Although I agree about his defence he does make the big tackles when it's crucial - he did a few blinders in the WC.

Miller is one of the better defensive halves in the league he's come leaps and bounds in the last few years so he tends to compensate for Finn.

Finn's defense obviously isn't the strongest part of his game and he does miss quite a few but for a SH he makes more tackles than just about every other halfback in the League. That may be because teams single him out but compared to other Halves his stats aren't too bad, yeah I know they don't tell you the full picture but give you a good idea.

Last year he made 598 tackles and missed 71. Kelly made 530 & missed 70, Luke Walsh made 379 & missed 59, Myler made 321 & missed 53 and Gale made 304 & missed 46. As for Miller, I agree that his defensive side of the game seemed to have tightened up since he's been with us, but last season he made 357 tackles and missed 69. Stats hey.

I just done have a problem with Finn in any department. Yes a bit of pace would be an advantage but hes at least one step ahead of most. With regard to defence I would say probably better than most SHs.
If a young Finn could be found and developed I would be more than happy.
Just out of interest what S H would fit the squad better than Finn at the moment and more importantly why.

No British one I can think of that's for sure. There may be a few Aussies who have a similar skill set but would they be any better - I doubt it.

What people tend to look at with Finn is a lack of pace or more accurately speed off the mark. There is no doubt this inhibits his ability to make breaks for himself that he has created - if he could he'd be the GB S/H in residence.

But at Wakefield that doesn't matter very much because he's part of a team and now has two exceptional runners in Miller and Hampshire as partners in crime.

Even if he does start to slow to unacceptable levels this season or next we are clearly putting his successors in place.

Imho Finn is not the most gifted or exciting player we have signed in the past few years but he is imho the most important. He got a lot of stick of some quite sensible posters when we signed him, why I don't really know. However there are few that would argue his signing now, even those with some reservation.

To me he's the man who has been the catalyst to our success. I firmly believe that contrary to popular belief it's his slow steady game that has allowed that shambles of a team from 2015 to catch up and thrive.

His time as a player is coming to an end but let's not be premature. Although Gale is a better player for Cas than Finn I bet Powell wishes deep down he'd have kept him a bit longer and so should we as he looks far from done just yet.

Think the Powel thing could be right. Is Jamie Ellis any better than Finn ?

As we all know Stats can be made to tell you anything you want but I looked at the kickers who attempted at least 50 goal kicks last season and their success precentages. Finn is 4th on that list.
Mark Sneyd 88.79% (103 out of 116)
Luke Walsh 85.19% (69 out of 81)
Kallum Watkins 83.33% (45 out of 54)
Liam Finn 82.76% (96 out of 116)
Luke Gale 82.69% (129 out of 156)
Ben Reynolds 80% (48 out of 60)
Mark Percival 76.61% (95 out of 124)
Michael Dobson 74.19% (46 out of 62)

Out of those 8 players 6 play at half back. Finn's missed tackle percentage is 3rd lowest of the 8 and he made significantly (over 200) more attempts than any of the others.
Dobson missed 9.84% (43 out of 437)
Sneyd missed 10.04% (46 out of 45icon_cool.gif
Finn missed 10.61% (71 out of 669)
Reynolds missed 11.35% (47 out of 414)
Gale missed 13.14% (46 out of 350)
Walsh missed 17.46% (59 out of 33icon_cool.gif

His defence is not massively weak compared to others playing in a similar position and his value in terms of conversions alone is massive.

Organisation is not a stat that is easily measured but I'd put him up very near the top of any such list if one was available.

He may not be the speediest, and he is the only one of those players listed above not to make a single clean break last year, but his value to us as a team is unquestionable and he is definitely the best option we have at this moment in time.

I think there's better half backs in Super League than Liam Finn. I also think there's better half backs at Wakefield. But were a much better team when he's in it than when he's not, and for me that's all that matters.

That's a bit of a contradiction, not quite sure what you mean

If you mean naturally gifted then yeah, if you mean as a craftsman then he's by far the best at the club.

Finn's main weakness IMHO is his lack of pace when sliding across. He regularly is left grasping at air as speedier backs cruise through the gap. Don't know if this shows up in any stats?

I imagine they do when the coaching team strip them down to fine detail. The stats we see I'm guessing are very basic and thus easy to read in many different ways.

It all comes down to better s h who fit the wakey way, I honestly can not think of one at the moment. He fits the wakey way of doing things 100% and I'm happy that it continues that way for the short term.
Scrum halves always and half backs in general have a very good game followed with 2 very average performances, clubs are always looking for that x factor tht doesnt actually excist. Im more than happy to have a good solid performer that may not break any records but makes for a very good club man.

I think part of the reasoning behind Finns higher tackle completed number is the fact he interchanged at hooker at the beginning of last season. Defending in the middle he is bound to make more tackles.

On a side note, is it a missed tackle if you never get close to making the tackle when someone runs past you?

High tackle count at half back tends to be a sign that the player was targeted.
Not necessarily for bad defence but in Miller's case it's more likely to slow him down on attack

I totally agree; he has been a big reason why we have become a handy side

I watched Finn's defensive technique quite a lot last season as a result of him being criticised on here, and I'm sure some of you will have noticed that rather than trying to tackle the opponent, he prefers to tackle the ball, which tends to make the attacker concentrate on ball retention rather than making progress (well that's my take on it anyway) and it generally seems to work, as it slows down the attacker and allows the second and third tacklers to come in and assist in completing the tackle.