I'm a great fan of Ratchford's but in my opinion he isn't a half back because he doesn't pass the ball enough although he is great at finding gaps, & as for Bridge ,he tends to get pretty long term injuries at some time during the season so leave him where he is at centre,where he can still do plenty of attacking, & let Myler & O'Brien develop together. They do need to practice their kicking game though.

It would be good to let Myler & O'Brien develop together. But Myler is beginning to become a "Tampax" man.

As long as one of them can partner Cronk effectively next season that'll do.

Ah, come on, he's better than Turner, FFS. He can run at more than 1 mph for a start.

I like O'Brien. I think he has the ability to become a very good player.
I think the turnover of playing staff over the last 16 months has caused problems on the edges.
We had a fairly steady left edge of
Riley, Atkins, Waterhouse and Myler
A right edge of
Monaghan, Bridge, Westwood and Briers.

Now the only player remaining on the left edge is Atkins, When Waterhouse was injured Laithwaite played on that side but Laithwaite is now playing right second row with curie filling in there. Myler has moved to the right edge.

Then on the right edge for the first 4 games this year only Bridge and Monaghan in the Catalan game have played in their standard positions from 2013.
A lot of these changes have been forced by injuries in recent games
We look lost when we shift the ball to either side and I dont think that is all to do with the halfbacks. Some of the lines the runners are making are giving little or no option for the halves.
If we managed to play Westwood at Right second row with Bridge and Monaghan outside then the only change from 2011-2013 is Myler for Briers, At least there would be a bit of understanding on that side.
Laithwaite back with Atkins on the left edge (OK Evans is out for a while) would give a bit of consistency from last year.

If we keep some of the players where they have been playing for a while then there maybe a bit more understanding, I still think we will continue to look clunky when we shift. We have often tipped the ball on pushing the player towards the touchline with nowhere to go.
To me we have the players to do a lot of damage down the middle (See the build up to the try away against Hull or OBriens try late last year away at Cas) now we have Clarke but we don't use this anywhere near as often as we should. We look our most dangerous when we have players like Clarke, Atkins, Russell, Ratchford jumping out of Dummy half or having runners cutting back in behind the markers but I appreciate that Hill, Sims etc need to have done the hard work down the middle first.
I say start with Harrison at LF, Westwood back to Right second row, Laithwaite to left second row and Currie coming off the bench.
None of this solves the kicking game though but I dont think Ratch and O'Brien are as bad in that department as we are making out, I wouldnt let Myler near a kick on the fifth tackle unless it was a kick to the corner for Monaghan.
The halves come up against another set of NRL standard halves this weekend - Should be interesting but I would be concentrating on punching holes behind the marker, at least we would be playing to our strengths.

I can't believe how quick everyone is to judge GOB.

Should he really have hit his peak at 23? Really?

Other than his kicking game being spotty, GOB is great, world class at times in fact. For me, GOB stays in the halves for the foreseeable future.

Kelly Shelford...crikey.....if the internet was around when he was playing.



what an awesome player he was ..........when he could be bothered.........

I'd imagine someone somewhere would sing your just a fat Rangi Chase....

......when he was sober.

Have I told the story that Kelly Shelford used to have to be knocked up every Sunday morning?

Well the club had a copy of his house key never mind knocking him up, it didn't work.
If a player didn't go round his house and pull him out of bed he would sleep right though and miss the game.

One match day they got him out of bed and drove him to the Wilderspool absolutely stinking of alcohol, and obviously still drunk.
He ran out onto the pitch played like he was sober and got man of the Match award.
He returned to the changing room after the match and fell asleep still drunk!

Must admit I haven't made my mind up about Gareth. He produces the odd-flash of brilliance, the try vs St George being a good example, that would send the Myler camp into raptures and thrashing their keyboards at a frenzied rate, but his tactical kicking game is poor and he gets caught in posession too much for my liking.

The Ratchford-Bridge partnership may be worth reviving but if someone has to make way it should be Myler. Sorry folks. If O'Brien is not the finished article at 23, then Myler is way beyond redemption.

