He had a few years at Cas and under a coach who actually knows what he’s doing. Dean would be coming in after scoring against part timers into a ridiculously poor side.

Applegarth has already said during his post match interview yesterday that the halfbacks next week will be Smith & Lino.

Interview is here if anybody is interested. Applegarth is from about 27 mins in.

rlhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0f83s1crl

Thanks but 60 minutes of torture last night was enough for me without now listening to the post mortem !!

Tbf it was a decent interview.

Ok...you convinced me and I have to agree with you

He seems cool as a cucumber. I really hope he can turn it around as he’s Wakefield through and through.

Fev got beat without Dean today...shows what a difference a quality half back makes

Riley Dean is a cracking young player and he has a very bright future ahead of him if he makes the right career choices moving forward.
Riley's predicament is how long his pathway to playing regular first team football will be blocked whilst contracted at Warrington, as they could keep spending big money on half backs and not give him a chance.
Morgan Smith was probably the best junior half back in the academy game whilst at Leeds but he took the pot of gold on offer from Warrington and never even got a chance in the first team.
Morgan has lost so much by choosing the wrong SL club IMO for the sake of more money and he has had to play in the championship to resurrect his career.

Let's hope that this is the week when his resurrection starts in earnest then

He’s a very good young player and I guess his pathway to first team rugby will dictate where he is beyond 2024 but I feel Wire would be foolish not to have him playing 10+ games for them next season in order to keep him interested and at the club beyond his current deal.

The start reality for us is, from a developmental point of view he is probably better off at Fev at the moment than us so far as Wire are concerned.

He is developing out of the spotlight playing in a team on the front foot and getting a taste of big minutes against mature players bridging the gap between academy/reverses and SL.

Throwing him into the middle of a team that is in a fight for it’s SL future every week with a pack that is unable to give him a platform would be a very risky move by then.

The reality is we have 3 halves who probably don’t get a start in any other SL team on current form, and with our budget issues we are probably stuck with them, so it’s only graft on the training field that is going to change our halves form not incoming players.

Sad but very true. I’m hoping something can be rekindled in Morgan Smith. Coming through the ranks he was head and shoulders above everyone else, went to Wire and didn’t really progress the way he was predicted to. With Gaskell set for a stint on the sidelines most on here wanted to see Morgan given a crack at 6. Big test on Sunday for him against Croft.