I can see why Widdop has played alot of Fullback, he's deadly in open and broken play but seems to lack the organisational skills i thought he was going to bring to us to be honest.
I thought he played well tonight, really don't care what other people think of that. He was taking on the line and trying his butt off, King is getting flack from people on here which i find bizzare. He was pretty much our best player on the field. Caused a complete headache in attack for Wigan to deal with and was all over the field.
That fact we didn't play Robson i find bizzarre and again puts even more doubt about price and his decisions.
Was BMM injured? Not sure why he didn't play?
I think Mamo getting injured has sorted the "where do we play Ashton" problem if he will be out for awhile which is a shame.
VERY light bench for me but Akauola would have been blown off the park if he played and Latu just isn't very good, so if BMM is injured who else would we play?
Kibula, Johson?
I personally would have put Doro on the bench, although Robson would have done a good job if we'd actually played him.
I don't want to suddenly be negative and say that's our season over already, but with the way we've played over a few years it's hard not too.
Also might just be me not spotting him but i haven't seen Andrew Henderson for ages, you see Briers with Price so where's Hendo? Is he pitchside with the players?

Widdop was a marquee signing who's delivered very little in the time he's been here that's very disappointing.. I agree with Duckie get Patton out there but which one goes widdop or Austin or move steff to HB...also agree with king in the 2nd row

Patton isn't the future, we need to know if Riley Dean is.

If Patton is the answer then we really are done for as a club to be taken seriously.

Price picking Patton is him simply signing his own resignation letter. It'd be an admittance of his failure to get the best from players we are paying marquee money for.

Based on this seasons appearances patton would offer us more than widdop currently has. Patrons passing is better than both widdop and Austin his pass selection has let him down previously.

Too much emphasis is put on our halfs !! If we look bereft of ideas it's down to our halfs having few options rather than their own ability, the convoluted obstruction interpretations are killing them. Would austin and Patton have failed if currie Hughes gelling king ratchford bmm had been giving them good viable options to attack the line. Its naive to think that just having two marquee halfs we will be good going forward when were not giving them many options. How many times did Austin receive an offload on the 5th completely taking him out of the last play attack ?? Is having hill and cooper taking a drive on the 4rmth in the opposition 20 the best year of a tackle ? We put everything on that last tackle play and hope it pays off

I would not be unhappy if patton is go get a game it maybe what one of our marquee signings need

Based on what I saw v Salford, Riley Dean is preferable to Patton.

Widdop to FB
Ratchford to stand-off
Doro, Walker, Philbin, Davis on the bench

If Mamo was fit I'd move King to 2nd row, Mamo to centre and bin off Jason Clark.

However, there's more chance of me being awarded an OBE in person by Queen Lizzie and spending the afternoon slurping the Harvey's and listening to "The Queen is Dead"

SL let's persevere with widdop and Austin if your happy with those 2 then good luck

Other than desperation, on what basis are you suggesting Patton being fetched in for one of Widdop or Austin would be a good move?

Are we just supposed to forget his previous performances and suddenly imagine he's turned into a SL level half back overnight?

Patton only gets let off because he's a local lad..
The fact he's still at the clubs says a lot about us, any of the other top 4 clubs would of shipped him on years ago...

Far from it but the performances of widdop all season and the last few from Austin suggest a change is needed..and price as done that..had Patton performed like Austin in the last few games you'd of been on here criticizing like you always do with Patton..a shake up was needed or are you happy with Austin and widdop

The only basis is to send some kind of gesture to Widdop/Austin that we're able to drop a big name if necessary, to act as some kind of kick up the booty.

Dropping players to send a message works if there's an understudy champing at the bit to come in, who then makes the spot his own and means the guy who was dropped has a struggle getting back in the team.

In this situation though, Patton will do feck all, the coach will be roundly criticised by the fans for picking a substrength side and and after a game or two he'll have to go back with his tail between his legs and start picking Widdop/Austin again.

Patton should only be selected in a time of crisis ie absolutely no other option. We all know he isn't wanted at Wire so rather let one of the young lads gain some experience. I do wonder if Austin should have been left on the field after that hit btw).

Patton has had his fair share on chances, 2018 when Brown was injured he played lots of games and he even played in the Grand Final. He isn't good enough and never will be.

I think patton is good enough he has all the tools, his timing is really good, but I also think that he is far too happy to drift in and out of games. He should want the ball all the time, he should want to determine where the game is played so he can make his mark but he doesn't seem to. First half the other week against Salford he was excellent, second half he sort of went missing. I know there were a lot of errors and the completion took a nose dive but he was the captain on the day and he shut up shop for me.

What tools? He doesn't take the line on, he doesn't organise,no side step, average kicking and passing game. I think if you compare him with George Williams who is the same age and they came through the juniors at the same time. Williams has everything Declan doesn't unfortunatley.

I’m glad he’s dropped Austin the lad is a show pony who’s bottom lip has the potential to go during big games. Don’t fall for his dummy and what else does he actually have to his game? A decent bomb yes and not much else. Widdop was running into holes and was stopped due to great Wigan defence and looks far more of a threat than Austin. Big few games coming up and I’d have Austin no way near either, Catalan will almost certainly munch him.

Sorry CW8 but he has been given plenty of opportunity to shine and other than an occasional glimpse has never impressed. His boat has sailed I’m afraid, time for the next generation.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t a concussion issue, I was surprised he stayed on. Think your overall assessment of Austin is very harsh.

Apparently, Tyrone Roberts is a free agent again . Been released by Gold Coast ,no doubt we'll be in the running again with the thinking that anything from Oz must be good.

I agree, that's what I was saying in the rest of my post. He does have good timing with his passes, he has some good attributes to work with but doesn't show them anywhere near enough and generally he just hasn't kicked on. It should be Riley deans turn now.

I think it's fairly obvious we're not getting bang for our buck with regards to our 2 "Marquee" signings. Our better performers have been Gelling, Mamo and King recently (apart from Gelling the other night!) who I would suggest are way down the pay league at Wire. I get the feeling that to be on marquee money you have to be a marquee player mentally and our 2 are just not up to it. I'm sure Andrew Johns wouldn't allow himself to be portrayed as someone who's not earning his money! Marquee players should be mom every other game at least! I would scrap the marquee player and just pay your better players a bit more than others within the cap as it's probably causing some unrest among the group.

What did/do we need in a half-back partner for Austin and for the team in general?

I would suggest:

Good organiser, dominant vocal style
Good kicking game
Good passing game

We didn't need another flashy, running half putting out spectacular passes and impossible plays.

For what we spent on Mr Marquee we should have gone for Luke Gale, and we'd have had a few quid left too.

Sneyd?

Widdop has an NRL GF winner's ring ...

Perhaps money spent on marquee players would have bought us half a dozen decent players who would give 100% every week.