Watson Boas
Anthony Thackerey
Stanislas Robin
Connor Robinson

...all better than Patton and that's just from the championship..

Didn't Ste Price give Dec the green light earlier in the season ? Perhaps he sees Dec as the best option till Kev is ready to go again.

I thought he was a decent winger for a good while, six seasons or so. Didn't think he was only in the team because of Tony Smith's bias towards home grown talent. He wasn't in the top calibre like Hicks and Joel Monaghan and having started as a first teamer with us at 17, he had a lot of miles on the clock by his late 20s, so when we let him go I thought it was fair enough at the time. But he went to Wakefield and was still a decent first teamer for two more seasons there, and we replaced him with Gene Ormsby, then Kevin Penny, then Matty Russell - were any of them an upgrade on Riley? With hindsight I would have kept him for longer.

Watson Boas now in League One on loan at Doncaster. I hope he is every bit as good as you think, we could do with a lift.

Jesus H Christ, thank God you're nowhere near our recruitment team.

Whilst I'm not a Patton fan he is by far a better option than any of these. I actually thought prior to Saints and the Easter period that he had generally been doing what was required from him. If anything he has moved away from that limited role and errors and costly penalties have increased.

Let's be clear he isn't the Messiah but if people think Anthony Thackeray is a better option then we may as well pack in now.

No idea whether they are better or not to be honest, but are they available? Why would any club allow their key half back to leave the club for 3 months until Brown is hopefully fit again?

We have an injury to a key half back, Patton is back up to that half back, we just have to deal with it unfortunately. No pots are won in April, as long as Brown is fit for the final third of the season, Patton should remain in place for me. Plus the first team exposure can only put him in a better place for when he is again covering half back next season should (when) Austin / Widdop pick up an injury or suspension.

Oh my.
You must really hate Patton

I think you've missed the tongue in cheek point I was making..

Oh yeah, it was so obviously tongue in cheek.

Bottom line is the British game isn't producing decent half backs anymore, and the ones that do emerge (Patton, Richardson recently, Myler, Robinson a little further back) seem.to hit a plateau quickly and fail to kick on.

It doesn't seem to happpen in other positions, or at least not to the same extent. Maybe it's coaching, absence of an apprenticeship via reserve team football or the ludicrous werewolf-esque face fuzz that seems so popular among the playmaker fraternity.

George Williams is the most natural British half we have seen for a while, and he has spent the last 18 months going backwards; be interesting to see how we goes in the NRL.

Totally agree with you...

This has been the case for a while now, we went from Gregory, Edwards, Goulding, to Long, Briers and that was it.

For a while people used to say, it's because the British game is obsessed with producing athletes, and young lads with talent who aren't the fastest or most physical don't get a look in. But the reality is those lads would get smashed, and the same happens in Australia too. The Aussies and Kiwis produce a lot of good halfbacks but they are all superb athletes too. Owen Craigie was a ballplaying talent who lacked on the physical side and he ended up seen as a bit of a joke figure.

I think it can be traced back to 1993 and the rule changes which changed the emphasis to ruck control rather than out and out creative ability.

In the past decade, wrestling has become endemic as defenders firstly began "dancing" with the ball carrier to hold him on his feet and attacks countered with the "surrender" tackle, in which the ball carrier tried to get to the ground as soon as contact is made in order to effect a fast play the ball.

"The defenders and ball carrier are conducting a private war, with the defensive unit specifically holding," Broughton said. "Attack counters this with the surrender tackle and this is then countered by the grapple, crusher and chicken wing – all to punish the defender for diving at the ground."
Backs had more time.[/i

I think his kicking game is coming on - at least two tries scored from them today.

Yet his defence continues to be shocking. Also when there was a break on and he was in the clear he hadn’t a clue what do do and instead got smashed!

Don’t worry he will have been good at banging the winning drum no doubt!