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I like Matty he's got something about him but for me those stats above say it's not at Fullback , his metres gained are easy yards from deep due to his speed and direct running , as for not falling at the first attempted tackle , well all year the irst man to get a hand on him has tackled him so for me thats falling at the first attempted tackle .

We have a prop forward who's stat comparrison on those same stats above are

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That shouldn't be happening imo .. Russel need to be put into a gap as opposed to making a gap for himself or others .

I watched Russell from him being 16 years of age in the Wigan academy teams. He was always a very exciting and evasive ball runner, from either the wing or fullback positions. However the problems highlighted in the O/P have always been there. I was hoping that going to Aus would have helped. He reminds me in some ways of Shaun Ainscough.

I have to say those stats are really poor regardless of metres made.

Was watching the 2012 CCF again yesterday and Hodgson was absolutely superb joining the attacking line. He was so difficult to pick up and defend against and his pass selection and execution were exceptional.

Will we see the like of Hodgson in SL again?

I think we were spoillt with Hodgson and no i dont think we'll ever see the likes of him again at wire thats for sure , i'v never seen a fullback read a game the way Bret did and his positional play for kicks was unbelievable .. The nearest we have to him in my opinion is Ratchford .

I must be watching a different Russell as when he returns the ball he very rarely gets tackled by the first defender he seems to bounce around like a pinball looking for a gap. Even if some of his yards are easy yards he still made more yards than all the other full backs so must be doing something right

He was top tackle buster too. He DOES NOT get tackled by the first man every time.

I like ratchford at full back but he is such a good player that he could play 1 or 6 comfortably, he could even fill in 9 pretty easily such is his skill set and ability to read a game. For me he is wasted at centre and would like to see him play as our first choice 6, in my opinion we looked far more dangerous against Wigan last Friday when matty came on at fullback and yardage was very difficult to come by.

We have matty, GOB, ratchford and Myler who all offer something a little different, I suppose the task now is to work out how to fit them all in the side without ratchford being the one to move to centre/ LF just because he is the most versatile of the 4.

Matty needs to work on his distribution, hopefully he can work on that in the off season and we will see an even better version of him next season. I think he has shown massive promise this season and I don't understand the negativity about him I think he has been great. Let's face it nobody would be saying anything about matty if we didn't have ratchford in the squad and so many feel that 1 is his best position.

Not the polished article but he definitely has something.

I wasn't massively impressed early in the season but am coming round to rating him more now.

The way he played in the semi final last week was a good signal as well. He probably played the best game he had for us, in the biggest game of his career in the most pressured situation, shortly after he'd had his face smashed in.

That says a lot IMO.

Russell is a winger at best. Surely we should just be thinking along the lines of picking the best player in that position.

Which in my opinion is Ratchford. Always has been.

Matty is a flawed gem. We know his attributes pretty well, but he is vulnerable under the high ball and doesn't have much of a passing game. Would we really want to put a small guy who is vulnerable under the high ball on the wing ? I thought TS had acknowledged that the modern winger was a much bigger species that is more than capable of defending his space - which was why we got rid of Chris Riley. And if Ratchford takes the FB role on a permanent basis, what would you do with Matty ? And wouldn't we lose the flexibility of having Ratchford with his roving remit ?

No, for me I think Russell needs to stay at FB and develop.

Widnes away, Matty was more midget gem, although I do like him and hope that he's going to develop next season, possibly at FB, you can't deny his heart and commitment, top drawer. Overall glad Russell is with us.

Regarding Ratchford at FB, I actually think that position highlights his attributes perfectly and provides him with the best platform to use them, particularly his running in open play, where he has more room compared to playing in the halves. I also think he's a better 'chimer' than Russell, but, then again he's got more games under his belt, so it's not a complaint from me. It must be remembered that Ratchford saw of Hodgson at the end of his Wire tenure and we all agree how good he was for us. Looking back the signing of Russell as a starting FB might have been seen as a non priority given the nature of other team changes?

Is there some weird enigma code going on in this thread with the underlined words?

Going to send it to Bletchley Park.

Underlined words, not on my PC apart from this post?

Why have you put red dashes under that last statement Rico ?

Chaz, there was also the odd dot SOS it's the off season