Yeah it does seem like odd timing. I suspect it's more of a change to his salary, salary structure and bonuses across future years and they just whacked on an extra 2 years.

The team has such a good balance, with each player bring their strengths to the party and covering other players weaknesses and vice versa and that spreads throughout the whole team. Field and French are as lucky to have somebody like Harry Smith, as he is lucky to have them.

I do think O'Neill is a bit different. The point still stands that he's lucky to have those strike players and a game managing scrum half like Harry Smith and they're all lucky to have him but unlike somebody like Smith, I do think O'Neill has an ability to do more with the ball 'if' he was asked to do so. He can run a ball and cause loads of problems but I sense him doing a Clark and taking a couple of scoots a set isn't part of the the gameplan and he's humble enough to play his role and hand over the ball to the attacking weapons we have. That leaves him fresh to do his thing, which has he showed in the WCC game, is to be the leader of all the effort areas and to really take it to the opposition in defence. It's easy to forget how young the lad is as well. To be doing what he's doing, playing in the middle of the field, at the age of 22 is exceptional and he'll continue to improve. I wouldn't swap him for any other hooker in Superleague.

I wouldnt swap for any other hooker in Superleague as he is the best in Superleague wthout a doubt.

Again I appreciate this kind of sensible response. I asked the question because I wanted to be clear about what people thought his strengths were, not because i didn't think he had any.

And this is basically what I said, he's impressive for his age. I probably wouldn't swap him for anyone else especially with him being club trained. And i'm sure he will continue to improve.

I just think some of the praise sounds OTT. We had an incredible run to the grand final with Forber and Leeming. Did we miss O'Neill?

Yes you seem to struggle with reading comprehension.

I literally just asked a question, you seem to have taken the hump.

French and field being lucky to have O'Neill is hilarious. How unlucky that we had them in the grand final and o'neil out. Who knows what the score would have been the other way around.

The point I made about tries was just pointing out what Leemings relative strengths were, it was one of three things i listed as a prompt for people to respond with what O'Neill was good at.

Do you think it's coincidental that Cunningham is considered one of the top 2 hookers in the history of super league and he's also the top scoring forward by a country mile? I agree you shouldn't judge solely on try scoring but it is kinda relevent. Terry Newton was good, he scored quite a lot of tries for a hooker. Coincidence?

No because he plays the game when it is at its most intense through the softening up period.

If you look at tries scored on the edges defence coaches generally look where the issue is in the middle that created the space as invariably the space comes from a middle player switching off and not pushing on the inside of the slide enough, which holds up the next man and the next man which creates space on an edge.

O’Neil causes fatigue along with his other middle forwards which creates space on the edges which you simply wouldn’t get with other hookers including Leeming.

If you find it hilarious the notion that players are lucky to have O’Neil in the side again I think your understanding is lacking or seems to be from what you post.

David Hodgson scored plenty of tries for Wigan, is he one of the best wingers we have ever had?

Apologies if you don’t like your perception of the game challenging.

Always tough to figure out how much you've missed a player when you're winning. Once the side raises and gets in to that big game mode, you can cover some absences of important players. Where I do think we missed O'Neill was in the games from his injury up until we managed to find focus and form. He is a leader in terms of intensity and physicality and it's not really the big games when you miss a guy like that, it's the games where everyone is a bit flat and you need somebody to lift people around them.

O'Neill is a terrific player.
He is ideally suited to starting a game and a front row of Havard, Brad and Thompson is staggeringly good. Hopefully Brad will get back to full fitness and help move the pack forward and improve on what was an exceptional last season.
Getting him to sign such a long term contract is a massive boost for the club and us supporters.

This came from an ex player and coach. O'Neill is the nearest thing we've had to Terry Newton. High praise indeed!!

I have been very impressed watching Brad O'Neill IMO he is already the best 9 in SL and he should be on the radar of every NRL club too, as he'd nail it there too

He's decent enough but he is no Mark Riddell

[quote="The Whiffy Kipper":dyeot5bx]He's decent enough but he is no Mark Riddell[/quote:dyeot5bx] Piggy was a great controlling half. To get gear out of O’Neil in the NRL he’d have to go to one of the teams with a really good 7, which there is a bit of a lack of at the moment, hence Dodd being on $700k deal apparently.

[quote="The Whiffy Kipper":1i6forni]He's decent enough but he is no Mark Riddell[/quote:1i6forni] Or Sam Powell?

[quote="MattyB":1tqerrc5]Or Sam Powell?[/quote:1tqerrc5] He's way better than Powell, whom we have never missed

Games I`ve seen O`Neil play he is by far the better option between Leeming and him. When Leeming played for us he did do the flashy stuff taking on the line and scoring similar to Dwyer when he was with us. But more often than not he and Dwyer would run on the last and the rest of the team didn`t have a clue what they were doing. O`Neil looks hard as nails and doesn`t back down. He reminds me of the old school hookers in their days.

I still think he's likely to move to 13 if/when Ellis goes back to Aus. If we still have Leeming and Forber on the books...