Great post. You are spot on with the utility point too. I feel he has suffered this season from constantly changing from 1 to 6 and vice versa plus a different backline every week. His stats would’ve been even more impressive with a settled position and a settled backline.

No Welsby gets mentioned because the Sky commentary team have some weird habit of completely overhyping somebody and this season it seems to be Welsby. He is a decent player but nowhere near the level of adulation he is getting from the (unbiased) commentary, the same kind of unbiased commentary we had for years when Eddie Hemmings used to lower his tone when Wigan scored but then soiled himself when Saints did. Like i say, good player, nowhere near the level he is talked about and nowhere near the level of Field, thats why he is almost double the points behind him in the man of steel rankings. He doesn't do half the things Field can do and there seems to be a myth with the Saints fans that he can't tackle. Field has scored about 10 world class try's this season and set up about another dozen, Welsby has done none of that but is talked about like Inglis, just look at the MOS rankings. As i have already said, where are all these NRL clubs ready to snap up this super talent? Nowhere to be seen, as soon as they get a sniff of a good player in England they are in and whisk them away. None of them want Welsby, not even to develop, i wonder why.

How do you know there has been no NRL interest in him? There’s a reason we gave him a new contract so soon after his last one.

And let’s be honest if Field had the chance to go back he would’ve done. Clearly there was no NRL interest in him otherwise he’d have been back like a shot. He also couldn’t nail down a first team place over there prior to coming to Wigan.

Was Regan Grace last year when Barrie Mac compared him to Martin Offiah. They must have turned everyone else's mic down because I didn't hear much laughing.

It's probably what I would do, but I feel if he was going to do that he would have done it the other week.

He will do a job for us wherever we play him I have no doubt about that.

Tough to comment on your own player because for one I’m usually at the games, so I don’t really hear it but also it just doesn’t stand out as much because I guess you subconsciously buy in to it. I honestly don’t think I’ve heard an individual spoke about as much since Tomkins by the commentary team (not just Wilkin). Much of it comes from ‘that try’ and I understand that.

He’s a quality player no doubt but very different to somebody like Field for example. If he’s bulled up by the commentary team I get it looking at his highlights reel this season. He’s been a one man try of the season competition. Welsby is more of a creator IMO and he competes extremely hard. He’s very good, so it certainly isn’t a post bashing his talent but you would think he’s reinventing the game sometimes with how he’s spoke about. Obviously it’s coming from a Wigan fans perspective and there’s going to be bias. We need players to be spoke about and talked up but Wilkin crossed the line in to fan boy mode last night.

No, Sam is nailed on for the fullback position.

I’m all for it. Let’s big them all up. We spend far too much time concentrating on the negative and ignoring the positive in this country.

One of the reasons I prefer the Australian commentary is they focus on the positive.

Is it taken a bit too far sometimes? Absolutely but I’d rather have it that way than spending 80 minutes talking about mistakes and refereeing errors.

He’s an excellent player, and whilst not at this level (yet…one can dream even as a Wigan fan), he’s very much in the mould of the current crop of Origin full backs in the way that he can play across the backs to a very good standard, he has a similar style, and is strong as anything. Sort of one of those players who you just want in the team ala Trobojevic, Mitchell, Tedesco, and Cobbo (nearly).

I think Welsby is a terrific player, as a Wigan fan I completely understand why Saints fans are so excited about him and I look forward to seeing him tear it up in an England shirt so that I can cheer for him. As for Sky, like all of us, I think they are painfully aware that our sport no longer has household names outside its core audience. That's why they did the hype job on Tomkins, now Welsby and why they will do the same with Will Pryce if circumstances allow. Doesn't alter the fact that Tomkins was an outstanding talent and so is Welsby (not getting into a measuring contest of who is best). Like most fans, I see much more of my own team than I do others and that probably colours my judgement a little, and the same is probably true of Jon Wilkin.

A Well Balanced, reasonable post - It will never catch on

Welsby is a VERY Good player

Agree completely.

Although if we [iwere[/i to get into a measuring contest, Sam was better!

Welsby is a highly overrated player

Oh dear, if you think that then he must be better than I thought

Have you actually got a non antagonistic thought in your head