Wigan Warriors • Re: James McDonnell
NickyKiss wrote:
I rate Knowles massively and you guys have a similar battle we had with some opposition regarding Micky Mac on your hands.There’s no stats for somebody playing a game at frantic pace, showing aggression, the force they hit with and the way they inspire those around them and so on. If you showed somebody Knowles stats and you didn’t know the player, you’d go ‘he’s not all that’ but he is. I do recall plenty of Saints fans bashing Micky Mac (and I’ve seen some still doing the same recently) but he was huge for us and lead our aggression and line speed. He battered your forward pack defensively plenty of times but as with Knowles, you can overlook what he’s bringing if he’s not in your side.
As for Smithies, he’s a bit different to Knowles, certainly in terms of how he’s being asked to play anyway but he’s turning in to a high quality player. It’ll be tough for him to crack an England place with Knowles and now Radley in there but he’ll come close if he continues his development.
I don't think anyone ever duobted MM's effectiveness in defence (and he can cross the line in recknless and cynical ways that Knowles does not) but I was always relatively happy to see him in the side as I thought he was a limited ball player in a key pivot position. More intimidating than, say, Roby but Roby had much more to his game. I think he is a bot one dimensional but there is no doubting he defends aggressively and intimidates people.
You're right - we have some very good options in the England team. It's a real shame Dodd got injured as I think Welsby, Lomax, Dodd at 1/6/7 could have been a big plus for England.
I'm very interested to see how Wane goes.
Statistics: Posted by FearTheVee — Fri Jul 29, 2022 12:52 pm