's a leap forward.

I'm glad somebody else posted this. I was going to postsomething similar but have been pulled on here before for not giving Monas credit.

He is a very good hooker, but honestly, I wouldn;t be that bothered if he left and Higham was starting 9. Hope he proves me wrong during the season, because put it this way, at this stage last year I didn;t even want him in the team!

Don't disagree with that, but then Clarke was a vital cog in our wheel for a long time. Still could be when others get injured in weeks and months to come.

Shame you didn't want to say it. I always say what I think as however self important I can be in other areas, when it comes to commenting on players, all of our views are equally valid (well apart from saying Briers has a rubbish kicking game) and I never slag off others' opinions.

And your second paragraph hints perhaps at what my real problem is with him. I felt so let down that he wasn't the scrum half we wanted for so long, that I have probably not forgiven him yet.

Oh yeah, and I've said before on here, when fit, he makes my bench, because of what he offers.

As a starting hooker like, his ordinary displays, and Monas ordinary displays, very similar. They both stay strong, tackle well, talk, shift you around, etc.

When it comes to optimum performances, say eight a season, you'd like more, but lets say eight times a year they're at their best, you know that Monas will win you eight games, with Clarke, not so, he doesn't have that in him, that devestating ability, you just leave thinking "Clarke was decent today."

When Monas is class, you leave wiping tears from your sunnies, trying to ring home to say "We're going to Wembley."

I've always been happy enough to give my opinion, I just don't really hang around here often enough to get into a long enough discussion to explain/justify my view any more, so it was more that than a reluctance to disagree with the masses.

I actually agree with JWP in parts on this, his semi final performance blew me away (and was much better than his Lance Todd performance), but he still has that intercept in him, and I still feel that if things are not going well then he struggles more than most.

Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike Higham, I thought he was a good buy, a very good one tbh but I can't believe people can't see the limitations in his game.
Monaghans a complete player, he has skills Higham doesn't, he's not quite Cam Smith, not as good as Cunningham in his day but the biggest difference comparing the two at our place was highlighted last week where Higham took three unsuccesful scoots in one set on their line.
Monas hasn't justified the early hype completely yet but by the end of next season he will have, in bucketloads playing at 9.
He still seems to be finding his way with how we play, sometimes I think the runners aren't always up to his speed of thought.

He has more skill due to him being a scrum half moved to Hooker, Higham is a hooker. Good move by Smith to see the potential there.

very good move by smith monas has played realy outstanding at 9 ,the point im trying to make to this dico is when higham came on the team went 100 times faster and the trys were scored for half time ,just thought smith should have put higham back on again and give him some more time to try do the same again speed the ruck ,higham is the best at that and his defence ant bad 2

It wasnt that Smith saw the potential, it was the only choice.

I thought that as a club we had learned from the Sullivan debacle that it was a big risk to sign a player as a scrum half who had plyed his trade at hooker for the previous couple of seasons.

And then we went and did it again with Monas. Dont get me wrong that originally he was a superb scrum half but after playing at Mnaly for 2 seasons as hooker his game had changed so much that he could not revert to the scrum half role.

However as previously stated in other posts a class act at hooker.