Why hasn't Great Britain produced a great full back?

[Allora]

16 hours ago, deluded pom? said:

It will have been 1978 as GB toured Australia in 1979. It may have been Headingley. Definitely not Elland Road.

I met Wombat a few times when he worked for Lion Nathan the Beer Company.

[Rupert Prince]

19 hours ago, Manfred Mann said:

Talking of former Wigan full backs, when did Kris Radlinski score and create tries like Matt Bowen did? These are some of Bowen's pre-Wigan highlights:

 

You are talking garbage from top to bottom.  Your headline in particular is so sweeping as to be meaningless drivel.

But as a self serving troll, you are tops.

[Hammerless Nail]

18 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Paul Charlton was the best British full back I ever saw. Equally good on attack and defence.

Indeed. He held - and may still hold, I don't know - the world record for the number of tries in a season by a full-back, which, from memory, was 33: 31 for his club and 2 for Great Britain.

However, he played for Salford, so the OP may be reluctant to class him as 'great'.

[sentoffagain2]

1 hour ago, Hammerless Nail said:

Indeed. He held - and may still hold, I don't know - the world record for the number of tries in a season by a full-back, which, from memory, was 33: 31 for his club and 2 for Great Britain.

However, he played for Salford, so the OP may be reluctant to class him as 'great'.

  Good full back Paul he was also a character who loved talking to the spectators during the match.

[tuutaisrambo]

Chris Bibb 

 

[Lowdesert]

3 hours ago, Allora said:

How do you compare different Leagues and defensive structures?

Eden scored a bagfull in half a season in Super League....

He could barely get a start at the Brisbane Broncos because of his error rate, he was targeted mercilessly whenever he played.

Don't know.  As I said, whatever you think 'great' is.  Just opinion.

I don't think I've seen better tries scored from fullback than some of those GI scored.  

[Bleep1673]

On 1/12/2019 at 7:07 PM, dkw said:

Paul Charlton.

PC still holds the record for number of tries scored in a RL season by a full back. & Always will do, 33 tries. Mostly for Club. (Yeah, I know). "Great" Full backs, like any other positions are subjective. Therefore you're use of "Great" is irrelevant.

[Bleep1673]

I scored more tries from fullback, once I'd been shown wtf I was supposed to do, than centre, because from the back, I could spot the gaps. The last 12 tries, I do not think I was touched aged 36-40.

[David Wild]

Eddie Tees - great fullback pre- another great fullback at t'Northern, Keith Mumby.

[graveyard johnny]

I always thought rob burrow would have made a good full back

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Alan Tait wasn't bad either.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 hours ago, Bleep1673 said:

tI scored more tries from fullback, once I'd been shown wtf I was supposed to do, than centre, because from the back, I could spot the gaps. The last 12 tries, I do not think I was touched aged 36-40.

We had a centre we signed from Dewsbury I think called John Maloney. He was ok at centre nothing special, then we moved him to full back in an injury crisis. He was devastating there, as you say he could run into the gaps and he was brilliant at it.

For a couple of months he was terrific at full back for us then Phil Hogan who was just starting out at Barrow in the centres caught him with a tremendous tackle just as he was receiving a pass. It was one hell of a tackle but a fair one, it must have loosened every joint in Maloney's body. After that he wasn't quite the same player again.

Yep, he was Francis Maloney's dad.

Another full back I'd a lot of time for was Geoff Pimblett. 

[dkw]

11 minutes ago, Celt said:

He wasn't... i agree. (one of my favourite players ever in fact).

But the OP was talking about 'Great' fullbacks... world class players.

Taity directing traffic in the middle of the Wembley as Martin Offiah turned him inside out is simply one indicator that Alan was a bit short of word class level.

That's harsh, I doubt there's a full back anywhere who could have stopped offiah on that try. 

Though I do agree taity wasn't in the same league as some of those mentioned. 

[deluded pom?]

1 hour ago, dkw said:

That's harsh, I doubt there's a full back anywhere who could have stopped offiah on that try. 

