I come in peace as a Rhino's fan. What do you guys reckon to Mathers ? I watched him carefully yesterday,I know it was only a friendly, but he seems reluctant to really get involved and put his body on the line. He is good at shouting the odds at others but I don't think he wants to get too involved himself. Spoil his good looks !!

thoughts please

You're right, all l his failings were on display yesterday - but that is not an opinion shared on here - he will cost us games.

Whether we have a better alternative I don't know.

Why?

This subject has been done to death by the way.

apologies, I didn't know the subject had been done to death. I watched him because he is an ex-Leeds player. I thought he had been badly done to by Ian Millward as Cas, maybe Millward had the right idea after all

With a view to coming on here and trolling....why else? Shame they werent watching the Leeds full back who showed his failings when he let Tim Smiths high ball bounce which cost his team a try....if injuries set in, he could end up playing week in week out.

Back on topic, yes Mathers has his faults, but doesnt every player? when it comes down to it, he's arguably the best/most experienced full back we've had in a long time - certainly since we won promotion to SL. His organisational skills are good, he reads the game well, hes in decent shape and he appears to have been very committed to the Wildcats cause since he joined the club.

Id be interested in seeing a list of full backs who we could unanimously say are a) better than mathers in every possible way and b) available ......

He certainly thought he'd been badly done to by Millward and given that we got him for half price for a full season, I'd say we got the better end of the deal, especially when Richard Owen's woeful form at fb is taken into consideration.

Mathers has his faults but he also has significant benefits; he joins the line well, marshalls the defence and from what I hear, is an extremely positive presence in the dressing room and on the training pitch. Not the best fb in SL, but far from the worst.

Thanks for your interest.

Good on attack, a good leader, marshalls the defence well, scores a good number of points each season, very good off the field for the club,
Poor one on one defence, dodgy under the high ball when its a 50/50. Would not go as far as suggesting that he blouses out but it can look like it at times.
Taking the good with the not quite so good then I think we have got a good full back.

^^^^This.

Until we can afford Billy Slater et al, he's as good as we are.

people on here know my feelings about mathers ive criticised him for weeks, every criticisum ive mentioned were on display yesterday particulary in my opionion the one about him beingf soft having watched the game yesaterday il change it to scared to death unless we get that back three of mathers fox and cockane were gonna have problems

This.

Quite a few players looked rusty yesterday most of them were the senior players for whatever reason, maybe they had one eye on not picking up a injury.

This too. I think he is a good full back and I can not think of many others currently playing in SL who I would want instead of him.

some one on here pointed out the frailties of the leeds full back a kid i think making his debut ,mathers on the other hand as played 10 yrs at top level how hes swung that beats me .where ever hes been hes been found out and for people to saythey ratrate him as agood fullback im afraid ive wasted 50yrs playing and coaching this game