A fair assessment. Mostly McIlorum has shaken off the dumb decisionmaking in attack, and he does lack the spark of say Clark. But as a guy who will physically dominate in defence with a high workrate, he has no competition in SL - whether that is what you want from a hooker is down to tactics (our systems don't need too much individual spark from hooker, just to be enough of a threat to compress the opposition defensive line). He's also got that quality of rising for big games which has been invaluable, and imo he hasn't disgraced himself when playing for England and is still a decent option as a starting hooker there.

Downsides, are obviously that the aggression in defence can go too far.

I wouldn't swop him for any other hooker in Super League. On the other hand he will never be a Terry Newton.

With regrards to defensive workrate, what about Houghton? He makes way more tackles

Hull fans seem to be falling out of love with Houghton a bit recently. Always looks a bit of a Mal Alker to me.

You only have to look at the WCC to see how good Mcilorum is. In a game when the team looked completely out of their depth Mcilorum and Lockers were ones that showed they belonged on that stage and were good enough to compete with the best in the world.

I meant the combination of keeping up the dominance. McIlorum isn't a stats machine like him or Roby, the the tackles he does make hurt the opposition more. I meant that he does have a high workrate (not the highest), but that out of the players with the strong work ethic, he is by far and away the most dominant. Sorry for the ambiguity!

It's no good being Nathan Friend and making an absurd amount of tackles if the opposition can get on a roll by running at you all day, and at times the stats machines can start to become a liability because of this imo. McIlorum is not overused in defense for me and I'm thankful for that - he's less likely to be burnt out and can continue to be a threat in defence. I prefer it that way, but in terms of raw work rate he's bested by Roby, Houghton, Hodgson and probably some others.

Except when he plays against McIlorum. He never looks remotely comfortable then.

does it not depend on what a coach requires of his hooker whether he needs an out and out tackler a hard hitting middle man a scooter from acting half a good distributer etc all sl hookers have good parts to their game otherwise they wouldnt be sl players but i think comparing one hooker to another is harsh

That's when the scooter hits the wall.

McIlorum is 'perfect for us' and is exactly what we need. He may not suit all teams styles of play but we've built a side around him and Lockers.

Put him in a big knock out game for Wigan against anyone and it's extremely rare he is outplayed. It helps that our record in those games had been good but he plays a bigger part then most in that.

I honestly can't remember the last time I can away from a Saints game thinking Roby had outperformed him. I'll also never forget KFC's last ever game! McIlorum was a surprise starter that day and was immense.

I love this overly simplistic view of hookers "outperforming", judged in blissful isolation of the pack they are behind. It's just such utter nonsense.

How do you reckon Roby would have fared behind packs as dominant as Wigan's has been in recent seasons against Saints? He would have absolutely crucified Saints behind that Wigan pack.

MM is a hard hitting (but hit and miss) defender and a true 100% player, which is why Wigan fans love him and I can understand that.

But Roby he ain't, he's not even very close.

Roby has been poor this year by his standards (and I don't know how many games MM has played by comparison) but for thise calling him just a stat machine, how about:

ATTACK
4 tries - MM zero
9 assists - MM zero
25 busts - MM 8
4 clean breaks - MM 1
8 attacking kicks - MM zero

DEFENCE
MM missing nearly four times as many of his tackles made than Roby (despite Roby doing a gigantic amount more work in both attack and defence)
4 penalties - MM 6

Let's be honest - it's Roby by plenty as pretty much any non-Wigan fan would agree.