It will be interesting to see. My only thoughts re too much weight & muscle mass will definitely slow him down.
If its true it would be interesting to see if he can displace one of the wingers. He could even play at fullback com to think of it.

You don't come on here for a week, and all of a sudden, a 14 page thread pops up.

IMO, Penny was "sold down the river" by a few factors

1. King
Lets face it. King never rated Penny from day one, did he? He almost had a "who's this upstart I'm next to. He's getting too much attention, when I'M the star of the show" attitude. I never saw King give him any encouragement wether he played fantastic or was poor. He CERTAINLY never helped him defensively, as is shown with the double decker bus photo, being just one example.
As a Test international, King should have been a mentor to Penny. Instead, I got the feeling that King preferred opposition players to Penny. He just didn't rate him.

2. Cullen and Lowes
Both really knocked all confidence out of him. By the time Smith arrived at the club, Penny was a shadow of his former self. No wonder the lad's career has gone downhill. The lad is obviously someone who thrives on someone encouraging him. Wasn't it Alex Murphy (could have been a number of coaches) who one said "some players need arm across the shoulders when they're not doing well, some need a boot up the bum". Penny needed the arm, not the size 10".

3. Once again, THE FANS.
Some just HAVE to have someone to hate. Some of the abuse from the South Stand at times, was nothing short of vitriolic. When he was scoring, Penny still got bucketloads of abuse. If he made a mistake, ####ing hell, did the "faithful" let him have it.

To say Smith didn't rate him, is a bit silly. After all, Smith picked him for the SL Dream Team when he was national coach. Penny's career was in a dark place by the time Smith joined the club. He'd had his contract upped significantly to keep other interested parties at bay, but, as I say, his form dipped due to factors mentioned earlier, so, the club got rid to lower the financial burden.

For people to slag him off for his performance v Wakey, the week before the cup final is rather sad. The lad hadn't been playing much, wanted to put himself into Smith's plans for Wembley, so he tried to "bust a gut" to impress. Unfortunately, everything he touched turned to pooh. It happens. Didn't he come back a couple of weeks later, and bag himself a hat-trick v London?

Penny crap under the high ball? Fair enough, not brilliant, but he was hardly Graham Steadman. I'd expect an ex basketball player to catch a ball, and he did. Another popular misconception about Penny.

His tackling did at times leave a little to be desired, but so do many other players. Lets not forget the great Phil Blake. One of the best players I've ever seen in a Wire jersey, but, he couldn't tackle a good dinner, let alone a rugby player.

So, lets look at the options

MonaghanM. Great try scoring record, and well worth his spot, but no great winger's speed.

Riley. His form (this season) warrants a spot in the reserves, not a new contract. Not exactly "greased lightening", but ok.

Williams. Just not good enough. Never was, currently not, and (imo) never will be. The most average player I've seen since Ronnie "Cuttlefish" Kettlewell. But hey-ho I WONT GO MOUTHING OBSCENITIES AT HIM WHEN HE'S WEARING A WIRE JERSEY

Evans. No slouch, but he'd get injured on A Question of Sport.

As I no longer go to the "A-team" games, I don't really know if we've got a bright young thing coming through.

So, offer Penny a (much reduced) contract, and get some competition for places? As the Yanks would say "It's a no-brainer". Get him in.

One things for sure. He needs to put on weight. I saw him walking through Stockton Heath, the other week, and had to push him away from the grids. I thought he might fall through one. I almost nipped into Waterfields and bought him 10 pasties. But then I remembered Waterfield's prices, and reallised I'd have to re-mortgage. BLOODY HELL, HE'S THIN.

Great post lefty.
I almost thought you were gonna compare Penny with Phil Blake for a minute. Had to read it again to make sure you didn't.
Don't think well ever see the likes of phil Blake again.

I did once think Bridge might have been the the new Blake, but injuries and change of coach sent him down a different path.
Great centre Bridgey, but he could have been something else at standoff.

The whole Kevin Penny saga is quite a sad one. Burst onto the scene, overhyped as the next <pick a name> and never had the time to develop.

Lefty, you're looking into it far too much. Kev wasn't good enough as an all-round player, he played like the inexperienced player he was and he was regularly exposed due to his lack of weight/power. It's OK having lightning speed, but you need the power to back it up against stronger men, especially when you don't have the experience behind you to out-think them.

I don't blame King, the fans or the coach for it going wrong for Kev, I simply blame nobody as how do you point the finger at somebody's physical limitations? How do you blame a player for coming into rugby quite late on in his development? He got a shed load of support at our club, everybody wanted to see him succeed but you couldn't ignore the turnstile-esque way he conceded tries every week.

