I dont quite get the love in with southern hemisphere halfbacks in SL in particular Australian half backs
From memory when you look back at the grand final winning halfbacks out of about 40 winning halves only about 4 of them were southern hemisphere players.
Blake Green
Joel Moon
leuluai
Robbie Paul
Those 3 kiwi's had spent a lot of time at the club that they won a winners ring with - not just here on a 2 year deal.
Even on the losing grand finalists there are not that many Aussie halfbacks.
Have a think of some of the halfbacks that have come over here and not picked up a winners ring compared with some of the British halfbacks that have.
Matty Johns
Adrian Lam
Brett Finch
Trent Barrett
luke walsh
Stacey Jones
Gidley
Sandow
Roberts
Was Danny Maguire or Shaun Long more talented than them.
Unless Cooper Cronk or Thurstan fancies fullfilling a life long dream of being able to visit blackpool or the lake district on their days off then i say forget about Drinkwater and get a young British player who will do whatever it takes to win a grand final for warrington and stick with them.
I think commitment, will to win (for warrington) and building an understanding with the players so timings of runs/ pass selection becoming second nature is more important than a quick fix.
I would be willing to wait 2 years whilst said player built that understanding if it then meant winning 3 GF in the following 5 years.
I will happily eat these words if Austin and Drinkwater take us to GF glory in 2019 though.

Thing is there isn't that much quality with British half backs..said it in previous posts that we should of got Danny brough when briers called it a day...just hope if we are to get someone they have desire and skill us fans pay to see

its not just about having a great half back pairing though...the pack HAS to be good as well...behind a beaten back, God himself would struggle at scrum half. The balance has to be there....good pack & bad halves or bad pack & good halves...still = runners up.

So this is an argument for Patton. I don't doubt his commitment or his will to win and you think he would have an understanding with the players. He also has grand final experience.

This old chestnut again. 3 years since debut and nearly 80 games. How many breaks have you seen him make?

Exactly this, the British half backs are miles behind their aussie counterparts, we always had the mavericks who can break a game but in all reality werent really anywhere near the same level of game management. Nowadays we don't even seem to bring through the mavericks.

I want declan to do well but he goes missing far too much and seems too quiet when he plays in the halves.

Do you think Patton really has a 'will to win'?

Greg Mackey had will to win, so did Nat Wood. Has Patton shown that when we are up against it he will grab the game by the scruff of the neck and do whatever it takes to take his teammates over the line?

At the moment he seems to me to be a youngster with some talent who is patchy and this year in big games he's come up with errors.

Well I meant in the sense that he wants Warrington be successful and I never doubt his effort. The difference between Patton and the two you mention is that Mackey and Wood had the ability to influence a game like you said. Patton has not shown this.

The thing is it's pretty clear that an overwhelmingly large number of paying Warrington spectators who have watched many halfbacks for Warrington over the decades don't think he is good enough. I am in that camp. If he was from Australia (or even not from Warrington) he would not get the support he does. It's the Chris Riley phenomena again.

For as disapointing as our last No7 was, he was a much better player than Patton.

Yeah - this year, with Roberts struggling, the situation was open for Patton to put pressure on him and fight for his place but we never really saw anything. He did OK as a bench dummy half so he justified his place as a squad player, but not as a starter.

Or maybe Patton could be a starting halfback in SL but not for a club with its sights on winning the Grand Final, so it depends on our ambition. If we want to be mid table and play with a largely local squad then go for it.

I think some people are deluding themselves thinking that if we keep giving him a couple more seasons, he will magically turn in to a great player, like we strung out Rhys Evans and various others during the TS era hoping for something special. Then people say well if he'd come through at Wigan or Saints they would have persevered with him...no they wouldn't, he would have soon got overtaken by the likes of Sam Powell or been understudy to Matty Smith and now Richardson.

Believe me....if Patton was at Wigan...he'd be No7

I believe [iyou[/i think that, but he wouldn't.....he really, really wouldn't. Lower echelons of SL - AT BEST. I'll cut to the chase - he's rubbish!

"There are none so blind as those who will not see" John Heywood, 1546