Wigan Warriors coach Matt Peet has praised in-form winger Liam Marshall following an impressive start to the season: on both sides of the ball.
The 28-year-old winger has scored four tries and registered three assists in eight appearances so far in this Super League season, but it is perhaps his work in the backfield that stands out above anything else.
Only Jack Welsby of St Helens has made more carries than Marshall in the entire competition, whilst Marshall has made the second most metres, too, sitting only behind Warrington Wolves fullback Matt Dufty in the metres charts.
Marshall is averaging 21 carries per game whilst racking up more than 160 metres, stats which prove why he is one of the premier wingers in Super League, and which highlight why he is immensely valued by Peet and his teammates.
“I think the wing positions, it’s not just a recent past, but we all know that you’ve got to do the hard work at both ends of the field,” said Peet.
“Liam is probably one on the good ball side of it, the finishing side comes more naturally to him, but the way he has committed himself to getting him out of tough spots, trying to win the play-the-ball area, is a credit to him.
“It’s a lonely place I’d imagine for him and Abbas (Miski), and when you look across the league, there are some more wingers who play really tough, and he’s one of them, so I’m really proud of him.”
Peet was forced to shuffle his team around at the last minute ahead of their Good Friday win over St Helens last week after prop Patrick Mago pulled out in the warm-up with a hamstring injury.
Mago’s late withdrawal saw young hooker Tom Forber brought onto the bench at late notice, but he finished the game as an unused sub, with Peet praising the youngster for the way he dealt with the scenario.
“It all happened pretty quickly,” Peet said of the late shuffle around.
“We had an option for that bench spot, and we thought with Tom’s experience, and then we had the option that if we lost a forward, we could use Brad (O’Neill) just as a forward, we didn’t use Tom in the end, but he was great with it and took it well.”
