FORUMS > Warrington Wolves > It all started with Martin Gleeson |
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International Star | 1894 | No Team Selected |
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Oct 2012 | 12 years | |
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| Not sure this is fair on Gleeson. As a centre, his skill was turning 2 versus 2 situations into points. There were very few better than him at that, even during his time with us. That style of centre doesn’t often couple with doing the hard work. See Lyon, Gidley, Gaznier.
Compare with Atkins, who if given three 2 v2 situations would score one and waste two, but would carry the ball 150m a game and do a lot of work coming away from his own line.
The game is moving away from craft and guile in the search for seventeen 6ft, 100kg jack of all trades, but I would love to see genuine class centres who can create like Gleeson without comparing stats on meters/busts.
That said, the club becoming a graveyard for the careers of halfbacks is concerning. This is, in my opinion, down to having a pathetic front row. We have undervalued our pack for years. It was Hill and “X” for years. Sims did a good job of steadying alongside Hill, the rest of the pack were awful. Then it was Hill and Cooper. All the while having a 2 man pack. This isn’t a new thing, it’s been like this since Morley/Carvell/Wood left. In that time we’ve invested in Sandow, Gidley, Brown, Roberts, Austin, Widdop and Williams all on HUGE money but are somehow surprised when another one doesn’t succeed without fixing the problem, which is that we have Cooper and a bunch of cardboard cutouts in the pack. It’s insanity.
Good props are hard to come by, but the game is so difficult without them.
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Player Coach | 17200 | |
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38352_1407962301.jpg Packs Win Games
Great Packs Make All Backs Look Class
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| I would argue Daz Clark is now beyond a marquee salary. Still a great player, but his contribution in the last 2 seasons would suggest he’s already peaked and on the slide, as is Ratchford.
Still 2 of the first picks for me.
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| Quote: rubber duckie "That was one hell of a coma one of us experienced.'"
did you read one of your own posts as well? it does tend to have that affect
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Rank | Posts | Team |
International Star | 1894 | No Team Selected |
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Oct 2012 | 12 years | |
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Oct 2024 | Oct 2024 | LINK |
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| Ratchford has a successor in place. For me, retaining Thewlis is vital. To do so, you need to get him on the pitch. Ratchford (in 2023) either is the fourth sub or is moved on.
Widdop, while Dean is on the rise, is still head and shoulders above the next best. His value needs adjusting, but I’d keep him for another year if he is the right price. Same with Charnley, still a valuable player but not at the price he once demanded.
A clever retention strategy could see us shave a lot off the cap this year, we just need to use it wisely.
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International Star | 3952 | |
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Nov 2013 | 11 years | |
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| Quote: Barbed Wire "
A clever retention strategy could see us shave a lot off the cap this year, we just need to use it wisely.'"
I agree with everything you say, this bit about using it wisely made me shudder though! Let's face it given our track record in the past few years we are likely to release some small props and replace them with even smaller and replace some none ball playing forwards with some none ball playing forwards who also can't catch!
Recruitment for us is so important over the next 2 seasons. We have a lot of our big players coming to the end of their careers, we have some ineffective players to move on and then we need to identify and recruit the players who are going to make the difference to us. At the same time we need to allow some youngsters the chance to become first choice. Longstaff, Wrench and especially Thewlis have the potential to become first choice players and Riley Dean could also fall in to that category. I do feel we don't have enough young players on the up making the first 17 at the minute, the hunger and energy provided by young talent desperate to make an impression is really useful for upping the tempo. Hopefully Magoulias will fall in to that group as well.
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International Star | 1894 | No Team Selected |
Joined | Service | Reputation |
Oct 2012 | 12 years | |
Online | Last Post | Last Page |
Oct 2024 | Oct 2024 | LINK |
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| I agree, our recruitment had been poor for a while. I’ve been vocal on this. But, Powell is being on record for being solely responsible for recruiting, so let’s see what happens.
There could be some long term players in our current squad who could fill vital roles too. Let’s not forget we have not seen Minikin or Harrison yet. Doro is getting lots of minutes, I assume Robson will get a lot of game time too. Wrench needs to force his way in somewhere, and Longstaff is the bright light of our youth.
There’s some scope for organic growth, and some green shoots for what they can deliver. It’s not all doom and gloom. I just think we need to give them some momentum with a huge set of angry props.
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