He's gash. Let's not beat about the bush. About time, a few on here got a lesson in tough love.

"Ohhh he scooted well" "he tried, bless 'im" "we can't have a team full of stars".

Wigan didn't want him. Nor Hull or Gold Coast Titans. All by his early twenties. Another one of Social Worker Smith's "projects" that went busoms up. I think that's telling us something, yet the feeling from some is that we owe him some praise. We'll it won't be coming from me.

Another example of the "snowflake, can't upset anyone" society, that we have to put up with. What next.? Threads like
"John Thursfield was misunderstood. He deliberately played that bad, just to make Duane Mann look better". or
"John Dead Dog Duffy was just as good as Gary Sanderson. He just needed time"
...when we all know, both Duffy and Thursfield were tosh.
Praising Russell, is like giving the fat kid a medal, for taking part in the school sports day.

So long Russell. Don't let the Saloon doors hit your Aris, on the way out.
Oh, and "thanks" Tony Smith for giving him a contract, AND THEN extending it.

Marty Russell www.wissl.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=7832

Marty Russell www.wissl.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=7832

I understand what you're saying, ew, but it's those few words you put, that really get on my thruppenies, and sum up English/GB sport to a T.....

...[ihe always gave 110%[/i
Don't we, as a nation, love a tryer.
Eddie the Eagle
The joke act on Strictly/X-Factor
The plucky 4th place/ loser
Bang average players who get selected for their countries, simply because of the shirt they wear, week in week out when there's MUCH better out there.

If a player isn't good enough, get rid. Play a young kid in his position, and get him used to it. It's no good persevering with 5h1te.
What's that old phrase? Definition of insanity. Doing the same thing badly, but expecting a different result.

No doubting he can have a few brain farts per match but from what I’ve seen of him he makes more yards than Hill when running forward.

Could he play prop?

I agree that we needed to replace him, irrespective of the amount of effort put in, that wasn’t in question...

The point I was making was that we shouldn’t be disrespecting him for the fact he was in the team. The coach ultimately takes responsibility and that’s where Smith fell short. He persisted with players hoping they’d come good, and finally he had to pay the price for it (pardon the pun).

I hope it works out for Russell somewhere as despite the fact he was out of form or unsuitable for us, he did put in the effort in the P&B, more so than many others did.

Yep. No beef from me. I hope he makes a success of his career. He just shouldn't have been anywhere near a Wire shirt.

Glad he is on his way but let's do it with a bit of class and wish him well. He should never have been signed - that was the mistake.

But totally agree with the points made previously that we need to shed this "he tried hard" sentiment. That's code for accepting crap.

..are you serious or is this a wind up.if your serious i think you should give up the drink or drugs or both...hills a great forward end of russell is not a good winger end of but i wish him well in his future and thank the lad for his time at the wire...

He exceeded my expectations in his first season for us playing at fullback. However there were glaring limitations in his game which became far more evident once he got injured against widnes. For me he hasn't improved enough and the 5 year deal was a massive mistake.

Good luck to him in the future. As mentioned his problem was never a lack of effort.

That is one view. My own is that if you are going to criticise someone for their faults you should also acknowledge their strengths. Giving 100% on the field should be a given, but we can all name many players who haven't. In my view giving your all,even if it falls short of our standards, is more praiseworthy than a player who has a huge amount of skill but can't be bothered. Then there is the group who don't have any obvious skill AND can't be bothered.
I'm not saying we should sign players just because they give 100% (just to be clear).

Understand. For balance

Strengths : Very good runner from dummy half, good yardage from kick returns, strong aggressive runner, gives 100%

Weaknesses : Suspect under high ball, suspect handling, defensively fragile and liable to absolute jaw dropping howlers (Huddersfield game for example), lack of key attributes for a winger such as pace, ability to catch and evasiveness.