Marshall for most would have been at best third choice couple of years back, for some fourth. He now looks first choice he's worked on his weaker areas and allied to his eye for a gap and finishing is now one of the first names on the team sheet. I always remember him talking about his season at Swinton, he was thankfull to them and he said how it grounded him and made him realise how lucky he was to play pro sport. He seems to have carried that with him and used it positivley, you can not question his attitude and commitment for our team . I'm really genuinely pleased for him but not surprised by his rise. Just hope the NRL clubs obsession with size in outside backs puts them off him the lads a gem.

Marshall has always given 100% for the club even when he has been dropped and in my opinion he has just been glad to be part of the club which is a great attitude when you remember that when he was too old for the Academy, he was not retained, but resigned a season or so after.

I also wish that some supporters would stop swiping at Burgess as surely it is better to have a situation of three or even four wingers considered on form for the positions.

It has been the same with the Greenwood/Isa situation in the second row. When Greenwood was signed, he was regarded by some as a great signing and better than Isa. Now since Greenwood has suffered head injuries which obviously has affected his confidence, we get some same supporters now saying that Isa is the better player and Greenwood is rubbish.

Another example has been Powell, not good enough for some, but has always given 100% and played to the best of his ability even when having a poor game.

We now have a far better team spirit in the squad with players competing for places and keeping the pressure on others and with the exception of the Castleford game, been good for the club.

All players have bad patches and should be encouraged, not swiped at like it is with some supporters.

I think you just need to enjoy the current purple patch and not use it as a cane with which to beat supporters whose attitude you don't like.

Genuine fans are very primal. They react on instinct and emotion because they are 100% invested in the team they love. You are never going to stop them talking about their club and discussing the parts of the operation they consider to be weak.

If a player is identified as a problem but then goes on to prove his critics wrong, I think you'll find that most supporters will be more than happy to congratulate him and admit that they were too quick to write him off.

Marshall deserves massive credit for the way he has worked on and improved his weaknesses and as has been said is probably our #1 winger right now. His biggest strength is actually that he can play on both wings. Sounds simple but not many wingers can do it. If he carries on then he has a great chance of an England call up. Makinson is in and then for me it's between our 3, Tom Johnstone and Josh for the last spot and Marshy has to be the early front runner.

I was always one of those who thought that Marshall would have been the eventual casualty of us having so many wingers. It's hard to underestimate how much of a big call letting Davies go was. It ususally takes wingers years to develop the extra strings to their bow so that they can do the extra running & support work to take pressure away from the forwards. Davies was already capable of doing that to a very high level, and could've played that role for 10 years at Wigan if we decided to go with him instead of Marshy.

Someone of Marshall's build will never be able to do that sort of job because of his lack of size, but he really has come on leaps and bounds in using his pace & desire to compensate for it. The amount of penalties he wins when returning the ball just through running quick, straight & showing urgency to play the ball quickly. His improvement under the high ball too has been massive. I still think Dom on form is the best winger in the competition, but Marshall's playing as well as anyone at present and so much of it is down to him clearly putting the hours in to improve.

Echoing all that, but I have another question about Liam Marshall. I've certainly always thought of him as a left-sided player, he seems happier on the left.

But I noticed when he scored his 'wonder try', his first kick (for which he had time to sort it out), he kicked with his right foot. Is he in fact right-footed, or can he kick with both feet ? All the more credit to him if he is. Either way, a wonderful score, and, of course, it's not *just* executing it, it's thinking of it in the first place!

Those stats:

16 carries
154 metres (#1)
9 tackle busts (joint #1)
5 clean breaks (#1)

Reminds me of Brett Dallas with his fearless enthusiastic carries

Are these Tony Clubbs career stats?

Excellent comparison. I bet there's not much between them in terms of speed either. If he's as good for us as Dallas was throughout his tenure I'll be more than happy!