Wingers - the underrated position

[crouching_tiger]

Depends on your era. Eric Grothe Snr was head and shoulders the best Australian winger I have seen. Todays version would be Brett Stewart's speed with Fui's power.

Then again, older folk would swear by Ken Irvine.

Sounds like you are describing Taniela Tuiaki. Enough said...

 

[crouching_tiger]

Wolfman is the best winger atm tbh.

Bwahahahahaha.......

Inglis' own private little bitch!!

bwahahahahaha you're a comedian!!

 

[crouching_tiger]

Sing is easily my favourite winger in my time watching footy. Pulled off some amazing trysavers in his time.

You say Fitzhenry is rubbish then go on to tell us all how a brain bucket wearing piss ant who spent most of his time unconscious on field is your favourite..

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

[crouching_tiger]

Matt Sing was my favourite winger.

His positional play and defense is what sets him apart from others. Probably one of the very few wingers with a football brain, as he managed to put himself in the right position always and read opposition attacks very well.

Added to that he was lightning fast and fabulous on his feet.

Football brain?? The only right position he put himself into was to get his head taken off every tackle. It takes a special talent to do this with their running technique. Martin Lang and Nathan Long come to mind...

 

[watatank]

Bwahahahahahahahaha!!!!!
Well you have made it quite obvious that you are dribbling from your rectum by announcing publicly that you are making assumptions without watching the games which are in question. Wataidiot indeed...

How does this change any of what I said? Simply saying "he scored a try" tells us nothing. Was it good? Was it skill or did he fall over the line? Fair call I didn't actually remember his try from the grand final because when there were far more impressive efforts from Richards on the other wing. On watching it the try itself wasn't really that impressive.

Here's an example of what I mean. If I said that Brett Morris was a good winger because he scored a couple of tries for Australia in the Four Nations and then you watched those tries you would probably think there's nothing good about him because any first grade winger could've scored most of those tries he scored.

One only needs to look at WHO he beat in that highlights reel. Virtually the best players in the world and many representatives too!!

Showing plenty of ticker to take on Sonny-Bill and Frank Pritchard.

List of some of the players he simply outclassed on BOTH flanks AND 5/8th in the clip:

Luke Patten
Rhys Wesser
Matty Bowen
Mitch Brown
David Peachey
Paul Gallen
Lance Thompson
Corey Parker
Sam Thaiday
Greg Inglis
Johnathan Thurston
Ty Williams

So he was running straight through Australian and Origin reps on left and right sides of the field. 2010 will see him run through representative opposition in the middle.


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

I must admit the highlights reel is impressive and didn't give him due credit for that. Still, it says much more than "he scored tries in three certain games

 

[watatank]

Have you even watched Turner play any Storm games?

He is a solid club winger, nothing more. He does ok most of the time because he's usually up against other average wingers (which is what this thread is highlighting) but when a quality winger isolates him he doesn't do so well.

 

[Phillips]

couple minutes of highlights on youtube can make anyone look good.

 

[Bobby DIGital]

Martin Offiah, Noa Nadruku, Michael Hancock...those were the days.

 

[macnaz]

Wolfman is the best winger atm tbh.

Hahahaha... FMD that bearded spastic wouldnt even rate in the top 1000 of rugby leagues best ever wingers.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Vatuvei tends to be consistently (yes, I said consistently) one of the Warriors' best players, yet there has been very little talk of him playing anywhere other than winger (occasionally someone will suggest he is too big and should play in the forwards, but that's only occasional).

Although having said that I've said on several occasions he'd be worth a run at centre....so I guess that sort of proves the general theory.

 

[simostorm]

Vatuvei tends to be consistently (yes, I said consistently) one of the Warriors' best players, yet there has been very little talk of him playing anywhere other than winger (occasionally someone will suggest he is too big and should play in the forwards, but that's only occasional).

Although having said that I've said on several occasions he'd be worth a run at centre....so I guess that sort of proves the general theory.

Ive seen him almost single handely win games by playing on the wing..
Vs Storm in the 2008 finals.. rnd 1.. not giving us the week off.. absoluty killed the Storm.. that run tho.. was unstoppable. Great big winger

 

[The Engineers Room]

Wingers may score a lot of tries but they are a credit to the players inside.

 

[Gaba]

As an example of that Israel would play centre in a weaker team, eg. may play centre for Broncos, but will be a winger for QLD as they have Inglis and Hodges.

dont know about that falou defense is not good at all that is why he was on the wing for the storm and now for the broncos. Wing is really the only position for him at any team, if he wanted to change position he may be good at lock and 2nd row.

But not the centres, 5/8 or fullback position

 

[watatank]

dont know about that falou defense is not good at all that is why he was on the wing for the storm and now for the broncos. Wing is really the only position for him at any team, if he wanted to change position he may be good at lock and 2nd row.

But not the centres, 5/8 or fullback position

If his defence is no good why should he defend in the forwards?

 

[Johns Magic]

If his defence is no good why should he defend in the forwards?

It's easier to defend in the forwards than centre.

 

[Hanscholo]

It's pretty simple. Any winger who is actually good gets moved to the centres or fullback pretty soon these days due to the salary cap.

El Masri was the only winger who was never good enough to play another position(except his laughable efforts at filling at fullback), and hence he got the winger of the decade by default.

I disagree.

Centre is now a defensive position for most clubs. Alternatively, wingers also play fullback and do hitups. I'd rather have my best athletes on the wing, and my best defenders in the centres. Wing is now a far more complex position than centre ever was. I certainly wouldnt waste a good winger in the centres.

 

[sooperdooper]

i like the wingers i have at the eels...
but a player like hayne was the best winger a few years back but is now the best FB.
a freak

 

[Dragonwest]

I was watching all Saints trys for the year on youtube the other night and was quite supprised by how many of Brett Morris trys he created himself through broken play or through great positioning.

Whether he stays on the wing or shifts to fullback or centre, he is going to put a lot of points on the board over the next 3 or 4 yrs.