Speed of thought is also a major requirement.

There are different types of halfback. Bobbie Goulding was not quick, neither was Paul Deacon. Sean Long was express pace early in his career but after a serious injury he lost a yard, but still was a good player.

Briers pace declined as he got into his 30s, you didn't see him take interceptions and run the length of the field like he did in his younger day, and he didn't take on the line and step through as much as he did in his younger days, but he was a much better all round player.

And one of the greatest ever, Ricky Stuart, was not express pace, but could run a game with his boot.

Richie Myler was probably faster than any of them.

That was the big frustration of Patton for me, he looked promising in 2016 but never seemed to improve from that. If anything, 2016 was his peak.

Well I can think myself on the planet Mars now, faster than the speed of light...
I’m not sure that makes me a better astronaut though.

Bit early for drinking RD

I am talking about a short burst of pace from standing start. Just enough to prevent getting flattened and wrong foot the big boys.
So if the team did a shuttle run exercise they would be near best in the team. I would suggest that Briers off the mark was very very quick.

Mars is over 92 million miles away, about as close as you were to seeing my point.

Good luck to him. Wire through and through but was simply never good enough and never taken his chances.

Wouldn't be suprised to see him sign for Leigh/Widnes.

The voice of reason as usual Lefty. I think you have summed him up perfectly there. Application, desire, work rate etc can't be questioned but the ability in a top side. Not quite there. He will go on and do well at another side in SL or maybe like a Bradford. Good to see the Wire fans not giving him pelters and recognizing when a player has tried his best.

Agree, and it depends what sort of role you want them to play in the team as well. There have been some underrated stand-offs who are excellent at tackling and reading the game from a defensive perspective. Jeff Robson (played for Parramatta then Cronulla around 2012-15) is an obvious recent example, didn't get many plaudits, but an essential player in a pretty poor side.

Heard off a loyal fan from Salford that he as signed for them on a short term contract.

Signed a 1 year deal with them, all the best to him. Salford said they were looking for a hooker so could be playing him there, i still think some of his best most consistant games were at hooker so i'm interested to see how he gets on

Good luck to the lad,but to be fair he was the only man I know who started at the bottom and went down.

That's very harsh. He played regularly for one of the top teams in Super League for several years. He is not what we need (or needed) to reach the Holy Grail, but to say he started at the bottom and got worse is not fair.

A snappy line but total rubbish.

Given that you all saw a lot more of him than I did, what were his weak points? Why didn’t he make it at wire?

As a Leeds fan back when it seemed like we would never have anyone young and good enough to take over from one of Sinfield/Mags/Burrow, I remember there being a year or two of being really jealous of lots of teams who had young, exciting and confident half-backs who could kick well out of hand and set tries up. I believe Patton was towards the top of my jealousy list for a while. Was this just because I only saw him play certain matches (almost certainly all vs Leeds or on highlights vids) or was I simply mistaken?

His passing game was pretty poor. He didn't take the line on enough, he'll give you lots of effort but he simply isn't good enough and never will be for a club challenging for SL titles.

It's a weird one, he was supposed to be 3rd choice half/cover when we brought austin over, then brown did his achilles. so he got a full season as 7. But it seemed that he was under very very strict instructions to do ABC, and ended up looking very limited.

It's true that you dont see him take the line on, whether that was by instruction,but at the same time we've seen games where he's made just, bad bad decisions in the opposition ten, mind he's not alone in that in our team.

Conversely in 2019, he had that weirdly effective double pump pass that seemed to work very well for either currie or the left winger.

not accurate and not needed

I'd say it's his decision making. It seems glacial. The double pump was almost a symbol of that as it seemed to come from indecisiveness rather than being planned.

The double pump is quite a skill and there are not many who can do it. He did create several openings. Give the lad a rest.

100+ games for his hometown club, LLS and CC medals, and a couple of GF appearances - much more than many players will ever get.

Did a decent enough job for us, especially if we compared his £ per min value against some of, what I assume, are other much higher paid "star" players.

Good luck to him wherever he ends up.

But, at the same time, the club will spend big money on players who don't deliver....not once but repeatedly.

I for one hope Dec learns & prospers at Salford.

He had the opportunity to cement a place, he didn’t do it, his contract came to an end. I can’t see any reason for ill feeling on either side.

He's not a bad player but he progressed and improved in the first 2-3 years then stayed at that level for the rest of it. He's an average squad filler in the halves but i still think he played better at Hooker than he ever did in the halves. I do hope he plays hooker at Salford and finally finds his position. I think it was the speed of his decision making that really let him down, the speed was too fast at the top level for him. I genuinely think he would do much better in the championship in the halves, but Hooker could be his making