Re: Gaskell : Thu May 24, 2012 7:50 pm  

It's also worth noting that Gaskell is better now than Briers was at the same age.

Re: Gaskell : Thu May 24, 2012 8:16 pm  

McClennan wrote:

It's also worth noting that Gaskell is better now than Briers was at the same age.

That is complete and utter rubbish. Briers in his half a dozen games or so for Saints did a brilliant job given he was only 17 or so. Briers skill level even then is far better than Gaskell is now. I know coz I was there!!

Removed cartoon so as not to cause offence

Re: Gaskell : Thu May 24, 2012 8:54 pm  

Top Saint wrote:

That is complete and utter rubbish. Briers in his half a dozen games or so for Saints did a brilliant job given he was only 17 or so. Briers skill level even then is far better than Gaskell is now. I know coz I was there!!

I think you will find that McClennan was there too, and probably writing FMM at about that time too (?) so his knowledge of Briers is pretty fair, and certainly not deserving of being patronised as if he is a school kid.

Re: Gaskell : Thu May 24, 2012 9:09 pm  

SomersetSaint wrote:

I think you will find that McClennan was there too, and probably writing FMM at about that time too (?) so his knowledge of Briers is pretty fair, and certainly not deserving of being patronised as if he is a school kid.

Don't mean to sound patronising but when a statement is so wrong it has to be commented on.

See below for briers's full Saints appearances ( info courtesy of heritage site )

W/D/L Pos Date Opponents Comp Season Venue F A T G DG
L 7 26th Dec 1996 Wigan Fr 1996 A 22 32 1 1 0
L 15 24th Jan 1997 Leeds Rhinos Fr 1997 H 30 36 0 0 0
W 7 23rd Feb 1997 Hull SCCC5 1997 H 54 8 1 5 0
W 7 9th Mar 1997 Keighley Cougars SCCC6 1997 A 24 0 0 2 0
W 7 16th Mar 1997 London Broncos SL 1997 A 28 24 0 4 0
W 7 22nd Mar 1997 Salford Reds SCCCSF 1997 N 50 20 0 6 0
W 7 28th Mar 1997 Wigan Warriors SL 1997 A 22 10 0 3 2
W 7 31st Mar 1997 Sheffield Eagles SL 1997 H 32 12 0 4 0

2 Tries and 25 goals plus 2 drop goals in 6 Appearances isn't that bad.

Re: Gaskell : Thu May 24, 2012 9:31 pm  

bewareshadows wrote:

Ok I'm going to go against the grain here, but I don't see Long and Briers as mutually exclusive. I don't think Breirs was asking for silly money at the time. As for Hooper and Pryce, if you gave me the option of briers over those 2, then yes I'd bite your hand off.

Briers for Hooper - yes. But not Pryce. The two of them are completely different players so comparison is difficult. But Pryce did more than enough at the highest level in SL to give him the advantage. When Briers asserts match-winning influence in a Grand Final an exchange is worthy of discussion.

Briers for Martyn is a more tricky swap though ...

Only in some weird kind of fantasy land. It would be like swapping Captain Mannering for Alexander the Great.

Re: Gaskell : Thu May 24, 2012 9:47 pm  

Top Saint wrote:

That is complete and utter rubbish. Briers in his half a dozen games or so for Saints did a brilliant job given he was only 17 or so. Briers skill level even then is far better than Gaskell is now. I know coz I was there!!

Removed cartoon so as not to cause offence

Give over man. He had a good run of games in a very successful side and looked good but he never looked like he was ever going to have a decent defence or running game (which is pretty much how it played out for him). He was solid passing, certainly not that much better than Gaskell and I rate Gaskell's long kicking game better than Briers then and now too. I would have been happy with us keeping him but at the time there was no way I would have kept him over Goulding or Martyn.

Briers turned out to be a decent club guy who has had an Indian summer thanks to Tony Smith sorting him out. Gaskell doesn't appear to have the same brain malfunctioning as Briers which also makes him a better investment to me as well.

Mugwump wrote:

Only in some weird kind of fantasy land. It would be like swapping Captain Mannering for Alexander the Great.

LOLZ.

Re: Gaskell : Thu May 24, 2012 9:48 pm  

Top Saint wrote:

That is complete and utter rubbish. Briers in his half a dozen games or so for Saints did a brilliant job given he was only 17 or so. Briers skill level even then is far better than Gaskell is now. I know coz I was there!!

Briers performed admirably given the circumstances and it is true that he was instrumental in several Saints victories. But let's not forget that he was a complete rookie who came pretty much out of nowhere. Given the Goulding situation prospects looked bleak at the time and it would be false to claim Briers' effectiveness wasn't exaggerated in some way - as tends to happen with all kids who exceed expectation on debut. We've all seen fans proclaim such-and-such-a-kid the next GB/England scrum-half, centre, winger etc. purely on the strength of two or three good games.

Comparisons with Gaskell are not as easy as you think. At the time of Briers' debut defences were nowhere near as restrictive as those Gaskell is currently up against. Placing him in a Saints jersey back then I'd expect he'd run riot.

Re: Gaskell : Thu May 24, 2012 10:47 pm  

Mugwump wrote:

Briers for Hooper - yes. But not Pryce. The two of them are completely different players so comparison is difficult. But Pryce did more than enough at the highest level in SL to give him the advantage. When Briers asserts match-winning influence in a Grand Final an exchange is worthy of discussion.

Only in some weird kind of fantasy land. It would be like swapping Captain Mannering for Alexander the Great.

I meant that it's more tricky to swap Martyn for Briers, as Briers would have been Martyn's Junior, Martyn was already an experienced player and so Martyn would never have been in competition with Briers, were as Long may have been given that they where both relatively young. In the end those 3 just don't fit in the same team, briers would have been an understudy and filled in well during injuries, but unless he could do a Roby and take bit parts for years until Martyn was removed it would never have happened for him.

So even though he jumped ship early, even if he stayed he would probably have jumped ship in a year or 2.

Re: Gaskell : Sun May 27, 2012 7:09 pm  

I no some people wont agree but think gaskell should be given few matches

Re: Gaskell : Sun May 27, 2012 7:12 pm  

Longtime wrote:

I no some people wont agree but think gaskell should be given few matches

I think you will find the majority will agree.