Quote: Paul Youane "Declaring my position up front of not being a big Patton fan or a believer that he previously hidden supreme talents I do think that he has the perfect opportunity to develop as a player this season and can offer us what we need.
I don't want to see Patton attempting Hollywood plays just give the ball to Austin (or Ratchford to a lesser extent) to do that. All I want from Patton is for him to marshal the middle channel and steer the team around and let our strike players to do the damage out wide. If he's under pressure take the tackle and we can go again, don't look to force it and make errors. He needs to do his share of kicking which is probably the best element of his game anyway so we should be ok there, certainly no worse of than with Brown doing the kicking.
He does need to improve his defense but to be fair as a half-back in Super League he's not alone there.
Whilst only two matches in I think to date he's been perfectly adequate and has complemented Austin's and Ratchford's skill sets fine. And that's all I want from him because let's be fair he's only keeping the shirt warm until Widdop arrives (and let's be honest we're not going to be able to bring in a top half-back on a one year contract). It's for him to buckle down and prove himself worthy of a "first reserve" spot with Warrington or a first team slot elsewhere in Super League.
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Good post.
Time will tell, let's see if one adequate half will get us that GF win we desperately want and hope that we have no further injuries at HB.