As for the hall of fame of Wire half-backs that was mentioned, any one of them could name their salary and walk into any SL starting XIII, let alone Warrington's. There isn't a halfback in the competiion to compare with any of them, so to compare O'Brien (and indeed any half-back) to them is unfair. They belong to a past that valued individual skill over everything else, and I'd trample over my grandma to have any of them (inc. Fatty Arbuckle Shelford) available for selection in the P&B today.

The effect of Rugby Union now paying (and much more than League) cannot be underestimated. A look at the background of some of the top Union backs will show up just how many would be playing League years ago. Just a quick think bring Ford/Farrell/Myler/Eastmond/Burgess to mind and that's just a few of the English players. We used to have the pick of rugby players from round the world but far from it now. There is also lots of young talent who never even think of league because they know where the easier money is.

The influence of the full back in Wires attacking play cannot be under estimated. Its no coincidence that when we were at our attacking best was when Hodgson was at fullback - in tandam with Briers and Myler.

I never saw the Hull game - but watching the 2 Dragon encounters the lack of the fullback joining the attacking line was one of the reason our ability to convert pressure into tries never happened.

Its one of the reasons Ratchford is prefered at fullback to Russell - due to his ability to create near the oppositions line.

Was there that problem at fb when R&B were our hb's last season?

Yes, that problem was evident all last season.. but luckily we had Michael Monaghan and an inform Higham causing all sorts of problems.

I don't recall Monas or Higham ever playing fb!?
Joking a part...

Im glad you said that MD because you strengthen the evidence of R&B together being so significant.
The two of them papered over many cracks, and that is the whole point, put the two of them back together because it worked, build a strong winning habit and then look at these areas of weakness you highlight and fix them from a position of strength.

i dont know why i even bothered.

I apologise md, I hit submit before I'd finished.
its quite difficult this site lately on a android hand device, there are so many pop up adds and I end up hitting buttons I hadn't meant too.

Like i said ive not seen the Hull game - but judging what i saw in the Salford game (and the Hull KR Friendly) in comparison to the 2 dragon games - our attacking structure (with O Brien & Myler) was more threatening against Salford.

This is, in my opinion, down to having Ratchfords skill set available within the attacking structure - the half backs have more options when they go out wide and the backs have more space to exploit.

Moving Ratchford to HB would negate this as Russell / Penny cannot bring the same skills to the attacking structure as Ratchford

Ratchford is the best fullback at the club, it's that simple.

I completely agree that Ratchford is our best fullback as Bridge is our best centre.
They are also our hb pairing.

Some balance may be the answer.
Perhaps GOB and Bridge with Ratchford at fb is it...?

But surely,if Bridge is our best centre he should play in the centre with Ratchford at either loose forward or full back & maybe O'Brien & Myler at halfbacks ,especially if they get some field kicking practice in.

Must admit I was pushing it a bit when I included Shelford, as he was indeed very infuriating with regard to the effort he would sometimes put into a match - However, when he did bother to put a stint in, he was a class act, certainly head and shoulders above Myler or O'Brien.

By the way, the poster above you wrote the words 'O'Brien' and 'World-class' in the same sentence - I'd suggest he's been on the same stuff that Shelford used to fill up with before a matchday.....

My point is 9A that we ought to have our best players closest to the ball.
Ratchford at loose and Bridge at centre goes against that grain.

The most important positions of footballing craft is a 6 and 7.

Tbh we have no issues getting the ball around via our halfbacks. It was the lack of the 3rd pivot with Ratch out that was the issue, and even with him in the side our centres aren't the best at putting their wingers away.

I've read many posts especially this week over everybody's concern over our poor kicking game.
Under the current hb combinations we've had this season a good kicking game has become our achillies heel.
However, I still believe if we are to put our best to players with ball in hand then I think we can be a little less reliant on a good kicking game.

In the super league show Tanya asked Nobby is FB Ratchford's best position.
Nobbys chose not to answer that question directly, he said exactly what I have been saying... "He needs to be a position where he can put his hands on the ball"

It isn't rocket science were talking about.

This fixture v Leeds last season saw us play with Ratchford and Bridge in the half's and absolutely trounce Leeds against all the pundits predictions.

I had a big pay day too as I had lumped on us big time.