Re: Jack Welsby : Sun Jul 03, 2022 7:05 am  

NickyKiss wrote:

Some praise is very well deserved but ‘the praise’ he gets is OTT. I like him, I really do but he seems to be talked about as some sort of generational talent and he isn’t that. In my time watching the game, certain players make you sit back and go ‘wow’ and to me, he just doesn’t do that.

The way the Sky team talk about him is exactly how an Ellery Hanley or Sam Tomkins would be spoke about when they were in their prime and he is nowhere near that level at the moment. Will he get there? I doubt it personally. I said before Tomkins got 28 try’s and 33 assists in his 3rd full season in first team in 2012 and still had people questioning him. Welsby has an incredible knack for being in the right place, at the right time but there are too many weaknesses to hit that level.

I think you are exaggerating this to be honest. Personally I don’t think he gets as much love in as Tomkins in his prime, nowhere near. Last night there was a lot of praise for him but only because Wilkin was co-commentator and has rated him for years.

Welsby gets mentioned more for the drama of his GF winning try and the fact that his family and friends are all Wigan fans and he’s a Wigan lad. I don’t feel that the Sky team go over the top about him, indeed I actually feel Field gets more attention.

Re: Jack Welsby : Sun Jul 03, 2022 7:07 am  

jonh wrote:

I think the praise is well deserved to be honest I think he is a fantastic player and one we as English fans should get excited about.

He is fantastic in defence freakishly strong and great pace, but above all that he is positionally excellent and has a habit of coming up with a big play when it’s needed, as well we know.

He isn’t the complete player but he has the potential to be regarded as World Class if he continues developing as he is and tests himself in the NRL, which I’m sure he will have the opportunity to do. If he has a good World Cup and he has the ambition he will be off sooner rather than later regardless of contract status.

The only thing I see potentially going against him is his versatility, whilst it’s often a useful trait to have players that have that utility value rarely become World class in 1 position.

Think he and Farnworth are 2 young British players we should rightly be excited about.

In regards the commentators I’m glad they talk the game and players up, it used to bother me, but over the last few years it’s become evident most stakeholders in the game especially the fans are only too eager to talk it down.

Great post. You are spot on with the utility point too. I feel he has suffered this season from constantly changing from 1 to 6 and vice versa plus a different backline every week. His stats would’ve been even more impressive with a settled position and a settled backline.

Re: Jack Welsby : Sun Jul 03, 2022 8:23 am  

Stu M wrote:

I think you are exaggerating this to be honest. Personally I don’t think he gets as much love in as Tomkins in his prime, nowhere near. Last night there was a lot of praise for him but only because Wilkin was co-commentator and has rated him for years.

Welsby gets mentioned more for the drama of his GF winning try and the fact that his family and friends are all Wigan fans and he’s a Wigan lad. I don’t feel that the Sky team go over the top about him, indeed I actually feel Field gets more attention.

No Welsby gets mentioned because the Sky commentary team have some weird habit of completely overhyping somebody and this season it seems to be Welsby. He is a decent player but nowhere near the level of adulation he is getting from the (unbiased) commentary, the same kind of unbiased commentary we had for years when Eddie Hemmings used to lower his tone when Wigan scored but then soiled himself when Saints did. Like i say, good player, nowhere near the level he is talked about and nowhere near the level of Field, thats why he is almost double the points behind him in the man of steel rankings. He doesn't do half the things Field can do and there seems to be a myth with the Saints fans that he can't tackle. Field has scored about 10 world class try's this season and set up about another dozen, Welsby has done none of that but is talked about like Inglis, just look at the MOS rankings. As i have already said, where are all these NRL clubs ready to snap up this super talent? Nowhere to be seen, as soon as they get a sniff of a good player in England they are in and whisk them away. None of them want Welsby, not even to develop, i wonder why.

