Lessons need to be learnt from last season!
Early season 2014 we couldn't buy a win.

An injury Myler and Bridge puts up his hand to play stand off.

Ratchford at 7 and Bridge at 6....
BOOM!

Our season completely rights itself.
For the next 6 or 7 league a cup games, we beat all before us.
The highlight being a blitzing of Saints at the Magic Weekend.

Then TS decides to bring back Myler and our games begin to wane, although just having enough to win.
Unfortunately our biggest game v Leeds (CC), playing Myler at hb was the major undoing.
TS finally relented and at ht puts Bridge back at hb from right centre, we had a dig but unfortunately we were just too far behind at ht to pull it back.

What gripes me is that during the blitzing run of games we had TS said that Bridge is the best half in SL but put him back at right centre when Myler gets fit?
Doh!

We have to look at putting our best players closest to the ball.

Ratchford and Bridge are proven to be our best hb combo.
Note
I'm not writing off GOB, he is continuing to develop.
We have to go back to that shape and structure and build from it.

Put our players back into their natural position, Yes Ratchford would be our best fb, but in balance he is at his best as a hb too, but he will have more influence over the game at 7 than he would from fb.

I would go...

Ratchford 7
Bridge 6
Joel right centre
Wheeler bench or left centre.
Wheeler just had an opportunity to make his claim at 6 but unlike Bridge last season he bombed it.

I'm gonna get a right backlash from the purest on this forum but imo this needs to be addressed.

Cant disagree. Some players have had their chances and now need to move on. Too many lightweight performers in the backs

Players make mistakes and hopefully they learn, and so does TS.

TS learnt from not having a back on the bench during our GF v Wigan, when our team that night was already bolstered to the hilt with forwards.
Now he either has a utility back somewhere in the team or one on the bench.

However, there are a couple of scenarios this season that could be the reasoning for not putting our best hb combo together...

a)
TS is bringing Bridge back into the fold slowly as not to have a set back with his return from injury, with full intention to put him back at 6 when fully recovered, in which case I completely approve of this measure.

b)
Bridge has fully recovered and Ratchford hasn't but as it is early in the season, TS is playing the percentages to try out other combinations at hb as cover should injury occur to either Ratchford and or Bridge, in which case I completely approve.

c)
TS has a short memory.

Perhaps there is another reason but I can't think of one as yet but it cannot be that GOB and Myler are superior halfbacks.

I think the argument is a little simplistic.

It wasn't just moving Bridge and Ratchford to the halves, which coincided with our mid season run. The likes of Evans, Laithwaite, Riley, England, Currie etc were all young players who needed time to adapt and play together. We were getting beaten up front too often at the start, and that started to change. Added to that Monaghan started to hit his best form for 18 months.

There is no way we can play Bridge and Ratchford together as a permanent solution. It worked to an extent, but that was down to the running threat of both players, rather than some kind of cohesive half back partnership. Their threat created space, but eventually teams will be able to defend against that. Their ball handling isn't good enough, neither is their kicking game. O Brien isn't perfect but he's improving and his kicking game is better than the other two. He's a much more structured half back, and you need that balance.

Besides, if you talk about playing players in their best position then Ratchford shouldn't be in the halves. Bridge was the better of the two in that role anyway. I'd play Bridge and one of Myler/O'Brien, with O'Brien my preference. Maybe Wheeler if he can prove that his 'tackling' was a one off.

How far off is Patton by the way? Maybe he should get the chance to play a few games this year, against lesser opposition?

A good call of you to notice that we was completely shot at up front during that period.
We had Hill trying to carry us while AsItEasi did just that, England was pants and both of them were also crocks.

That however is what makes the pairing of R&B even more impressive.
They offered a presence right up that middle channel and we rolled it.

This was the main reason we had that purple patch... he was almost unplayable in some of those games.

Monas certainly had a renaissance at hooker md but he was in great form from minute one behind a one man front row of any credit but we couldn't find a win for love nor money.

Struth one of our few wins came away at a London side who were rinsed by all, we couldn't even get in front for ht.

Monas was an influence at 9 but I still have to say that the radical change in form coincided with the R&B pairing at hb that is for sure.

I think some posters are putting 2 + 2 together, and getting the answer they want.

Simple fact about our game, which bears true in (virtually) every game.
The pack.

You have a pack play 5h1te in a game, and you invariably lose. Quite simple.
Now, I remember very little of last season's games, but I suggest that the games that duckie is obsessing about (Bridge/Ratchford partnership) were won on the platform of our pack overpowering the opposition, NOT on who were our halves that day.
I only saw from 60 minutes onwards of yesterday's game, and this would seem to back this up. Our pack looked dominated.

If our pack bullies the Wigan pack, the next time we meet, I dare say we could win the game with Leigh's half back pairing, let alone Bridge/Ratchford.

If we want to whinge about our halves, ask why
a) GO'B is improving, just nowhere quick enough, if we want GF success
b) our kicking game is average, bordering on crap, and predictable. Again, nowhere near GF standard.
c) Myler can be UNBELIEVEBLY frustrating, even when our pack is on top.

