Quote: Stu M "In many ways it’s a pointless argument. No Saints fan would swap Welsby for French/Field and no Wigan fan would swap French/Field.
I knew when I posted Welsby’s stats that French had better stats but I only referred to them as a comeback to a fan on here that described him as “average” which is laughable.
Also stats don’t paint the full picture. French scored 7 tries in one game this season didn’t he? The Hull game or was that last season? He’s also played games on the wing which would increase his tally too.
It’s all subjective but the only part I’m trying to point out is that there’s talk in Aus about clubs wanting to sign Welsby yet no one seems to really want to sign French or Field. I’m sure both are happy at Wigan but let’s have it right had they the chance to go back to the NRL they would’ve gone like a shot. As would Sironen and Matautia at Saints.
If we use the NRL as a yardstick for ability and competition then Welsby is more sought after than French or Field. I think there’s a reason for that.'"
It was last season the Hull game yeah and French has played only a handful of games on the wing this season. I'd be interested to see if Welsby would score loads of trys on that Saints left wing btw. If it's that easy to score from the wing, i'm not sure why Tee Ritson has only 2 trys.
I've said that the stats don't tell you everything, so I agree with that but there is also no way that we can use NRL clubs wanting Welsby more than French or Field as a yardstick either. Who are these clubs that want Welsby? how do we know clubs don't want Field/French? what money are they offering? What is Welsby on now, in comparison to Field/French? None of us know the answers, so that doesn't stack up either.
As you say most people wouldn't swap given the chance but I just can't understand how anybody could be confident enough to say 'Welsby is the best' without having no quantifiable way of backing that up. I'd have him in the top 5 players in the league and probably wouldn't say there is a single player who is out and out the best but I could statistically back up French (and Field) outperforming Welsby this season. The comparison with Field is the most interesting to me, as both play at fullback. If you score comfortably more trys per game (0.74 per game vs 0.4 per game), assist pretty much the same (1 per game vs 1.04 per game) and you are better in defence, I certainly couldn't say you're a lesser player than your opposite number but maybe I'm missing something. I think we could have a different conversation if Welsby moved to what I think is his position at stand off (as pointed out by Jukesays).