I blame king

In fact I blame each coach that played king at centre!

Like his cricketing counterpart, KPs an entertainer and from the other posts against Sanitized it appears that what the games missing these days. So, welcome back Kevin, I look forward to seeing you in the P&B next season.

he'll be at Swinton next season

If the club believes this is the right decision then I will defer to them, Smith knows best etc and I cannot think of a poor signing so far under him. However from what I have seen of Swinton the past couple of years he is largely unnoticeable.

You are right. I don't think I've ever seen a player so bizarrely overhyped on here as Kevin Penny. He had plenty of chances in Super League and overall he wasn't good enough.

Cullen or Lowes didn't "knock all the confidence out of him". Cullen brought him in to the team and kept him as a pretty much ever present until he was sacked. If you want someone to 'blame' for Penny being moved on it was Riley, for proving himself the better player. Riley was on fire in the second half of 2008 like Penny was in the second half of 2007, he got 13 in the last 14 of that season and showed a lot more potential as an all round winger, so what was the coach supposed to do? Drop Riley or Hicks, who were playing well, to recall an out of form Penny?

When Smith came in we signed Mathers so that stopped the idea of playing Riley at fullback, again Riley and Hicks were playing well, so there was no case for dropping either. Smith let Penny go on loan, and this was his chance, if he had done well he could have forced himself back in to the reckoning but he was poor there as well.

IMO fans overrate pace. People say stuff like it doesn't matter if you can't tackle if you have real pace, but pace on its own doesn't break top sides. Brett Dallas, Darren Albert and Scott Donald all had genuine pace and were quality wingers too, their positional play was good, they were strong enough to hold off tackles near the line and were class finishers as well as being decent enough to hold their own defensively.

Some wingers can get away with being iffy defensively if they really are special with ball in hand, like Nathan Blacklock was, he was like Offiah, he wasn't just fast but he would turn up in different parts of the field and had an instinct for where a try was on. Rhys Wesser too. If they are just fast and nothing else they end up in the lower leagues, like Nicky Royle or Craig Calvert.

Penny isn't a Blacklock, he's a Royle or Calvert. Riley is nearly as fast as Penny and is a much better attacking threat.

You need one of those smiley things, when you type something like that.

Well said monkeyman, nearly spat my tea all over the computer screen after reading that.

Welcome back Kev.

I still like wingers who pin their ears back and go for it. And I was a prop.

Agree 100%,the previous comments raised by Sally were undone by such a ridiculous statement.

Is this a wind up? or are we really getting Kevin back on our books. I for one thought he had exceptional attacking skills and would love to see him given another chance. Warrington once had a chap called Brian Bevan who had one or two problems in defence but the team managed to adapt to compensate.

Oh FFS Comparing him to Riley was bad enough. But Brian Bevan!? FFS

For what it's worth I think Riley has been largely shocking this season and is the luckiest bloke at the club that there is nobody better.

Riley isn't a bad player, but rides the Rollercoaster pf form. When he's good, he's great, but when one thing goes wrong, everything follows suit. An out of form Atkins didn't do him any favours and when his head went down, he didn't help Atkins get back into form, it's a vicious circle.

For me, he just needs a good game, defensively more than offensively, and he will be back to normal.

Offensively ? Please spare us the American Football terminology.

If were going to have someone on the wing that is 'defensively weak', he may as well be the fastest player in the league.

Simple sign the best defensive centre in the league, stick him inside Penny (not in the prison sense of the word) which unfortunately is Carl Ablett and bob's your uncle.

Slight problem with that theory is that Ablett couldn't time a pass to his winger (or anyone else for that matter) even if we fitted the ball with an alarm clock. If he's a centre I'm the Duchy of Cornwall.

As a Swinton fan I personally will be sad to see Kevin leave Swinton since he has been with us now couple of seasons and is one of the most committed players I have seen in a number of years, his desire to play for his team is there week in week out and shown on a few occasions this season when he has made try saving tackles running distances to do so.

As for his frailty on the high ball....well for me he is a safe pair of hands often out jumping his opponent.

I accept intensity in SL may be greater but to suggest as one poster has on here that a player from the lower divisions shouldn't be looked at is ridiculous.

In tonight's MEN it is reported Kevin may be on his way back and if true I wish him all the very best and good luck.

It would be nice if Warrington paid us a transfer fee by the way.!!

Not convinced on the merits of Penny's return but glad to see the myth abut him being suspect under a high ball scotched again. Penny may have flaws in his game but safety under a high ball was never, ever one of them.