Gelling & McIlorum: Who will be missed most?

Every week this year I'm going to try and do a bit of a 'deep dive' into some of the bigger news stories of the week. I start with one close to my cherry and white heart.

It finally was confirmed this week that two of Wigan's first team regulars during the Shaun Wane era have left the club.

Michael McIlorum, 29, will be lost to the club he's been at for 14 years, man and boy. Thankfully he will not be lost to the Super League competition. He'll just now be wearing the colours of Catalan Dragons.

Anthony Gelling, 27, leaves Wigan and Super League after six seasons that saw him rise to the position of 'Man of the People' and two-time SLP Clown of the Year for his fun try celebrations and off-field hi-jinks.

So, which of these players will leave a bigger hole in the Wigan squad?

Gelling has been directly replaced in the player merry-go-round by the re-signing of centre Dan Sarginson. It looks highly unlikely that any new signing will be made to replace McIlorum in the Wigan squad. From that, you could say it looks like McIlorum may be the bigger miss.

However, it could be argued hooker is a well covered spot in the Wigan squad. Tommy Leuluai looks likely to spend more in his international position, interchanging with 2016 Grand Final and 2017 World Club Challenge winner Sam Powell - a big success in McIlorum's absence it must be said - with young rising star Josh Ganson as back up.

Both take with them some big game experience and winners medals from their time at Wigan. However Gelling, unlike McIlorum, was a major part of Wigan's two most recent successes at Old Trafford in 2016 and over the Cronulla Sharks to open 2017, as McIlorum sat out both games through injury. It was 2013 when McIlorum last lifted some silverware, in a try scoring Grand Final win to complete that year's double for Wigan.

Over the four seasons we've been doing SLP, Gelling has featured in 12 more Super League games than McIlorum and has a marginally better win success rate in that time, 68% to McIlorum's 65%.

Gelling is prone to the odd mistake - he gives up 1 more handling error for every two games played than the average Super League centre over the last four years, as well as having an 85% tackle success rate compared to the average for centres of 90% over that same four year period. He does though make up for this with his work rate and output in attack - making 6 more carries and 50 more metres per game than your average Super League centre. In the last four years he contributed more tries, assists, tackle busts, clean breaks and successful offloads than your average centre. He has been, more often than not, a force for good.

McIlorum has a reputation. For hard hits yes, but also for ones that I might call mistimed and you might call dirty, depending on your rooting interests. He actually averages fewer penalties per game during the the SLP years than the average hooker does I'm pleased to report - about 1 fewer penalty conceded for every 10 games played. The thing is though, his hard hitting intentions also see him miss more tackles than your average Super League hooker, tackling at a 91% success rate compared to the average hooker who tackles at 94% over the last four years.

Whilst it isn't completely fair to compare per game averages for hookers in the same way it is for centres, due to some teams using interchange hookers and other playing one guy for 80 minutes, some numbers can still be suggestive, and one thing the numbers for McIlorum suggest is that he isn't as creative as the average hooker - his per game number for tries scored is below the average and his figures for assists and clean breaks are less than half the average. Sam Powell outperforms McIlorum in all of these areas and is much closer to the league average in his creative attacking output over the last four years, as well as his defensive output being better than league average too.

Both Gelling and McIlorum have been part of successful times at Wigan, and both players will undoubtedly be missed in the squad and by the fans. The facts and stats I've mentioned don't cover the intangibles - the times where a big hit from McIlorum has brought the fans to their feet and awoken their voices, or the times where a Gelling offload has been ill-judged, bringing groans rather than cheers from the stands. For these reasons, many Wigan fans will miss McIlorum more.

I'm going to miss both just as much as I'm going to cheer for whoever pulls on the #3 and #9 jerseys at Wigan in 2018. But for me, based on recent experience, I think Gelling may well be harder to replace than McIlorum in the Wigan squad. And to top that off, off the pitch, for us fans of Super League, Gelling has been one of a kind.

------------------------------------------------

Another topic I was going to go into but decided against a full scale opinion piece on was drugs in our sport. Once again they hit the headlines, with Ryan Bailey of Toronto earning a reprieve from his missed test in May 2017 following legal challenge and, much more disappointingly, former Dewsbury Rams player Donald Kudangirana being suspended for a period of three years and seven months following an Anti-Doping Rule Violation.

Kudangirana tested positive for the presence of the prohibited substances Drostanolone and Testosterone, and their respective metabolites. He was tested out-of-competition, during a Dewsbury Rams training session on 14 December 2016 and suspended by the club in February 2017. This is just the latest in a long line of drug related news stories we've had to cover during the four years of SLP. Hopefully the recent sentences being handing around will serve as a deterrent for any future rule violations. If this news had broken yesterday it might have featured in my hopes for 2018!

------------------------------------------------

Thanks for reading, look out for more regular pieces like this throughout 2018.

Don't forget, our #AskSLP festive special is still available to listen to on Spreaker, iTunes and League Cast android app if you haven't heard it already. Also, our 2018 predictions will soon be open for you to give us all your views ahead of a new Rugby League season.

Mark
SLP

Rugby League Dreams for 2018

2018 sees us enter in to the 5th season of Super League Pod. So, I thought it would be good to lay down my five biggest hopes for the year ahead, in increasing order of unlikeliness.

