St pete wrote:
My favourite excuse for a player that always has decent stats is Wilkin. I've been saying since 2008 that he's not good enough and it was the likes of graham, KC, Roby, longy, scully, jammer etc that made him look good. Seems a few have finally realised he's just your avg run of the mill player that's had one good season since 2006.
I was always told he runs good lines lol
i have no massive beef with Wilkin as a lad, I approximate he puts a lot in, but when you're chasing titles, an underweight back row is not something of use.
People can quote his high tackle rate as a reason to play him all they want, but believe me, if Wilkin wasn't there to make that high tally, someone else would be, weather it be Jones, Flash, Wello or Walker - it's the easiest role in the team to fill.
The ball Playing 13 is not a thing of the past, but it only works if you have some one exceptional like S OL doing, which is why it's so common to see people playing a prop at 13.
Wilkin up with some good touches in a highlights reel, but his bread and butter go forward is well below par. You can state that his quasi playmaking role may affect his stats, but go and compare his stats to Westerman's (who's playing in a team that's really struggling) and they pale in comparison.
He's also one if the lads that's too bloody nice. Saddened will remind you of us getting knocked out of the playoffs by Wire - Westwood had been knocking 7 bells outer us, but when Wilkin caught him with a night shot, he practically chased after him to apologise. Now, that's fine if you're Apollo Perelini and you've spent the rest of the game hurting them legally, but that does not apply to JW.
For me, his standing in the squad is a problem if we want to make progress.
We should have flogged him to Salford when they started flashing the Kash.