Re: New Captain : Wed Jan 21, 2015 1:17 pm  

Wilkin would always be in my team because of his passing skills and reading of the game, you can only have so many bruisers in the pack, but you need 1 or 2 with good ball handling skills, Shirley from the Wigoons for example.

Re: New Captain : Wed Jan 21, 2015 1:44 pm  

Can he captain the team from his BBC commentary posistion, got the impression he would rather be doing media work.

Re: New Captain : Wed Jan 21, 2015 1:49 pm  

I was told this just after Xmas but kept it under my hat as it might spoil Wilkin big moment if it was leaked.

Robes is vice captain.

It's shown KC might have the balls to make what might be tough calls. I'm sure it was hard for KC to tell wello as they are good mates but he was brave enough.

I also like the way he had a pop at some of the older players after the Widnes game which again shows he isn't influenced by old friendships.

Re: New Captain : Wed Jan 21, 2015 1:59 pm  

I know he divides opinion, but this is good with me. As Saddened! says, it suggests that Wello is no longer an automatic pick which, much as I love the guy, needed to happen. I'm also looking forward to seeing Wilkin in the back row, where his impact on the team is underrated, IMO. A game that springs to mind is Wire away last season, where he went looking for Westwood for 80 minutes and totally took him out of the game. That was his first game in the pack for ages, and soon after that he was stuck in the halves again. I think we've forgotten what a good grafting back rower he is.

Re: New Captain : Wed Jan 21, 2015 2:11 pm  

Dux wrote:

I know he divides opinion, but this is good with me. As Saddened! says, it suggests that Wello is no longer an automatic pick which, much as I love the guy, needed to happen. I'm also looking forward to seeing Wilkin in the back row, where his impact on the team is underrated, IMO. A game that springs to mind is Wire away last season, where he went looking for Westwood for 80 minutes and totally took him out of the game. That was his first game in the pack for ages, and soon after that he was stuck in the halves again. I think we've forgotten what a good grafting back rower he is.

Mmm. I'm not Wilkin's biggest fan as I think he's not physically imposing enough, but when he come up with games like you mention, he's a real cracker. I remember years ago when Skandelis was having a good season for Hudds, Wilkin really targeted him in defence and nullified his impact.
You need one backrower that will make 40-50 tackles a game and he will do that every week.
He sure can pick a line when he wants to as well. He may not be big and hard, but then again, he does annoy the opposition and doesn't mind taking a punch. He has been guilty of being Mr. Nice too often, but I think you lose that with age (speaking from experience).

The fear is that, as the tackling graft takes it out of him, will he stop running hard and start trying to be playmaker, getting in the way of our halfs? Not with Travis Burns around, I reckon

Re: New Captain : Wed Jan 21, 2015 2:15 pm  

Magic Superbeetle wrote:

Wilkin wouldn't be in my team, but that's another story.

Wilkin wouldn't be in my team. I'd pick Flash (less frills but harder hitting) or Jones (more dynamic overall) as my grafting backrow.

I'm happy to be proven wrong.

Re: New Captain : Wed Jan 21, 2015 2:20 pm  

St pete wrote:

I was told this just after Xmas but kept it under my hat as it might spoil Wilkin big moment if it was leaked.

No offence Pete, but posts like this are bloody pointless unless you actually reveal the scoop beforehand.

Wilkin is the most obvious candidate really, we're not blessed with lots of leaders so he's a credible candidate with Roby being the only other alternative really at this stage for me.

Re: New Captain : Wed Jan 21, 2015 4:58 pm  

There are other players but I'm not sure how they would go in a leadership role.

To me Amor and Walsh spring to mind, but they ain't from the town and they may not be a long term possibility.

Re: New Captain : Wed Jan 21, 2015 5:16 pm  

This is a good call. It shows Wello is now very much a reserve in case of serious injury crisis.

More importantly, Wilkin is very much an aggressive in-your-face kind of player. Saints need that desperately since Graham left. He's clever enough to stay on the right side of controlled aggression, and he'll communicate that attitude to the rest of the pack when he's back where he belongs in the scrum. I don't see Roby as captain material, to be honest - he's not a big talker, and he needs to focus much more on his own game, playing as he does at hooker in the thick of the action all the time.

As for whether Wilkin deserves his place, I think he certainly does. We may have some good young lads coming up, but effectively they are interchangeable prop/2nd row types of the sort we've been producing for years - decent solid lumps who run hard and tackle lots, but don't offer a whole lot in terms of a passing game, organisational skills, or clever line running. I think the loose-forward position is made for Wilkin, with a slightly more old-school ball-handling, wide-running kind of role. The likes of Thompson, Savelio, Greenwood etc can take their turn rotating in the prop/2nd row spots and doing the hard graft. Wilkin still offers just a few more options in his game than they do at this time.

Re: New Captain : Wed Jan 21, 2015 6:02 pm  

bewareshadows wrote:

There are other players but I'm not sure how they would go in a leadership role.

To me Amor and Walsh spring to mind, but they ain't from the town and they may not be a long term possibility.

I'd be tempted to go for Lomax. Bit left field admittedly, but it's something he could grow with, and I feel like it's something we could do with some longevity with. SOL was criticised from pillar to post when he was first given the captaincy, but he's grown into one of the best captains in super league, and I feel like Lomax could do similar