Or is age catching up?

Jack Welsby is comfortably the best player in superleague IMO.

He was the difference last night

Fair play. I’m still away but felt compelled to log in to reply to the comments on the Sam Walters thread.

I didn’t see it last night obviously but I believe Welsby was outstanding. I can’t get my head around the fact that Wigan fans (some) either don’t rate him or feel like they can’t praise him. I can only presume that this is due to him being a Wigan lad as the same fans seem fine at giving the likes of Roby due praise.

The decent Saints fans out there have no problems in admitting how good French and Field are. Even Wellens referenced them last night. I’ve no issue either in admitting I’d have loved to see Walters at Saints. He’s a proper s***house who opposition fans will hate but he’s going to be excellent.

However for whatever reason Welsby is described as over-rated. He’s a genuine superstar who is only going to get better and better. If he goes to the NRL then so be it, I hope he kills it over there.

Still prone to at least one brain fart per game though. Take that out of his game and I would agree.

For me........it's because he's an a***.

Roby just goes about his business and does it extremely well. Never seems to be in any controversial moments during a game etc. Welsby is one of those that screams in a players face when they make a mistake and puts a target on his back for fans. He doesn't mind staying down where it may benefit his side neither (not the only one in the league granted) which are all things he just doesn't need to do.

Same as Sam Tomkins was/is. A great player, but one I feel opposition fans will just never take to. Not sure if he'll ever get to the point where fans boo him playing for England though

That’s sport mate, they’ll have been saints fans claiming Sam Tomkins was overrated even in his prime.

I know saints fans that didn’t rate O’Loughlin

It’s just tribalism.

Sad isn’t it. The problem is that fans always try and compare. Wigan fans reply with “He’s not as good as Tomkins is/was” Saints fans say “SOL wasn’t a patch on Sculthorpe”

Quite why there is a need to do this I don’t know. Different eras. Whether fans think Welsby is an “a**e” or not shouldn’t detract from his qualities as a player.

For what it’s worth I can’t think of him celebrating mistakes and rubbing peoples heads in many games other than those involving Wigan. Naturally with the abuse he gets from the crowd, he gets riled and gives it back.

I think he’s arrogant in a confident way on the pitch but he’s quite unassuming in interviews to be fair.

As I say I honestly feel that if he was from anywhere other than Wigan, he would be given more praise.

Plenty of Saints, Wire, Leeds players not from Wigan that people can't stand.

No arguments on his qualities though.

as I wigan fan I second it to be fair

I don’t dislike Welsby at all personally. He’s arrogant, confident and a good player with lots of room to improve and at a young age has cemented himself as a key St Helens player.

He’s a maverick type player and doesnt conform to the norm which I like about young players these days. They’re not afraid to play with their eyes wide open and try things. He isn’t overhyped as some in the league are (or were) [ahem Jake Connor ahem] and his somewhat disliking amongst Wigan fans is a consequence of his skill.

Now to wash my mouth out with soap….

Reckon he'll end up at 6 when Lomax goes, he's got the skills for there and I think he'll be more comfortable defending there, bit of the opposite to Field, Jai doesn't seem to have the physicality to defend in the middle but when someone breaks through against us I've never any doubt that Field will make the tackle, his technique is exceptional were as Jack looks like he could get turned inside out by anyone with a step

Welsby is world class and as naturally gifted as any British player that has come through in a long time. Yes he's arrogant during games and that may trip him up at some point. But in fairness to him he's much more reserved and sporting during interviews.

I’ve said similar on here. I think he’d be even better at 6. Defensively he’s not outstanding and also under the high ball.

The problem is that he would have to do a lot more defending. Teams will push a lot of traffic his way. Anyway, it will not be an issue is Saints don’t offer him marquee money quickly.