Exactly this, so I don't know why Wire are only going to considerthe option.??? I'd be doing anyway.

Now we have cap relief how long do we give Dec before bringing someone else in? Ryan Brierley is leaving Toronto without a club to go to i think.
Do we make an offer and maybe risk upsetting Patton or give him time but miss out? Not many half decent halfbacks available. Or do we use the money for a different position knowing we could get by with Dec/Harvey/Ratch?

The issue is that everyone knows we have Widdop next year. We probably won't bring anyone in on that basis.

I’d probably keep our powder dry at this point. Don’t think Brierley would improve us a great deal in comparison to Patton.

Leave it till later in the season when the injuries are biting, or someone comes available that will be good for us long term as well as for 2019.

I personally think Brierley would do well behind our pack, and i also think he would offer more than Patton. I simply do not rate him. Ive said it before, same with Penny. As Warrington lads i really want them to succeed, however, for where we as a team aspire to be, Patton just isnt good enough in my opinion.

Bloody hell Longbarn!! Don't you know Patton needs an extended run of 200 consecutive games alongside 12 other quality players including a wonderful pack....and then finally he will show us just how good he really is.

Soz lad haha

Unless Widdop comes over early.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ please.

There is obviously a plan to do something with the relief money. I agree in keeping it dry until we've had a chance to see how we are shaping up by say, a third of the season gone. If we aren't that creative maybe we'll bring someone in, but I'm not sure there's anything better available just now. Plus we don't want to waste the relief money for the sake of it - we may need it somewhere else at the business end of the season.

Declaring my position up front of not being a big Patton fan or a believer that he previously hidden supreme talents I do think that he has the perfect opportunity to develop as a player this season and can offer us what we need.

I don't want to see Patton attempting Hollywood plays just give the ball to Austin (or Ratchford to a lesser extent) to do that. All I want from Patton is for him to marshal the middle channel and steer the team around and let our strike players to do the damage out wide. If he's under pressure take the tackle and we can go again, don't look to force it and make errors. He needs to do his share of kicking which is probably the best element of his game anyway so we should be ok there, certainly no worse of than with Brown doing the kicking.

He does need to improve his defense but to be fair as a half-back in Super League he's not alone there.

Whilst only two matches in I think to date he's been perfectly adequate and has complemented Austin's and Ratchford's skill sets fine. And that's all I want from him because let's be fair he's only keeping the shirt warm until Widdop arrives (and let's be honest we're not going to be able to bring in a top half-back on a one year contract). It's for him to buckle down and prove himself worthy of a "first reserve" spot with Warrington or a first team slot elsewhere in Super League.

As for Brierley he's the last thing we need in this team with Austin and Ratchford at six and one, plus there's a reason that Toronto along with all his other clubs have let him go - he's not good enough at the top level.

Good post.

Time will tell, let's see if one adequate half will get us that GF win we desperately want and hope that we have no further injuries at HB.