Stu M wrote:
Have a look at his tries and assists. As good as Field and French are the acid test is the NRL is it not?
I’ll wager a charity bet that Welsby will be playing in the NRL before either of them do again. There’s a reason why they are here and not in the NRL.
Welsby is the best player in SL whether you like it or not.
Anybody would be silly to not admit that Welsby is one of the best players in Superleague but is he the best? I don't think anybody could say that with a great deal of confidence. I think it's quite close between Welsby, Williams and French IMO and given the silly MOS voting system, Lachlan Lam may well walk away with the official award for 2023. It's interesting to look at trys and assists combined for those 4 guys and you can throw in Jai Field as well. If we're saying trys and assists are what a top level fullback or halfback will be judged on, 2 players are clear of the rest on that score when worked out on an average per game-
Welsby- Games-25 Trys-10 Assists-26 Combined T/A Avg per game-1.44
French- Games-25 Trys-16 Assists-28 Combined T/A Avg per game-1.76
Field-Games-19 Trys-14 Assists-19 Combined T/A Avg per game-1.74
Lam-Games-25 Trys-8 Assists-21 Combined T/A Avg per game-1.16
Williams-Games-21 Trys-11 Assists-19 Combined T/A Avg per game-1.43
Pretty good numbers from all 5 but 2 guys stand out above the rest. Those stats aren't the be all and end all of any argument about who is the best player in the league but If I compared Welsby to just Field, I'd be interested to know what puts Welsby ahead of him as being the best player in the league? (so not just better than Field but better than everyone else as well). He doesn't contribute as much per game as Field in terms of trys and assists and I would be pretty confident in saying Field is a better fullback defensively, so what is it that puts him clear? Personally I think French is the best player in the league but maybe I'm biased.