: Thu May 07, 2009 10:13 pm  

Duke Eddington wrote:

Wasn't bad at Widnes either, was he?

Yup, very fast

: Thu May 07, 2009 10:26 pm  

Saint Simon wrote:

Yup, very fast

But, you were making out that he was only good due to him playing with 12 full-timers!! On your point of him being fast, of course he was. He wouldn't have been a very good winger if it took him 20 seconds to cover 100m, would he.
What you want from a winger is for the inside players to make a bit of space for your winger to burn the opposition off.
A good measure of how good he was, was to listen to the anxiety of the opposition fans every time he got the ball (usually expecting something special) and the cheers every time he was tackled.

: Thu May 07, 2009 10:35 pm  

Duke Eddington wrote:

But, you were making out that he was only good due to him playing with 12 full-timers!! On your point of him being fast, of course he was. He wouldn't have been a very good winger if it took him 20 seconds to cover 100m, would he.
What you want from a winger is for the inside players to make a bit of space for your winger to burn the opposition off.
A good measure of how good he was, was to listen to the anxiety of the opposition fans every time he got the ball (usually expecting something special) and the cheers every time he was tackled.

I agree with you in what you want from a winger, but i just dont think he would suit the game today

: Thu May 07, 2009 10:58 pm  

Saint Simon wrote:

I agree with you in what you want from a winger, but i just dont think he would suit the game today

Same size pitch these days, which was plenty big enough for him to make mugs of numerous defenders in his Widnes and Wigan days.

Awesome talent, and a privilege to have watched in the flesh - although I hated him more than anyone on the planet at the time!

When he started at Widnes, we used to have Barry Lager tackling him without the ball every time a kick was put in - we knew Offiah would cream the defence and be first to it, the only way to stop him was to foul him.

That's how good he was.

: Thu May 07, 2009 11:09 pm  

Saint Simon wrote:

I'll give you Robinson, but Offiah would be murdered in the modern game against full time professionals. The "Penny" of his day

Fook me. I try to write rediculous posts to wind people up but never have I managed one as fooking stuipd as that.

: Thu May 07, 2009 11:12 pm  

Offiah was an outstanding athlete.

Look at the wingers who England took to the World Cup. Gardner, Smith and Calderwood.

Do you honestly believe that any of those were near Offiahs class.

Offiah is in my top four wingers I have ever seen, and yes I've seen a lot.

: Thu May 07, 2009 11:20 pm  

saintc wrote:

Fook me. I try to write rediculous posts to wind people up but never have I managed one as fooking stuipd as that.

: Thu May 07, 2009 11:24 pm  

saintc wrote:

Fook me. I try to write rediculous posts to wind people up but never have I managed one as fooking stuipd as that.

: Fri May 08, 2009 9:17 am  

Anything else you want to add Simon?

: Fri May 08, 2009 9:29 am  

saintc wrote:

Fook me. I try to write rediculous posts to wind people up but never have I managed one as fooking stuipd as that.

Its just my opinion, I cant say he wasn't a brilliant attacking winger, cecause he was, but again in my opinion his defense wasn't up to much, just my opinion not written in stone