Liam Marshall

Quote: Cherry_&_White "I was always one of those who thought that Marshall would have been the eventual casualty of us having so many wingers. It's hard to underestimate how much of a big call letting Davies go was. It ususally takes wingers years to develop the extra strings to their bow so that they can do the extra running & support work to take pressure away from the forwards. Davies was already capable of doing that to a very high level, and could've played that role for 10 years at Wigan if we decided to go with him instead of Marshy.

Someone of Marshall's build will never be able to do that sort of job because of his lack of size, but he really has come on leaps and bounds in using his pace & desire to compensate for it. The amount of penalties he wins when returning the ball just through running quick, straight & showing urgency to play the ball quickly. His improvement under the high ball too has been massive. I still think Dom on form is the best winger in the competition, but Marshall's playing as well as anyone at present and so much of it is down to him clearly putting the hours in to improve.'"

+1

I am delighted that Marshall has put me in my place. I was always pretty vocal of his abilities under the high ball and tackling ability. I am absolutely fine with him under the high ball now and have come to accept that he isn't probably ever going to be strong enough to be a good tackler but he is outstanding in all other areas of his game. If every player was brilliant at everything then they would all be like Greg Inglis. Like yourself, i was disappointed we let Davies go over Burgess but with both players only on 1 year deals it is entirely feasible he could be back. Davies had the opportunity to go to Brisbane a couple of years ago but the club and his family persuaded him to stay and the Catalans move came out of the blue. I think he is going to be a top winger who could just as easily play at FB if required and would rather him do that at Wigan.