It's not about being a scapegoat, as these players are under performing or have weaknesses that are letting the side down. I was critical of Riley but I also spoke on here about Ormesby being a weak link in our side, that was a month ago when the going was good and nobody seemed bothered then.

I seem to remember in the dark early days of this season ,before our miraculous winning run, the left side defence was being panned for its sieve like qualities when in reality the right was just as bad. I think a major problem overall is that we are putting too much ball to ground & providing opportunities for opponents to score on the counter attack..... tighten the handling skills up & much of that problem will disappear.

I think Riley's try return has been more due to Wakefield's poor form. Until recent weeks they appear to have been going through the motions but, since then, they have taken some notable scalps.
I also think Riley has, to an extent, born the brunt of Atkins' shortcomings who, although a superb athlete is not the most tactically aware in either defence or attack and, at the beginning of the season, his head was up his anus.
I have always been 'bothered' about Ormsby but such is my respect for TS, I thought he could see something I cannot, and maybe this is still the case, but I think Riley is the better of the two irrespective of his try tally this season. There is no substitute for pace, particularly in a winger.

Should we not be comparing Evans with Riley. Both played left wing outside Atkins. Would Ormsby be in the team if Briers did not retire early. Bridge and Monaghan have both shuffled inside to replace briers that has provided a right wing spot.

Ormsby reminds me a bit of Ade Gardner. One of the best British wingers in an era when Fox and Hodgson were in contention for an England shirt. I hope Gene is better than that.

Interesting question is why is it that the speedster wingers with flaky defence always seem to end up at lower clubs:

Nick Pinkney
Craig Calvert
Nicky Royle
Leroy Rivett

in the NRL remember during the 2000s the 'fastest winger' was supposed to be Joven Clarke who was mostly a lower grade player with Souths.

How come the top clubs never take the gamble of a winger with no defence if he has pace and can score tries. Surely a top side would create lots of chances and that type of player would be running them in.

You do get speedsters at top clubs but usually the ones that are at least competent in defence: Darren Albert, Martin Offiah, Scott Donald.

Carlin Isles.
look this guy up on social video Sally C.
He ain't been playing the game very long....

Precisely, and for all the unhealthy modern obsession with size, defence, upper body strength and wingers who look and tackle like second-rowers, if Offiah Mk II came along tomorrow every coach in SL would be falling over themselves to sign him even if he couldn't tackle a good meal.

The modern game couldn't support an 'Offiah' or the like. They get found out, and bullied. See Kevin Penny, Damien Cardace etc. they can't return the ball effectively enough, struggle to contest high kicks, and get bullied on the fringes.

Current exception to the rule is (or will be, when he returns) Kieran Dixon, he does get bullied, but that goes to form with the Broncos.

I enjoy watching these wingers, I'd rather watch an electric 60 yard try than a competent 5 yarder. But in a world of 'one percent efforts' I can't see it returning

You guys are deluded.

Offiah would be the best winger in the world if he played today, just like he was 20-25 years ago.

The key thing with Offiah was he wasn't just fast. Remember that hyped up 'sprint challenge' in Australia when he came second to Lee Oudenryn, and everyone said ohh how good must Oudenryn be, he's faster than Offiah. What happened to his career?

Offiah was a world class winger in terms of being able to swerve and change his angle of running at full acceleration, and he was also a genius for reading the game and recognising space. In defence....he could hold his own, he was never a 'weak link'. If he was, why didn't teams constantly pepper him and run try after try down his side. The idea that Offiah was a crap defender is just a myth. He wasn't a very strong tackler one on one from the front but he could cut a player that had got past him down with pace when he was tackling from the side/behind. Also most of the time you get a 'weak link' on the wings, its not actually tackling that is the problem, as wingers don't make that many tackles anyway, the problem is when they are flakes under kicks either in the air or sometimes with the big guys when they fumble bouncing balls along the ground. Offiah was fine fielding kicks. If you put a high ball up to Offiah and he took it on the full then he probably had about 5-10 yards at least to build up momentum before he reached the line then if he swerved the first man it was trouble on because someone would have to run him down on the angle.

One of the problems with this forum is that posters cannot just disagree, they have to do so by personalising their comments.

Sally although I'm not going to disagree much with you, you forget he probably had the greatest defensive fullback I'veever known behind him, never uunderestimate the power of that behind you.

yea Alan Tait was pretty decent ....

Ormsby. He's OK. Still raw, but ok. He has a good try scoring record, but he's no superstar.

Riley. He's been with the matchday XVII for 8 or so seasons. Again, a good record, but still get's the basics wrong, regularly (over-running his centre, poor defence).

Joel's also getting no younger.

Should we be looking at getting 2 new wingers, any time, soon?