Was not impressed when he first started playing for us but I have become a big fan in the past couple of months. For me he does a lot of defensive work which goes unseen by the majority of fans & he doesn't give penalties away which is a big help.

Reading the League Express this morning, he had more tackles than Benny, didn't miss any tackles (Benny missed 2) & didn't give any penalties away (Benny gave 2).

Where his stats aren't very good is in metres made where Benny beats him hands down.

Looks like hes enjoying is rugby as well. never seems to get frustrated just gets on with his game keep up the good work trent

The thing is Fearnhead, he's still doing now what he did when he first came, he's never changed.
People say he doesn't do enough, i think he always does plenty, defends like his life depends on it and probably the reason Atkins is enjoying more space in attack this season.

I really hate it when you talk sense.

The stats from every round confirm that. As I always say a lot of fans don't watch the defensive effort, usually due to the fact they are too busy screaming forward as if their life depends on it.

I will hold my hands up as one of those being completely underwhelmed by Waterhouse when he first came, but, also happy to admit that I was wrong about him, perhaps more to do with my ignorance of the kind of player he is than anything else.

A great work ethic, a consistent performer I'm always happy to see his name on the team sheet. I also think that his performances have improved of late, as he looks settled and seems to be enjoying his rugby. just my opinion, more of a perception thing before the statatician's try and prove me wrong.

I'm sure Atkins himself alluded to that after one game this season didn't he? Our left hand side is the number one most potent attacking side in SL and one of the best defensively too. Trent is a good talker too, so both Atkins and Riley will be benefitting constantly.

There was apost on here recently saying he may be going back to Aus. Is that just BS?

Hope so. Really impressed with him, and it's only his first year.

There are many of these types of players in many sports.

In the NBA you get players who catch my eye with flashy plays, slam dunks and 45 point games. But there are also players who steadily get about 12 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks every game and barely gets a mention; yet he will be integral to how a team can win games.

Look at Macelele at Chelsea. For half a season nobody noticed he was on the pitch then i remember him playing one particular game and i thought "he's not given the ball away once", then noticed he'd read and intercept passes and break up play too.

Players like Trent are like this. It never occurred to me that he would be our top tackler until that thread popped up on here. After that i actually pay attention to to his defence and have noticed the way he stops the opffload and his talking to our two lads outside him too.

I suppose when we've had a big play player (if that makes sense) like Matt King on our left wing/centre/second row who would run an 80 metre try in, someome like Trent isn't going to be ingrained in our minds with his conservative (is that the right word?) and efficient play.

as i have said plenty of times previously i really like waterhouse he is a workhorse he is a machine in defence and isn't afraid to put his hands up to do the hard yards.

I think Hill and Waterhouse have suffered from the two ends of fans expectations.

Hill came from the Championship as a young prop who earned his crust, I guess many of us were expecting him to be eased into the side as cover, maybe part of a long term plan, what we got was an instant impact. I think it was Huddersfield away where we all probably started to really notice his work, after playing for the u20's a few days before, he put in a bloody good stint. He's now become somewhat of a ballerina with his footwork, an absolute steal and some bloody good scouting.

Waterhouse came as our overseas signing from australia, a big second row who many said liked an offload. I think the hype and misconception of his style threw a few people. He wasn't busting tackles, he wasn't booming people, he didn't seem to really be doing much. Those with a sharper eye saw the basics he did. It's these basics that we now depend on. Westwood is the headline taking second row (for obvious reasons) but its good to see Waterhouse's efforts and style are now being recognised. He's never going to burst 8 tackles and go the length of the pitch, put I don't think I've ever seen anyone bust his tackles, or even make additional yards. He just soaks up their energy.

Both class acts who have totally defied many people expectations, and I'm glad to say that in both cases, the team have massively benefited from their addition.

Agreed and with Dan's post too (peace breaks out ha ha). No need to say anything about Hill apart from brilliant. With Trent I was expecting (stupidly), a cross from the modern Wire team between a tackle busting super charged Louis Anderson and the off loading ability of Solomona on his best day, which isn't what we've got.

Happy to have my "sharper eye" out now.

I'll sound smug but it's not my intention too, i saw it straight away but i always seem to concentrate more on our defense than i do the attack, when i was a kid used to do tally charts for tackles and my brain seems more wired up for when we don't have the ball than when we do.

I also noted the strength of the guy, players just ground to a halt when they hit him, he also has this beast of a body clamp tackle.

I wonder how the older fans would compare his defence to Bateman?

In Westwood, M.Monas and Waterhouse we have 3 of the best defenders i've seen at Wire.

I just hope that what I heard about Trent was wrong and he stays for the remainder of his contract !

x2

What's that? Back to Penrith?

It was only about a month ago that a mere handful of us were saying the same, while the majority were coming out with stuff about him 'leaving them cold'.

Yep, he's off to Penrith. He can't make his mind up after that. He might travel on to Scotland or down to the Lakes. Should be a good holiday anyway providing the weather is good.

That's absolute bowlocks, he's going for a weekend in Llandudno.

Think the saints game may have been a break through moment for Waterhouse - scored the try, gave it the big fist pump to the fans and looked to be noticeably really enjoying it for the 1st time since he came here.

You'd hope his big game experience with Aus & NSW will start coming to the fore even more in the next few weeks.

Ok, I admit it, I made all that up.

Bateman's tackle technique was probably the best of any player I've seen wear the p&b. Gary Sanderson and Derek Finnegan also spring to mind. Waterhouse is strong and agressive and rarely misses. Always amazed me how some players running the ball back from the kick off (Jeff Lima for one) seem to pick him out. Maybe he is a different player to the one we thought might
be getting but he makes few errors and plays a lot of game time. Quality player who we probably haven't seen the best of yet.

I would have compared Waterhouse more to Les Davidson rather than Bateman ! Best defencive back has to be Dez Drummond by a mile imho

Dessie's tackle technique was more like an assault though

When Dessie hit someone they didn't get up he was awesome !