Whiting has not been a patch on Westerman over the course of this season so far.

I disagree.

Westerman is ahead in just about every stat, although he has also made more errors and given away more penalties.

Evidently. I don't think it's even close. Westerman has had 1, maybe 2 bad games. Whiting has had 3 or 4 and a couple of average ones. A few comparison stats:

Westerman has made just short of 45% more tackles than Whiting, around 30% more per game.
His tackle completion rate is also higher.
Westerman has made 75% more metres than Whiting, around 58% more per game, around half a metre more per carry.
It's currently 3 to 1 in both tries and assists to Westerman.

The only areas in which Whiting has been better are clean breaks (by 1), his discipline and errors. I completely agree that Westerman needs to improve with these latter 2, but I really don't think they are bad enough to say that Whiting has been better this season. I'm a big fan of Whiting, but this year he has been comprehensively outplayed in almost every other facet of the game by Westerman, derby excluded.

Exactly.

I have no idea why Westerman isn't apparently considered as someone who influences games. He's got more assists than anyone in our squad apart from halfbacks, more tackles than anyone except Houghton, is in our top 3 'proper' forwards for metres, and joint 4th leading tryscorer. How many more ways does he need to influence proceedings other than making tackles, making ground, and making and scoring tries?

Spot on. Westerman and Horne have been our two best players this season. I honestly don't think it matters what Westerman does, he'll never be rated here. Not a huge love of stats but they show Westy in a good light this season. He plays with a lot of spirit and seems to have a new and improved attitude last season and this, maybe PG has placed more responsibility on him?

Either way if we are looking at why we are not performing Westy isn't one of those reasons.

I'd add McDonnell up until his injury, too. Totally agree with your second point (presuming you meant NOT).

I submitted too early!! Yeah I would be happy to add Shannon to that list as he's been very good so far.

It is very difficult to understand people's negativity towards him.

Bloke behind me at the derby was mouthing off about him not coming up with enough to justify what we paid for him, and how he doesn't even care because he lives in Cas and he'll be 'back there drinking with his cas mates tonight anyways' and how that means the derby doesn't matter to him anyways.

The worst part, other than the people around us agreeing with him, was that he was shouting all this as Westerman was running good lines with the ball in hand trying to create down our right side and getting shut down by Paterson before he could get the ball away. He was obviously trying to play like a stand off, stepping and dummying through the line and looking for the other players, and it wasn't anything to do with lack effort on his part that meant we weren't coming up with the goods.

Maybe some people just think it was Westerman, and not Cas, that negotiated his transfer fee?

I think westerman's game has suffered from him not being in a settled position and also our lack of playmakers. Once galea and tickle go I hope he gets a settled run in the 2nd row and some decent ball from a settled half back pairing. That's when we'll see how good he can be. I think some fans probably don't see what he does do because we see the odd flash of brilliance and they expect it all of the time. He'll mature into a much better 2nd rower than tickle IMO and he's only about 23 so still has many years in front of him.

By his own high standards, I think whiting has been below average so far this season but he has been playing all over the place and is another one who will look better if we can have a period of less injuries

There's always someone mouthing off at games. Someone that sits behind me can be full of praise one minute for a player and then as soon as they make a mistake they start saying they're the worst player ever to wear the black and white shirt.

Wow - and it's claimed Westerman has no recognition

Whiting doesn't play the full 80 which is why his stats on things like metres and tackles are likely to be lower - just a thought. It may also be a contributor the other way against Westerman - perhaps he could do to be spelled a bit more then his large error and penalty count may fall.

A key indicator for Westerman this season will be whether or not he gets in the frame for England at the end of the year. I hope he does as it will mean that he's had a good season for us. At the moment I doubt he's close but it could change.

See above re stats which will reflect game time.