Yes. He is a wire playing at Swinton.

No offence Rubber Duckie but you've come up with one pearlers on here. Has this been announced by the club? That's when it's official.

You never asked was it official, you asked was there any truth because you couldn't be bothered to read the thread. Doh!

Thanks for saving me reading through this non starter topic.

Kevin HAS signed with the club. This is fact. He has been given strict guidelines to follow to get himself into the right shape for the season, gaining weight and muscle mass the top priority.

It will be interesting to see. My only thoughts re too much weight & muscle mass will definitely slow him down.
If its true it would be interesting to see if he can displace one of the wingers. He could even play at fullback com to think of it.

You don't come on here for a week, and all of a sudden, a 14 page thread pops up.

IMO, Penny was "sold down the river" by a few factors

1. King
Lets face it. King never rated Penny from day one, did he? He almost had a "who's this upstart I'm next to. He's getting too much attention, when I'M the star of the show" attitude. I never saw King give him any encouragement wether he played fantastic or was poor. He CERTAINLY never helped him defensively, as is shown with the double decker bus photo, being just one example.
As a Test international, King should have been a mentor to Penny. Instead, I got the feeling that King preferred opposition players to Penny. He just didn't rate him.

2. Cullen and Lowes
Both really knocked all confidence out of him. By the time Smith arrived at the club, Penny was a shadow of his former self. No wonder the lad's career has gone downhill. The lad is obviously someone who thrives on someone encouraging him. Wasn't it Alex Murphy (could have been a number of coaches) who one said "some players need arm across the shoulders when they're not doing well, some need a boot up the bum". Penny needed the arm, not the size 10".

3. Once again, THE FANS.
Some just HAVE to have someone to hate. Some of the abuse from the South Stand at times, was nothing short of vitriolic. When he was scoring, Penny still got bucketloads of abuse. If he made a mistake, ####ing hell, did the "faithful" let him have it.

To say Smith didn't rate him, is a bit silly. After all, Smith picked him for the SL Dream Team when he was national coach. Penny's career was in a dark place by the time Smith joined the club. He'd had his contract upped significantly to keep other interested parties at bay, but, as I say, his form dipped due to factors mentioned earlier, so, the club got rid to lower the financial burden.

For people to slag him off for his performance v Wakey, the week before the cup final is rather sad. The lad hadn't been playing much, wanted to put himself into Smith's plans for Wembley, so he tried to "bust a gut" to impress. Unfortunately, everything he touched turned to pooh. It happens. Didn't he come back a couple of weeks later, and bag himself a hat-trick v London?

Penny crap under the high ball? Fair enough, not brilliant, but he was hardly Graham Steadman. I'd expect an ex basketball player to catch a ball, and he did. Another popular misconception about Penny.

His tackling did at times leave a little to be desired, but so do many other players. Lets not forget the great Phil Blake. One of the best players I've ever seen in a Wire jersey, but, he couldn't tackle a good dinner, let alone a rugby player.

So, lets look at the options

MonaghanM. Great try scoring record, and well worth his spot, but no great winger's speed.

Riley. His form (this season) warrants a spot in the reserves, not a new contract. Not exactly "greased lightening", but ok.

Williams. Just not good enough. Never was, currently not, and (imo) never will be. The most average player I've seen since Ronnie "Cuttlefish" Kettlewell. But hey-ho I WONT GO MOUTHING OBSCENITIES AT HIM WHEN HE'S WEARING A WIRE JERSEY

Evans. No slouch, but he'd get injured on A Question of Sport.

As I no longer go to the "A-team" games, I don't really know if we've got a bright young thing coming through.

So, offer Penny a (much reduced) contract, and get some competition for places? As the Yanks would say "It's a no-brainer". Get him in.

One things for sure. He needs to put on weight. I saw him walking through Stockton Heath, the other week, and had to push him away from the grids. I thought he might fall through one. I almost nipped into Waterfields and bought him 10 pasties. But then I remembered Waterfield's prices, and reallised I'd have to re-mortgage. BLOODY HELL, HE'S THIN.

Great post lefty.
I almost thought you were gonna compare Penny with Phil Blake for a minute. Had to read it again to make sure you didn't.
Don't think well ever see the likes of phil Blake again.

I did once think Bridge might have been the the new Blake, but injuries and change of coach sent him down a different path.
Great centre Bridgey, but he could have been something else at standoff.

The whole Kevin Penny saga is quite a sad one. Burst onto the scene, overhyped as the next <pick a name> and never had the time to develop.

Lefty, you're looking into it far too much. Kev wasn't good enough as an all-round player, he played like the inexperienced player he was and he was regularly exposed due to his lack of weight/power. It's OK having lightning speed, but you need the power to back it up against stronger men, especially when you don't have the experience behind you to out-think them.

I don't blame King, the fans or the coach for it going wrong for Kev, I simply blame nobody as how do you point the finger at somebody's physical limitations? How do you blame a player for coming into rugby quite late on in his development? He got a shed load of support at our club, everybody wanted to see him succeed but you couldn't ignore the turnstile-esque way he conceded tries every week.

I blame king

In fact I blame each coach that played king at centre!

Like his cricketing counterpart, KPs an entertainer and from the other posts against Sanitized it appears that what the games missing these days. So, welcome back Kevin, I look forward to seeing you in the P&B next season.

he'll be at Swinton next season

If the club believes this is the right decision then I will defer to them, Smith knows best etc and I cannot think of a poor signing so far under him. However from what I have seen of Swinton the past couple of years he is largely unnoticeable.