I remember him having a cracking game at our place. I think it was the middle 8s game. I hadn't realised how quick he was. He made a try with a rapid break and was excellent all round. I commented at the time that he was bound for big things. He just seemed to drop off the radar. I cant say I noticed or heard much of him in the Championship last term

If the problem with Warrington home grown products was coaching rather than talent, then we'd see players blossom once they leave the club.

How many players have left us and gone on to show a talent that was never on display at Warrington, because they have had some proper coaching?

And yet on the other hand, you get guys like Briers, Westwood signing for us at a young age from other clubs, who have seemed to thrive at Warrington? Is it a question of talent or coaching....

Gareth O'Brien

A bit of a straw clutch there IMO.

Did he show more at Salford than he did with us? Possibly, although wasn't his best form for them at fullback he wasn't going to play there for Wire?

Yeah Gaz O'Brien was never going to get a gig at full back ahead of Ratchford, and still wouldn't. He's done well after testing himself as a first choice, something Patton now needs to do I think.

Of course, we had Matty Russell

I liked GO'B but I put him in the same category as Patton - a back up for a team that's competing for trophies or a starter at one of the lower teams. After he left I never saw anything that changed my view.

When you saw him play for Salford did you ever think 'wow, he's really stepped up a gear compared to what he was for us'. I think he gets involved in games more than Patton does, but he did that when he was with us as well. He had some good moments with us.

I would have rather kept him and played him ahead of Matty Russell but I can't see where we would have him as a starter now. He would be an understudy. I might have him ahead of Jake Mamo as second choice fullback though.

That's a fair comment Sally, so we're pretty much reverting back to crap Recruitment then. That Genuinely seems to be a big falling point for us and we've signed a hell of a lot of really bog standard to crap players over the last 4-5 years. Do we have specific recruiters or is that down to the likes of Smith/Price, Fitzpatrick etc I've genuinely no idea who that relies on anymore?

It's a complicated question as the development needs are at their greatest when the player is relatively young. So we might well have talented young players 16/17/18/19 and then fail to keep them progressing and that damages their career going forward. Let's use a teaching analogy, you can have a shining star at Primary school enter an average high school and not thrive and do so well. This will affect them long after leaving school. The development failing cannot always be addressed at a later club. Briers and Westwood came though other systems before joining us.

There has to be a reason why we have so few players come through our system and reach senior representational level over the last 20 years.

So is your argument that the quality of SL has not dropped or simply that signing Rhys Evans is not a symptom of it?

I didn't say that O'Brien wasn't better than Russell, or even mean to infer it, I quite liked O'Brien took the line on and took some decent hits because of it at HB.

I thought that the question was, are there any ex Warrington players that have thrived since leaving and receiving proper coaching? Sure G'OB must have 'legend' status kicking that drop goal. However, is he markedly better than when we let him go and now he's up there with the likes of Brett Hodgson after all that expert training would you have him back?