How good was Offiah?

[manly40gimps0]

He had a great side step especially when someone was running at him.

 

[Teddyboy]

Jason Robinson (the English winger) never gets much of a mention.

Before he defected to union, he was up there.

Loved Offiah but Robinson was the best player(in my eyes)in both Rugby League and Union.

 

[Teddyboy]

What about Henderson Gill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhIne3LCpB4

 

[LeagueXIII]

The other thing about Offiah was that he would attract people through the gate either in England or Australia.

He was entertaining and people wanted to see him.

 

[Loudstrat]

Loved Offiah but Robinson was the best player(in my eyes)in both Rugby League and Union.

You havent seen much league have you. The Robinson I remember gets the ball 10 from the Australian line - sprints like lightning for 20m, and gets tackled 10m out. He was more crab than Paris Hilton's pubic hair.

 

[anjado]

That game was never scheduled due to the Kangaroo Tour. There was no WWC in 1990 for the same reason,

There were strong rumours of the game going ahead in 1995, It was going to be Mal Meninga's last game. A bit like World Club challenge in 1994 was played in the middle of the next season i.e 1995.

 

[manoj p]

If he was around today he'd be lucky to be in first grade in Australia.

Pap.

 

[manoj p]

Loved Offiah but Robinson was the best player(in my eyes)in both Rugby League and Union.

Given your proclivity for the latter, your views have no currency.

 

[BranVan3000]

How can you not be good with a bad ass name like Chariots Offiah

 

[H.H]

The other half of Saints' "black Porsche's" from the early 90's...

Remember when Warren Ryan drenched the sidlines at Campbelltown before playing the Dragons that year - to slow down the black Porches? Crafty bugger.

On the topic of this thread, Offiah was a tremendous player. To suggest he only had pace and nothing else is way off the mark. He had an instinct for the game - pace alone cannot get you 400+ tries.

Groth Snr and Boustead are always my top 2 (I started watching league seriously in 1980). Other honourable mentions to Sing, Carne, the Dell (remember the semi against the Dragins in 2001?), Lote.

 

[Brimmer]

Second Best GB player i liked to watch behind the "Welsh Wizard", Jonathan Davies.

You guys can argue over who's better than who but any winger with a try scoring strike rate like that would be a first pick in my team. Granted and accepting his other flaws.

 

[NAS]

The position of wing has changed perhaps more than any other position on the footy field, with hooker/dummy half the only on coming close. I think the real problem with assessing wingers is the fact that there are also so many types of wingers. Your power wingers like Terry fahey, Wendell sailor, Manu vatuvei are picked on their ability to return the ball and assist forwards early in a set. Your have your pure athletic wingers who can pretzel themselves to get the ball down, they're great in the air. Guys like Amos Roberts and Nathan blacklock. Then you have your speed merchants like offiah who are there to exploit overlaps and so forth. Finally you've got my favorite type of winger, the crafty winger. The one who uses their smarts. Hazem el masri is probably the best example here.

Now there are wingers who probably do possess ample parts of all of these attributes to be considered best ever winger, however heres the thing, they don't normally last that long on the wing. They become centers or fullbacks or forwards even.

If you ask me honestly who the best wingers that I've seen are, i'll be honest and tell you, that none of the wingers of the past would hold a candle to either jaryd Hayne, Anthony minichiello, or the best of them all, timana Tahu. But who considers them wingers? There's no way grothe sr, Morris or anyone would have been able to compete with Tahu in his last year with the knights.....

 

[Mr Fourex]

Poor effort.

It was 1992. At a time when both UK club and international sides were highly competitive with Australian clubs and Australia.

Fail.

When's the last time you heard of a player scoring 10 tries in a first grade game in Australia

......clue

NEVER

That 10 try haul wasn't as much as Offiahs credit. More a sad indictment of how pathetic the UK clubs defend.

 

[S.S.T.I.D]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8TsCBgCp4M

Some of those set plays by GB are magnificent.

 

[Goldfields_Titans]

Offiah with ET trailing behind him.....

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Pap.

Smear.

 

[The 18th Man]

How good? As his record suggests - an All Time Great.

The majority here would not have had the pleasure of seeing this try scoring machine play. It was a joy to watch, especially for Wigan. Absolute magician. Still the fastest player to lace on a boot in my mind.

 

[Ziggy the God]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8TsCBgCp4M

Some of those set plays by GB are magnificent.

How good are some of those tries.

I really forgot how quick Offiah was, he is the proverbial 'shut the gate' winger.

 

[miguel de cervantes]

How good are some of those tries.

I really forgot how quick Offiah was, he is the proverbial 'shut the gate' winger.

Some really basic but effective set moves in there that you just don't see in the game much anymore. Such a shame the statistical software has taken over.

 

[Stagger Lee]

Fave wingers of all time that I have seen play for my teams are - in no particular order

BLACKLOCK
GREEN VIGO
Geoff MUNRO
ERIC FITZSIMMONS (hey - he was also my schoolteacher at the same time as playing!)
Ricky WALFORD