Quote: sergeant pepper "I seem to remember Madge apparently had a similar issue with him. Whilst nothing was said in public (that wasn't the Maguire way) there was 'talk' about Farrell being put on an individual training plan to develop his wrestling skills as more often than not he'd come off 2nd best in the tackle.
Going away from the point slightly but modern RL has become very black and white. We now live in an RL world where there's a set mould/criteria/standards for players and if your a little out on something then it's bad news. '"
By nature I think we tend to look at player "performance" almost exclusively as an individual metric and very much at the expense of emergent properties which are entirely the product of interactions with one or more teammates.
If a player did well it was because he is that much better than his opponents. If a player didn't do well it was because he is completely inferior.
Few fans seem willing to take that extra mental leap of questioning whether a player's form might be in part functionally dependent on the availability of a teammate. Even though everybody knows by heart the timeless maxim "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts".
Take a player like Jon Wilkin at Saints. That lad has had a dog's abuse since he arrived at the club. The rationale is that because he isn't equal to or better than one of the greatest loose forwards this country has produced in decades - he must be a flop.
Truth be told, Wilkin has proven to be a remarkably versatile, loyal, hard-working and - yes - talented player. Unfortunately, whereas Sculthorpe's genes originated somewhere on Mount Olympus, Wilkin's were everyday Joe's from the outset.
Like most "versatile" players he is too slow to be a back and, very much like Farrell, too lightweight to make any position in the forwards his own.
Whenever Saints have demanded that Wilkin function as a yardage-earner (or - when our front row has been seriously understrength) not just he but the team itself has suffered. He just doesn't have the brute force traction. What's more, it's a dead tackle for few if any yards each time he makes a carry.
But squeeze Jon Wilkin into a pack full of giants (Walmsley, Masoe, Amor, Greenwood, Vea, Savelio etc.) and he's suddenly transformed into a completely different player. Or at least - he seems to be. The real truth is his form and abilities have probably remained constant throughout his time at the club. But for him to realise his full potential he must do so in relation to the performances of others (if that makes sense). Some might think he is a lesser player because he requires the presence of others to play well. But a good performance is a good performance, as they say.
I suspect Farrell is somewhat akin to Wilkin. Differen't styles and roles, sure. But both would dearly love to have a couple of extra inches and a dozen pounds. To be fair to Farrell, he did play very well as the pitches dried out. He's clearly very dangerous as a wide-runner and one daren't take your eye off him during planned moves near the line. But I noticed the Aussies very quickly spiked Farrell's guns in the tests. The gaps his speed and footwork take advantage of in SL just weren't there. What's more, I watched them actively tracking his movements across the pitch whenever England were close to the line. The moment he injected himself he was getting absolutely hammered.
This does not mean I think Farrell is for the scrap-heap. But like Saints did with Wilkin I think Wane needs to realise that Farrell cannot keep being asked to run into brick walls or get "aggressive" with forwards like Peacock or Walmsley who could currently use him as a toothpick. If he's happy with the benefits that Farrell is *capable* of delivering then he must commit to the guy, stop questioning his effort and then - most importantly - find players who can take Farrell's share of the hard yardage burden in exchange for the manifold benefits a confident and happy Farrell is likely to give.
