What a fantastic player we have in Paul Aiton, a fans favourite and a coaches dream. His defence is awesome, his attitude is great. The consistency of his performace is just unbelievable. He can play the full 80, he is very fit, very strong and every tackle is made like he means it. What a player, what a man, if we can keep him he will become a legend, he just never lets us down.
All that said he is not a hooker, he is a great player but he does not seem to have the ability, yet, to step out from dummy half, move forward, engage the defenders and then pass. He is either just passing from the ground, and he does this to a very high standard, or occasionaly he does pick and go. I like it when he does take the defence on as he is a handfull. He does not do this often enough.
I love him as a player and it will be a close run thing between him and Cockayne to win all the end of season awards.
When you watch the best hookers in SL, Mcllorum ( sp ) , Roby, LeStrange, Diskin, Houghton. Henderson etc they all have the ability to engage defenders and pass,non of them defend as well as Aiton.
If we can develop this, the most important aspect of the hookers role into Aitons game then I think we will have a world beater. If we can`t then I feel we need to find another position for him to play, we need him on the pitch. So much so that with only 7 games left I would give Wildie / Ellis a run at 9 and start Aiton at 13 with Washbrook on the bench or rested so that we cab have a look at Anakin, Speirs , James, and why not give Lillycrop and Slater a game.

i think he plays perfectly well at hooker, not sure what the problem is

I don't disagree with a lot of what you are saying, but as Washbrook is one of the next best players in my opinion I would rather keep Aiton at hooker.

I think the issue is the lack runners rather than Aiton individual play, there was a period yesterday when he had the ball running sideways with Kirmond, Washbrook and Fox just watching him rather than giving him an outlet. He's probably too good for the rest of the team who are not up to his level which makes him look a little lateral rather than obtaining quick metres by scooting from DH.

Not sure about this as it could be that he's told to play like that. Also think Smith requires the ball early and our forwards like the ball early so take this sort of play out the equation. Sometimes i think we try too much to gain yards rather than break the line in one go. I bet our clean breaks are really low as a result of this style of play.

Defensively Aiton is obviously one of the best Superleague, however, I am very disappointed by him offensively....correct me if I am wrong, but I believe he has only scored 1 try all season, and can someone tell me how many clean breaks he has made ????
And how does this compare to the above-mentioned hookers ????

Think clean breaks from hooker is all down to the speed of the play the ball, top sides like Wigan, Saints, Warrington all dominate in the pack and the speed that they play the game at allows players like Mclorrum and roby to catch defenses out. Think about how Aiton in the current Wigan side and Mcclorrum in the current Wakefield side. If you look at other teams around us he is about on par.

Whats up with playing Washbrook in second row. He is a good tackler and can read the game. I would put him on our right side to plug that huge gap where we have leaked trys all season.

Aiton at LF is also a good call, can see no problem there.

However this plan may require that Ellis gets a game and that could be one step too far for the coach.

I'd probably agree with that - spotted him a couple of times yesterday looking round for options having made a half-break and coming up empty.

In answer to the title of the thread - What to do about Aiton - sign him up on a long term deal and build a team around; if we don't, someone else will.

What to do with Aiton - get him and Washbrook showing the others how to tackle.We need a different defensive plan to the one we have thats for sure.Just might be worth it to bring Ellis back and as said put Washbrook to second row with Aiton at loose.Swop Wilkes for James on the bench or even have 4 forwards on the bench to bolster the beef in the middle over 80 mins.We need to stop forcing the pass and cut the errors that cost us at least 2 trys in that first 20 mins spell.If we dont start to make progress and kick on then who can see him extending his contract with the choices he will have.How the heavens he aint playing NRL week in week out I dont know did he slip under the radar some how.

We have a defensive plan..??????.....

I would extend his contract now he is a proven quality that we need to hold on to

hooker does that really exist now in this modern game?

Hasn't Paul got a two year contract? This being his first year.

Yes spot on first year in a 2 year contract and if we are honest can anyone see him wanting to extend his contract at this moment in time.He would probs just say lets wait and see what next season brings its to early now if we had made more progress it could have been lets sit down now.Worth trying to get him to extend his contract all the same.