It's about a winger forming a good relationship with his centre partner too. For me the player who has looked most comfortable outside Atkins and communicated and seemed to play well with him is Luke George, unfortunately George hasn't had the run of games due to injuries etc...

At the end of the day though Atkins is still our most potent weapon with a return of 42 tries in 82 appearances. For a young lad in a lower end of the table team that is a good return and enough to give the lad the benefit of the doubt.

The expectation placed on some players by our supporters amazes me at times.

The thing is everyone knows he is capable of so much more, we all know what he was capable when he came from the bulls, and I personally think he has gone backwards from then.
JT you say he is a big time Charlie. And indeed you are right but why? He is our "england international"!! He should be our driving force, and he ain't!! He does naff all in attack, his defence is average at best and if your his winger you must die of boredom!!
If he goes, he will infuriatingly no doubt play better, and that will annoy us even more, but for us he is doing absolutely nothing!!
Senior showed him up a few weeks back, when he looked a menace every time he got the ball and gave him a really hard time, and he's in his mid 70's!!!! That kind of performance we expect from atkins, we all know he's capable of it, but when he plays like he does week in week out he's gonna get the level of criticism he's currently gettin.

Nothing in attack apart from his 10 tries this season! I don't believe that he plays 'that bad' each week more that people are looking for an excuse to give him grief because of his reputation and attitude. Yes he does have things to work on and yes he hasn't kicked on as maybe he would have been expected to do. However on reading this thread you would think he was Jon Whittle or any of the other dross we have been served up over the years. Even with his flaws Atkins still offers more than 90% of the replacements I imagine we would be looking at.

we can argue till the cows come home, but I thing he should be our superstar, our go to player, but he isn't. 10 tries for a player of his potential is woeful, and as for trys set up for how winger, that must be even worse.
He hasn't kicked on, in my view he has probably gone back, his actual skills don't appear to have improved and the raw enthusiasm he had has diminished.
He only gets grief, like anyone else, when he plays poorly or without passion and enthusiasm, of he's gettin more than anyone else, well! you do the
maths!!

That is no indication whatsoever.

I am no great fan of Atkins but then maybe that's why I'm not as harsh on him now. I never bought into the fact that he was the best thing since sliced bread thus never thought he would be our 'superstar'. He's a decent enough player who maybe should be playing on the wing. He gets a fair amount of tries and gets through a fair bit of work.

He's not Neil Fox! Our 'go to player' wears number 7, little chap with dodgy hair....

What would be an acceptable amount in your opinion then from 17 matches played? 10 from 17 is good in anyone's book, don't know how many he's helped set up, but there must have been some.

Keith Senior who is so widely talked about as the best may have put his winger in for more but has only scored 7 tries in 19 at the current super league Champions.

Peter Fox who is widely regarded as the greatest try machine we've ever let go has only got 2 more than Atkins!

Blimey,sounds like you can't wait for him to come to Leeds?

Within a week of leaving he'll be regarded as the best centre we've ever had!

i think atkins would make a great winger, it would certainly eliminate the lack of passing ability or awareness to pass he has, and he would still score as many tries, if not more, especially if he had a centre like gleeson inside of him. hes also fast enough to be a winger too, i think it would be a great move

i think gleeson proved he is a good centre and can set up his winger very well against st helens, so in my opinion, atkins on the wing with a centre like gleeson inside who can set them up,

backs should currenty read for next week.... blaymire (FB) murphy (W) demetriou (C) gleeseon (C) atkins (W) grix (S/O) brough (S/H)

Would be an interesting backline as long as the halves got the ball out to them.

saw ryan today , he looked big , strong and fast and a cut above the rest of the players around him.





however he was training the under 8s at camp sculthorpe

OK, stats from Superleague site comparing Atkins with Shenton (game averages)

Tries - Atkins 0.588, Shenton 0.619
Assists - Atkins 0.000, Shenton 0.143
Metres - Atkins 85.18, Shenton 81.90
Carries - Atkins 11.18, Shenton 10.29
Tackles - Atkins 14.82, Shenton 19.33
Offloads - Atkins 1.53, Shenton 0.71
Tackle Busts - Atkins 2.82, Shenton 2.29
Clean Breaks - Atkins 0.53, Shenton 0.67
Missed Tackles - Atkins 1.53, Shenton 1.57
Errors - Atkins 1.0, Shenton 1.0

Now considering we all seem to think Atkins is poor and no doubt that Shenton is much better, the stats show them to be fairly similar in most aspects. Atkins better in some departments (Meters, Carries, Offloads, Tackle Busts) Shenton in others (Tries, Assists, Clean Breaks).

How many Cas fans do you think spend all their time on their board bagging Shenton? My guess would be not many!

Typical Wakey fans attitude from a lot on here.

Alright he could do better in certain instances and there are areas to improve but is he as bad as the grief he seems to be getting on here of late??