Quote McClennan="McClennan"At his peak Fielden was very good but 600m extra in two games less is a pretty big difference. That's an average of 30m [iper game[/i and Also why did you not pick Graham's 2009 season which would give you a difference of 67m [iper game[/i?
Those are big figures particularly when you consider the quality of defence on offer in those two respective seasons i.e. the average points differentials for the bottom six were -269 (SL XV), -185 (SL XIV) and -291 (SL X) and SL X was with a twelve team league as well! With the bottom four alone it was -324, -259 and -420. I don't think you can seriously compare the output of the two of them. Fielden was good at his peak but not in the same league as Graham. Once defences caught up with Fielden he melted. Perhaps the burning sun of Australia will melt Graham but he'll make a good fist of it I'm sure.
Edit: The number of clean breaks over those three competitions support my view that defences were not as great then too. The average number of clean breaks per team during those seasons were 124 (XV), 142 (XIV) and 181 (X) which equates to roughly an extra line break per team per game against XIV and two against XV. Given Super League XV's average number of total line breaks per game was 9.2 (X was 13 per game) that's a significant difference in a game and over the course of a season.'"
Excellent post. All though your use of roman numerals and the fact I don't my roman numerals did throw me.
All though I disagree Fielden's formed dipped because of better defenses. A number of well documented factors contributed to Stuart's downfall. The greatest one being burnout, after playing for the full eighty, match after match, season after season. For me Fielden provided the best performance from a prop I've ever witnessed when Bradford faced West Tigers in the WCC. So while I fully acknowledge Graham is a superb prop and one of the very best in the world. Having seen them both play, I'm still of the opinion that Fielden in his pomp was the best. But only by the tiniest of margins as I've already previously said.