Re: Jack Welsby : Sun Jul 03, 2022 8:30 am  

Pie_Eyter wrote:

No Welsby gets mentioned because the Sky commentary team have some weird habit of completely overhyping somebody and this season it seems to be Welsby. He is a decent player but nowhere near the level of adulation he is getting from the (unbiased) commentary, the same kind of unbiased commentary we had for years when Eddie Hemmings used to lower his tone when Wigan scored but then soiled himself when Saints did. Like i say, good player, nowhere near the level he is talked about and nowhere near the level of Field, thats why he is almost double the points behind him in the man of steel rankings. He doesn't do half the things Field can do and there seems to be a myth with the Saints fans that he can't tackle. Field has scored about 10 world class try's this season and set up about another dozen, Welsby has done none of that but is talked about like Inglis, just look at the MOS rankings. As i have already said, where are all these NRL clubs ready to snap up this super talent? Nowhere to be seen, as soon as they get a sniff of a good player in England they are in and whisk them away. None of them want Welsby, not even to develop, i wonder why.

How do you know there has been no NRL interest in him? There’s a reason we gave him a new contract so soon after his last one.

And let’s be honest if Field had the chance to go back he would’ve done. Clearly there was no NRL interest in him otherwise he’d have been back like a shot. He also couldn’t nail down a first team place over there prior to coming to Wigan.

Re: Jack Welsby : Sun Jul 03, 2022 9:04 am  

Pie_Eyter wrote:

No Welsby gets mentioned because the Sky commentary team have some weird habit of completely overhyping somebody and this season it seems to be Welsby.

Was Regan Grace last year when Barrie Mac compared him to Martin Offiah. They must have turned everyone else's mic down because I didn't hear much laughing.

Re: Jack Welsby : Sun Jul 03, 2022 9:07 am  

moto748 wrote:

But surely Sam will be full-back? i can't see Wane playing Welsby at full-back and Sam in the halves, can you?

It's probably what I would do, but I feel if he was going to do that he would have done it the other week.

He will do a job for us wherever we play him I have no doubt about that.

Re: Jack Welsby : Sun Jul 03, 2022 10:32 am  

Stu M wrote:

I think you are exaggerating this to be honest. Personally I don’t think he gets as much love in as Tomkins in his prime, nowhere near. Last night there was a lot of praise for him but only because Wilkin was co-commentator and has rated him for years.

Welsby gets mentioned more for the drama of his GF winning try and the fact that his family and friends are all Wigan fans and he’s a Wigan lad. I don’t feel that the Sky team go over the top about him, indeed I actually feel Field gets more attention.

Tough to comment on your own player because for one I’m usually at the games, so I don’t really hear it but also it just doesn’t stand out as much because I guess you subconsciously buy in to it. I honestly don’t think I’ve heard an individual spoke about as much since Tomkins by the commentary team (not just Wilkin). Much of it comes from ‘that try’ and I understand that.

He’s a quality player no doubt but very different to somebody like Field for example. If he’s bulled up by the commentary team I get it looking at his highlights reel this season. He’s been a one man try of the season competition. Welsby is more of a creator IMO and he competes extremely hard. He’s very good, so it certainly isn’t a post bashing his talent but you would think he’s reinventing the game sometimes with how he’s spoke about. Obviously it’s coming from a Wigan fans perspective and there’s going to be bias. We need players to be spoke about and talked up but Wilkin crossed the line in to fan boy mode last night.

Re: Jack Welsby : Sun Jul 03, 2022 11:27 am  

moto748 wrote:

But surely Sam will be full-back? i can't see Wane playing Welsby at full-back and Sam in the halves, can you?

No, Sam is nailed on for the fullback position.

Re: Jack Welsby : Mon Jul 04, 2022 5:04 pm  

I’m all for it. Let’s big them all up. We spend far too much time concentrating on the negative and ignoring the positive in this country.

One of the reasons I prefer the Australian commentary is they focus on the positive.

Is it taken a bit too far sometimes? Absolutely but I’d rather have it that way than spending 80 minutes talking about mistakes and refereeing errors.

Re: Jack Welsby : Mon Jul 04, 2022 5:21 pm  

He’s an excellent player, and whilst not at this level (yet…one can dream even as a Wigan fan), he’s very much in the mould of the current crop of Origin full backs in the way that he can play across the backs to a very good standard, he has a similar style, and is strong as anything. Sort of one of those players who you just want in the team ala Trobojevic, Mitchell, Tedesco, and Cobbo (nearly).