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  • 2 months ago
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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