King on the Wing

Quote: Rob Wire "With Kevin Penny you get what you see which is a kid that has pace to burn who has been thrown onto a rugby league field, his positional sense is still poor and he doesn`t seem to be learning a great deal. Chris Riley who has had far less 1st team chances than Kevin Penny has certainly improved at a faster rate of knots, Chris Riley still has things to learn but he has certainly shown more improvement than Kevin Penny in a similar timescale. I`m not knocking Penny as its giving an opinion based on what we have seen of him, i hope he goes on to be a Warrington great but i can`t see it based on what ive seen so far.

Kevin Penny reminds me a lot of Paul White and to some extent Richie Barnett, all 3 of these had one thing in common which was blistering pace but all 3 of them looked like should have been wearing L plates whilst on a rugby league pitch as none of them have looked natural rugby league players. Both Paul White and Richie Barnet found their level at Salford before Barnett was given a 2 year ban for failing a drug test.'"

Riley is much further on in his RL development than Penny, the fact he only touched a ball at 14/15 whatever he was, proves this.

In terms of Penny & Riley, I'm not sure our current set up, or the last one is the best to judge them on. They've come in, as rookies, into the worst defensive side in SL, or if not the worst, the wost of the supposed 'bigger sides' anyhow. If your learning your trade, in a setup which is offensively orientated, as ours has been/is now, it makes sense that the only areas of your game that are likely to improve is that. In a defensively mided environment, with better role models, it'd be different. We don't have one single back, who's decent defensively, Gleeson is probably our best, and teams get at him.

You put Kev Penny at Saints or Leeds tomorrow, i'll bet he'll look quality. Look at how that Watkins has slotted in pretty impressively.