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.

I think this is as close to a case-closing post as you're ever going to get.

I also find it funny how Wigan fans talk about McIlorum outplaying Roby as though no.9's just ran at each other all day long and the other 16 players are irrelevant.

What I like about MM is he continues to develop, when he came on the scene he was just a lad who tackled hard and distributed the ball. I didn't rate him. He has become a far more controlling hooker.

When he and Piggy were on rotation it used to be a case of Piggy goes off and Wigan lose shape, now it has become a case of MM thinks about his game, leads us round the field and sets up field position. He may not do the eye catching stuff but he does the things other people don’t in defence, he intimidates opposition players, which like it or not is important to have in a pack and he calls the shots as our extra half.

I personally would not swap Roby for MM as they offer completely different skills. Wigan without MM’s aggression and in game skills/structure would not be effective. A combination of MM with Roby off the bench would be a great combination but never going to happen.

As for the “best hooker in SL” debate. Clarke is head and shoulders above anyone else. Wire have signed a real gem and he will in my opinion be the spark that reignites them as a team next year. He has it all already. Fantastic player. Destined for the NRL and he will be a sensation there as well if he decides to go after a few more years in SL. In my opinion whilst Locky is a very important player for us Clarke is in my opinion the most important player to his respective club in SL. When he goes next season I think it will be very damaging to Cas.

I think you are overstating Clark's ability and importance.

To suggest he is head and shoulders above Roby is staggering.

I'd also suggest that you miss O'Loughlin far more than Cas would miss Clark. If he was that vital to them I reckon he would be in the starting 13 every week and play more minutes.

Has he signed for warrington?