Serious About Rugby League Show: Super League Man of Steel

Serious About Rugby League

Here, Peter Smith, Will Jackson, Sam Cook and Sam Brocksom question whether Jake Connor winning the Super League Man of Steel is a foregone conclusion and whether the Leeds Rhinos man has to be in Shaun Wane's England squad for the upcoming Ashes series.

Transcript

00:00i mean i watched a lot of jake connor you know in a previous role i did covering hull fc and

00:11you know he struggled sometimes with his composure he wanted to be the main man but he never really

00:16he couldn't really grab that that role i suppose um got struggled with mindset a lot as well but

00:22what i've been really impressed with him this year is just how how consistent and composed he is how

00:28much he's enjoying that i mean he's taken that that game playing you know management role off

00:34brodie croft completely and he just seems to be thriving in that um yeah look you got four assists

00:40on on saturday one try i mean that try itself he just read the game perfectly to intercept that

00:46brad fash pass um i mean that man of steel race it's you know it's foregone conclusion now isn't it

00:54sam cock um yeah i think probably and i've kind of i've kind of been a bit of a a doubter or such

01:04of jake connor i've not really started the season i didn't really understand the hype i thought a lot

01:08of it was around the fact that he was just performing a lot better than people expected

01:12not necessarily around the fact that he was the star man but i think you've come to see that he is

01:18weekly like one of the best players on the pitch one of the best players in the league and

01:23you look at the leaderboard when it went dark he was about five six points clear of firman sas who

01:29hasn't been as dominant jayfield was also in there and obviously we're gonna have had their dip so he's

01:34not been as dominant i think realistically the only player who could catch him if you're going on the

01:39the metric of that three to one point scoring per game that they do probably is lockie miller in terms

01:45of the fact that he's this second half of the season he's really coming to his own but i don't think

01:50he's necessarily done enough to catch up with um connor because i think say you take a game where

01:55miller's man of the match he might score three but i think on the man of steel metrics and i think

02:00connor's probably scoring two so i don't think the gap is necessarily closing much but so yeah it looks

02:05like jay connor is going to be man of steel i think i was looking i did an article earlier in the week

02:11sort of looking at the contenders and the pre-season prices and he was sort of 25 to one like there was a lot

02:16of a lot of players you'd look at that were far you'd think far more likely ahead of him in the

02:22betting and he's kind of especially when he considered he didn't get given a number in the

02:26one to 17 which i think looking back at it's probably been like a great piece of management

02:32from brad arthur in terms of making him earn that spot because it was questions about oh would he play

02:37in the centers would he play fullbacks obviously pete mentioned last year that miller wasn't

02:41spectacular it wasn't that consistent so there was talk of well will he play centers will he play

02:46fullback could he play in the halves is he going to be a 14 and um obviously matt frawley kind of

02:53the form wasn't there he's just made that seven shirt his own as such like there's no reason to drop

02:59him and there's no reason really to look past him in the man of steel rest i think it's i think it's

03:04pretty much yeah foregone conclusion like so perfect sean i wouldn't say it's a foregone conclusion

03:10leeds players don't have a good record in uh in man of steel do you know i mean how many

03:15since super league began in 96 how many leeds players i don't know about i know i was assessing

03:20the other day and i know that there was no sinfield no mcguire there's been some huge names that you

03:24think would be they're among the top five ten players in the league ever and they've never won it so

03:30i know the record's not great sinfield was never shortlisted mcguire was in 2004 when he scored

03:3636 or seven tries or something and they won the title and he didn't he didn't win it leeds have

03:41had two men of steel zach hardacre in 2017 uh yesin harris in 1998 so bearing in mind the fact that

03:51they've won eight super league titles the challenge cup four times three world club challenges they

03:56don't have a great record in that man of steel to put that in context you know how many castleford have

04:01won how many men of steel castleford have had in the super league luke gale's got one dara clark's

04:07got one dara clark's got one yeah you've missed several well i'll tell you it's five

04:14castleford's five five men of steel leeds have had two so um i do think that's a big flaw in the

04:22man of steel and we've we've said it for years that if you're a star player in a pro team it does

04:28work out a lot better for you this has happened under different different ways of deciding it

04:33it's just it's just one of those those strange things um rangy chase and adrian vowels are the

04:39two that um that you're missing for for cass so whether whether he gets it or not i don't know

04:47but i think he's like sam says if if it's not jake connor who is it and the only person i agree

04:54with sam the only person i can think of that comes close to him is lucky miller

04:58yeah i mean even i think jay field is up there as well but i just don't think he's been

05:02enough over the last few months to pick up the points needed really i mean he looks a lot more

05:07like himself now with bevan french in that and that team occupying defenders but

05:11if you're sean wayne then i mean you can't not pick jake connor can you

05:17well i he he could not pick him he he didn't pick him in the the train on squad but

05:26i mean connor's done everything that could be asked of him he has been consistent and we know

05:33sean wayne said he needed to be more consistent but he has been consistent um he's been better

05:40than the other halfbacks who we know will get him we know george williams will be in there has george

05:46williams had a better season than than jake connor no he hasn't has harry smith had a better season than

05:51jake connor no he hasn't so it's it's a tough one no coach picks entirely on on recent form they just

05:59don't they never they never do george williams is one of the best halves probably i was talking to

06:06um alan hunt actually at hull on um on saturday somebody who's played for great britain and he

06:14was saying george williams is the best half leads have got he's not playing like it at the moment but

06:19he still is um so he'll be in and i think harry smith will get in and i can't see him having i just

06:27can't see him having mikey lewis and jake connor in there as well so we will have to see but i wouldn't

06:35be surprised if if if connor's not there i think he should be but i wouldn't be shocked if he isn't

06:41yeah i mean i was speaking to someone at the start of the year so after that friendly against

06:47wigan that me and you went to pete where jake connor played out of his skin and there was

06:51even then we're making some early sort of jokey comments about jake still jake connor being the

06:57man of steel but i was speaking to someone about about him potentially being in the english squad at

07:02that point and they were talking about how sean wayne had a bit of a an issue with you know jake

07:08connor's perceived attitude in his younger days and i don't think and he was saying i don't think

07:15however well jake connor plays are probably not going to get in because of that but just that

07:19attitude that's completely turned around now under brad arthur hasn't it it has as far as i can i can

07:26see yep yep i've seen every minute of um every game he's played for leeds this year and he you know

07:33he still winds the opposition up he winds the opposition fans up but he's um his discipline's

07:39been been good i think his attitude has been spot on he's done everything that um rainers have asked

07:47of him he clearly enjoys being at leeds and i think sometimes players just find an environment that

07:52suits them and i think maybe that's the case with connor now he just fits in at at leeds um obviously

07:59doing it for a second season is the the big one but i don't think leeds have got any complaints

08:04about his attitude or um or any aspect of him really i think i think brad arthur's handled him

08:12really well um giving him the 18 squad number was was a smart move as sam said um and arthur

08:21wouldn't commit to where he was going to play or what he was going to do with him all through

08:26pre-season um he was quite critical of him in the first half of the season when everyone else was

08:33getting carried away about connor he was he was reigning back a bit he's not doing that so much

08:37now in the press conference the other day there was he was open about how how effective

08:42connor's been um where i think i think just brad arthur's a very wily experienced coach

08:50and he knows how to get the best out of players and and he's doing it with with jake connor um

08:55you know maybe jake connor wouldn't work as well under sean wayne we don't know do we but he's he's got

09:03to be worth the risk putting him in in the squad in my opinion but as i say i'm not sure that he will be

09:09you

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