We've had YEARS to prepare for this situation.
We all knew Briers was close to retirement, and was getting injury prone, so he missed matches.
We've had a "sticking plaster" attitude to our half-back issues. It works at times, sometimes, it's shambolic.

Ratchford should be full back every game he is fit to play, end of story.

So if you have years to prepare for a legendary halfback like Briers to retire, you have a few options:

1. Develop the best young halfback on your books (O'Brien)
2. Sign an elite young halfback from another team (Myler)
3. Do nothing, wait till Briers retires then sign whichever 34 year old Aussie halfback fancies a pension top-up.

Now in reality, option 3 is probably the most likely to be successful.

However most Warrington fans would have preferred options 1 or 2 and this is what we did.

What are people's gripes with O'Brien, other than he isn't Briers?

For someone that clearly has skill with boot to ball his kicking in play really should be much much better. I'd have him practising this skill for most of the week as it is our major failing as everyone can see.

GOB is developing.
I'm not brushing him aside, he has a future here.
He just needs two Sunday dinners a day down him for a month or two with a big weight programme on upper body strength and bigger kicking legs to get some height on them bombs and distance when from deep.

Getting back to R&B, the wheels have not fell the season by any means, but my point was to couple them back together to give us a rock solid foundation at hb and create a winning habit again instead of this trial, error and unstable combinations we are seeing this season that are leading to either very tight wins or losses.

From that solid foundation of R&B we can build team confidence into all areas, from that stability we can then ease GOB back in with little disruption.

I was hoping that we would have brought a dobson type hb in the off season. Ratchford can cover all the back positions but excels at fb.our hb's desperately need sorting.

Assuming that Ratchford and Bridge works as well as you think it will, at what point will you bring O'Brien back in? You're convinced we're going to go an a winning run if Smith agrees with you, so presumably it's going to be rather awkward to break that up and bring O'Brien back in?

There is no doubt in my mind that with R&B at hb we will click instantly. 
We create a winning habit and confidence from which we build.
There will always be opportunities to bring in GOB.

The menace having two big strong guys at hb was the stabling factor.
They both give a presence with their size being bigger than all hbs but perhaps Pryce.
They both have great upper body conditioning and have been able to play as forwards at loose.
They both have a good short kicking game.
But most importantly they both have craft.

My one thing is that his kicking game (out of hand) is very poor, but so is Ratchford's Myler's and Bridge's (can't really judge Wheeler's yet).

Isn't Richie Mylers contract only to 2015. If he is in Tony Smiths future plans I would have thought he would have extended it.

But if they click instantly, and we start ripping up the league, then if O'Brien gets a chance (injury/suspension) you're going to be on here demanding that O'Brien is moved out for Ratchford/Bridge to move back in. That won't necessarily be an unreasonable view to hold, but the reality is that if Smith goes with Ratchford/Bridge then it will be hugely detrimental to O'Brien's career. Again, ultimately, that may be the way things work out. No harm in that. But you can't suggest that taking O'Brien out of the team in the manner you do will be anything other than bad news for O'Brien.

no, but it fits his agenda.

If GOB and Bridge work out with Ratchford at fb then better still.
Sorry FMC.
GOB is always in my plan, R&B may be a short term solution for a 18 month old problem.

What is for sure hb combinations with Myler other than that of Briers haven't been our A game.

OK, Yed.
I can't make my mind up whether this is a gripe or not, BUT.....

I think we are all forgetting, O'Brien is now 23.....yes, that's TWENTY THREE. Not still a "wet behind the ears" 19 year-old.
He's understudied (and learned off) Briers. He's been loaned out to other clubs to get first team experience. (IIRC) He's had training sessions involving Andrew Johns. He's being coached by a GF winner, and we STILL say he's learning/developing. HE'S TWENTY THREE, FFS. He should have learned/developed by now.
At 23 we should have the finished article.

Don't get me wrong, he's a good lad. Is he at the level we need him to be (consistently playing great/MoMs)? I'd say no.

The next 6-18 months are going to be interesting at The Wire, half-backwise

Without wanting to be too harsh on the lad, its just that he's a bit ordinary, isn't he??

If I go through my time following Wire, its fair to say we have had some cracking half backs over the years.... Parry Gordon, Ken Kelly, Andy Gregory, Keith Holden, John Woods, Phil Blake, Greg Mackey, Kelly Shelford, and quite a few more, the list is a pretty long and impressive one.... Unfortunately, O'Brien (and all the others trying to do the job at present, with the possible exception of Ratchford) isn't a patch on any of those.

I accept it isn't only a Wire problem - the quality of half backs in general in the British game is pretty lousy - but seeing the side continue in such a one-dimensional, tedious manner will not be good for the club, not just in the hunt for honours, but in the long term job of getting folk through the turnstiles and actually being able to entertain them with some rugby that people will actually want to watch, rather than endure.

There, ladies and gentlemen, is a very good theory, and possibly, the truth. He is a bit ordinary (too many times)

If there are any Wakefield/Widnes/ both Hull team's fans reading this, then I apologise, but that's the level of club, where GO'B is currently at. He's not playing at the kind of level, for a club that should be challenging for honours, come August and October

Gareth O'Brien reminds me of Rocky Turner. An OK player. Good goal kicker. But not quite good enough.