Though I do agree taity wasn't in the same league as some of those mentioned. 

Give over. Slater, Mullins or Bowen would have not only stopped Offiah in his tracks they would have stolen the ball from him and left several Wigan defenders grasping thin air on a scorching run to the try line.

[Big Red Keev]

My Dad is adamant that Paul Charlton is the best fullback of all time in either Hemisphere.

[Bleep1673]

38 minutes ago, Big Red Keev said:

My Dad is adamant that Paul Charlton is the best fullback of all time in either Hemisphere.

It's just a shame there isn't more film of his (Apparently) Hunched shoulders, and I, as an attacking full-back when I played, agree, there is nothing better at spotting gaps than a centre turned FB. And no-one would have stopped that Offiah try, not even PC

[dkw]

13 hours ago, deluded pom? said:

Give over. Slater, Mullins or Bowen would have not only stopped Offiah in his tracks they would have stolen the ball from him and left several Wigan defenders grasping thin air on a scorching run to the try line.

Then invent the cure for Cancer, colonise mars, make marmite taste ok and find a way to stop Australians whinging......ok maybe not the last one, thats just impossible.

[Bleep1673]

 

Not related, but 1973, Argentinian film

[Bleep1673]

Not there...………..

 

[Bleep1673]

Not related, but fun.

[Just Browny]

I'm sure the point has been made already but I can't find it and can't be bothered looking.

We know that there has been a significant evolution of the full-back role, so it is very difficult to compare Paul Charlton, or even Kris Radlinski, with contemporary players. For most of RL's existence, the emphasis has been on support play and being an effective last line of defence, whereas nowadays the attacking component is far more important.

That isn't simply because the best modern players have taken it the role on a step: it is because the game has changed. In our era, with very similar, well-drilled defensive lines playing by-and-large the same tactics, there are fewer clean breaks and fewer of those opportunities for a Steve Hampson-type to scamper cross-field and make a textbook tackle around the legs. Even if he does, he will have lost the collision and probably have to hold the man down or face ten minutes in the bin for his trouble. Meanwhile, someone who can pop up from nowhere in the final third, where the attack and defence are in each others' faces (not with the attacking line standing deep), is of much higher value, especially if they have the passing or kicking skills which (let's face it) were not always part of a full-back's armoury twenty years ago.

[deluded pom?]

56 minutes ago, dkw said:

Then invent the cure for Cancer, colonise mars, make marmite taste ok and find a way to stop Australians whinging......ok maybe not the last one, thats just impossible.

What's wrong with marmite?

[dkw]

14 minutes ago, deluded pom? said:

What's wrong with marmite?

Everything. 

[Southerner80]

2 hours ago, Saint 1 said:

Part of the reason we haven't produced any great fullbacks (in the last 30 years anyway) is because we play a lot of our good runners (with some passing ability) into the halves, and they often end up making mediocre halfbacks instead, largely because they are mainly runners with weak organisational qualities. See George Williams as an obvious example. 

Additionally, we place a much higher premium on wingers in this country for some reason, whereas in the NRL it is largely seen as a place to develop until you can play fullback, given 1) the player can earn more at fullback 2) the player can have a much greater impact on the game at fullback. As a result, we have loads of great wingers who are skillful, athletic and defensively solid, and we limit their involvements to finishing off tries and making early carries on exit sets. 

 

Agreed.....Williams would be better off at FB or Centre IMO.

 BJB for one could make a pretty good FB. Manfredi could in time be a star FB at the highest level.

Lastly for what its worth I would say J Davies merits the great tag, and Radlinski is not far off it either.

[Manfred Mann]

The twelve best Antipodean full backs of the NRL and Super League eras are:

Billy Slater,
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck,
Darren Lockyer,
James Tedesco,
Brett Stewart,
Ben Barba,
Greg Inglis,
Anthony Minichiello,
Brett Mullins,
Jarryd Hayne
Tim Brasher
Matt Bowen

Can anyone please explain why they think that Kris Radlinski was in the class of any one of these, and point to Radlinski having the specific attacking skill set of any one of these?