1) England to be successful!
Let's start with an easy one, one that stays the same every year - that England are well supported, well covered and successful. The World Cup run was a positive. A test series against New Zealand maybe isn't the big draw end-of-season event that we wanted most for this year but with all three games live on the BBC, all three games spread across the northern heartlands and an England team on the rise, I'm hopeful of a good news story from our international side in 2018.

2) Growth of the SLP family
And I'm not just saying this so we get a bigger box of beer this year, but one of the true highlights of 2017 was the relationships developed with and between members of the SLP listener-base. We really have a great bunch of listeners and contributors that I'm proud to be a part of. The meet-ups increased in terms of number of times and number of attendees. We had people come see us from the other side of the Irish Sea, the other side of the world, the other side of the county and everywhere in between. We know of listeners who helped us and each other out throughout the year, with advice, support, charity donations, design gifts, you name it! It would be fantastic in 2018 to see all of that grow, to see more people get involved in the show and the community around the show in any big or little way that they want to.

3) All our big events to sell out
I've already got my tickets bought for the Challenge Cup Final, the Grand Final and the Summer Bash, as well as a hotel booked for Magic Weekend and my Wigan season ticket re-ordered. I reckon I saw more games than ever in 2017, both for the club I follow and as a neutral, and I don't want to slow down in 2018. I really hope there are plenty of others who feel the same way. I know it's dreaming somewhat to expect our marquee events to sell out, but really rugby league fans as a group and a community should be able to find a way to Wembley for that annual pilgrimage south on the day our sport gets real national recognition. We should also want to celebrate the end of the season at Old Trafford in what I feel is becoming an increasingly well organised event for our sport. Throw in a big weekend in Newcastle shared with all our friends from around the league and you have some great times ahead that we should all try and not miss out on.

4) Expansion to continue, and do so with a clear direction
Toronto were a real good news story last year, with New York and others keen to join the party. Toulouse were almost a Qualifiers team, but for one big injury I feel. London Skolars continued to develop an inviting match day approach and community reach, and there were a few southern wins over northern clubs in League 1 in 2017. Alongside the positives is the absence of Oxford and All Golds in 2018, doubts over the sustainability of others in League 1 and concerns about the South now West Wales side ever having a solid foundation. It really is one of the biggest challenges to place teams outside of the UK in the right places so that they won't be a flash in the pan, whilst also helping expansion sides in the UK reach and build on a sustainable local supporter base. I hope by the end of 2018 a much clearer and stronger sense of direction is reached.

5) Let the moaning all end, or at least take an extended rest!
This is probably the least likely to happen, but lets all find a way to see and express what we love about the greatest game a little more in 2018. Celebrate or at least applaud the remarkable pieces of skill we see week in week out, whoever delivers it (yes, even if it's Ryan Atkins or Carl Ablett). Don't cheer when an opposing player gets injured, or boo when a player for a team you don't like pulls on an England shirt. By all means critique what you see, express all your emotions and comment with balance on any new structure we do or don't get, but do make sure to look for all positives you can in the face of a world full of social media negatives. Find all the ways you can to celebrate and compliment Rugby League, without it being and someone else's detriment. I'm not saying don't say anything negative, just do so with balance and make sure your love for your team and your sport always shines through.

Let's look forward to an exciting 2018!

------------------------------------------------------

Before closing out, I just wanted to add a note on today's biggest news story, with confirmation that Michael McIlorum and Anthony Gelling have both left Wigan Warriors. On a personal level, as a Wigan supporter, I wish both players well. I will miss both of them in their different ways and hope nothing but the best for them in their careers (other than when they play Wigan!).

For McIlorum, I think it's a good time to move on. After injury destroyed his 2016, he didn't have the best of years in 2017. He showed up great in the Cup semi-final victory over Salford and off the field enjoyed a wonderful testimonial year. Over that span, though, Wigan's greatest successes have been achieved with him on the sidelines. Wigan need to find some new direction in attack and rediscover their control in defence, whilst Mickey needs to be part of a team that he can inspire and lead in a similar way to how he helped Ireland perform in the World Cup. The Wigan crowd will miss some of those huge hits he could hand out though.

It's a close call, but I'll probably miss Gelling more of the two - he's an entertainer and a game breaker, you just never knew whether he would break the game open for you or them! I can't see any more development in him within the current Wigan set up, so I really hope a deal can be ironed out that gives him an NRL chance in Auckland. 2017 was, it felt, a stagnant year for Gelling in Wigan's colours. Despite hopes that his defensive discipline and play selection would improve as he matured, he didn't really take that next step. I think in a different environment he has the chance to do that, as he has all the skill and work ethic to be one of the best centres in the game, now it's about applying himself more consistently.

Both were successful for Wigan. They'll always have the medals and I'll always have the memories.

------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for reading!

Our #AskSLP festive special is still available to listen to if you haven't already.

Our 2018 predictions will soon be open for you to give us all your views ahead of a new Rugby League season, and we'll cover your predictions and ours in our season preview episode a week before the new campaign gets underway in only a month's time.

Mark
SLP