We need experience at the side of Gaz, he's maturing and anyone with any rugby knowledge can see he's getting better.

Our season is panning out pretty much as I expected. We normally have a dominant pack (it won't be occasionally); our kicking game is not great; we will play devil-may-care rugby too much and people will moan when it doesn't come off and cheer when it does; we'll be in the top 4 pretty much all of the season and we'll see what happens in the two play off games.

Slight disappointments - Clark and Sims, but neither have been disastrous (a la Roy last year)
Better than expected - Penny, second row

Quarter of the first part of the season gone and we are third in the league.

Spot on.

There people on here with incredibly short memories.

Don't remember all this doom and gloom last week after the Leeds game.

We did not play as well as we could have but there is a lot more to come from this team in my opinion.

We went to Saints and were beaten by eight points.

Some people need to get a grip.
.

Christ, I wouldn't have liked to have seen this thread if we were beaten by 30+ never took our chances in the 1st half, kicking game was poor and the pace at the play the ball didn't seem to be there like last week. We have some very winnable games coming up now so hopefully we can go on a good run and we will still be there or there abouts at the top at the end of the season. Saints with a full team are the team to beat though

Surely you have that wrong, G. After all, this is the Penny who "TheDoc" said earlier in the thread that he's not good enough, and the same Penny who's fault it is when we lose a game?

For one, I agree with you. Penny has been great this year.

The worst thing for me about losing is every time we do, you get the oppo fans come out what that rather boring, inane comment "oh, I thought it was your year this year". Getting stale and boring now.

What it is with Penny is that when he scores, he is fantastic and fully deserves his 2nd chance at the club.

However, when we lose he becomes the scapegoat, he's crap, and just not good enough for Super League.

When we play Huddersfield on Friday night and he scores a hat trick, everyone will love him again.

And with some Wire "fans", Myler is the scapegoat for us losing and he's not even been playing!!!

Can I just add.. Theres not much Negativity about my Post. Im merely pointing out what everyone knows. We Put a world class 6 in our team and we are world beaters..

I think thats pretty positive to be honest .

John Wells put it spot on in the build up:

GOB needs to be taking more control on last tackle plays like he did in the most part during your game against Leeds, but he has this tendency to rely on the older heads in Westwood et al. and will sometimes take the wrong option with the decisive pass or defence splitting kick. He needs to be told by TS that he controls the plays even though in last nights case Chris Hill was skipper. I think it's more a case of GOB needing to be more confident in moving the older heads to how the play should be set up.

This time last year TS went on record saying that Chris Bridge is the best half is SL.
Most of us know he is, but he hasn't had a pre season through injury and he clearly isn't 100% match fit.

Give it time....
for years I was harping on about playing Bridge at 6.... I got ribbed for it over and over but I stuck to it because he has all the credentials.

He held his hand up to play 6.... v Bradford away who were winless and bottom of the league I think..... we got battered.
Bridge got slammed on here and deserved it and the flak I got was on a proportion I've never seen so big.
So bad was we, I assumed he had blew his chance to prove himself....
TS kept faith him in and that week following he rammed every single bad post down the throat of all those loving posters.

Trust Bridge to get it right, it's easy to cast a stone now because he isn't 100% but I wouldn't swap him or Ratchford for any other hb in the league when they are fit.

I'm very much with what you say - and I'm also not writing GOB off at all, I like him but feel that at his stage he should still be working alongside a more authoritative number 6 who can kick reliably. And I agree, if we had that I really think we'd be f***ing good, which is why it's frustrating

I agree with this too. You're in a very similar situation that we were in for a few years, in which we had a very good base of a squad, but desperately needed an experienced half back. When you look at how good we looked with Walsh in the team last year and how we are with Burns now, just shows the difference a player like that can make.

There is nothing wrong with O'brien, the problem is he is the only half back in the team.

This is brilliant.

Do you honestly believe Chris Bridge is the best half in the country ?

I'm sorry. I think you read my post wrong.
I said TS... Tony Smith said so last season.

Coaches have been well renowned for saying ridiculous things to build confidence. It's to be expected.

Believing those ridiculous things is another matter entirely

No prob.

There is a simple explanation for this, WFIII

Warrington fans MUST have a scapegoat. It was to be Moses' 11th commandment, but he didn't have room on the tablets of stone.

This is what sums this thread up. Ritchie Myler didn't even play last night, but he gets a mention. We lost basically because our pack lost out (marginally) up front and we tried to push the ball too much on occasions. Some of you obviously know better than Tony Smith so why don't you apply for his job?

i wish robbie burrow would put a transfer request in i would personally go up there pick him up drive back here and make him sign a contract with us then go round and pick obrien up and dump him in workington......

Rob Burrow does not guide a team round the park he is exactly not what we want. He has some great individual brilliance due to his small size and great pace but he very often runs up his own backside and creates nothing for others. He Has a limited kicking game in my opinion. Hes a great bloke and tough player for his size but he would be totally wrong for us.

And your comments about a young Warrington player finding his feet in the game are staggering.

he may not guide a team around a field but hes head and shoulders above obrien who proved he cant guide us around a field against sts catalans..i do hope he proves me wrong and i will be the 1st person on here to say sorry got that one wrong..

Remind me how many years Rob Burrow has over Gareth O'Brien? And then remind me of their respective positions. And then remind me at what point Rob Burrow comes onto the field against a defense. And then compare that to how many minutes O'Brien does.

But this thread is about the half back situation and not last nights performance

and i`ll remind you rob burrow does it week in week out obrien doesnt..if you and your mates on here are happy with obrien at hb then i will respect your opinions..sadly i dont..but like i said i hope he proves me wrong

I think we can some this up perfectly, re our HB situation

Myler
Absolutely superb at backing up. Doesn't take the opposition line on, enough. Always gets at least one lengthy absence each season due to injury. Rarely puts in a "killer pass". Poor kicking game.

O'Brien
As we all can see, he's getting better, but NOWHERE near the level he should be at, for someone who's 24, and played at SL level for years. How many more years are we going to say "he's still learning". All class act HB's will have learnt by that age. Poor kicking game.

Bridge
Gets injured as soon as you look at him. Unplayable on his day. Good brain. Has he got a best position? Poor kicking game.

Ratchford
Superb with ball in hand/elusive runner. Never a scrum half. Poor kicking game

There is a link which applies to all 4. Can you see it, children? Tony and Simon can't. Many can. What do you think we should do, children?


One thing's bugging me, though.
Briers hasn't played for 18 months, so he's been elevated to coaching staff, to (I assume) instruct our halves what to do
Our halves aren't doing it
Now, either the halves buck up or ship out, or Briers does. We can't carry on with the current arrangements, and hope things will get better.