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.

That game was won through very fast play the balls and running from dummy half. It was the first time we'd played like that and we tore them to pieces. Still only won 24-6 though. We had 61 runs from dummy half in that match

For me GOB is an instant choice and also if the kicking was left to him I think our kicking game would be a lot better. GOB is not a brilliant kicker but is good enough and getting better, but Wheeler and Myler need a lot of work to get there. This is one of the problems with having split halves. watch all the good teams they have one dominant kicker and he is used most of the time (Shaun Johnson, Cooper Cronk, Danny Brough, Adam Reynolds, Jonathan Thurston ect) these guys don't miss the kick as its not on there side. They make sure they are there regardless of field position.
Make GOB the main kicker and things will improve.

Monaghan and Higham tore them to pieces around the ruck.

Most games on that winning streak were down to Monaghan and Highams brilliant form at the time.

Indeed. But look at the stats, there were about eight different players who ran from dummy half - Russell had nine, I think - others were Bridge, Ratch, Ormsby (remember him?), Myler (who came off the bench).

Myler was the best player on the pitch second half if my memory serves me correctly?

Well, i've not gone into this when duckie keeps harping on about bridge and ratchford at halves, but thats why i've always disregarded/argued against it.

As stated, when they were the halves and when we went through that purple patch, it was on the back of dummy half running, which whilst effective against lower half teams and teams off the boil, isn't gonna cut the mustard against teams like wigan(which it wasn't) who can negate the quick ptb and control the ruck.

Its also incredibly one dimensional which while it can work, does actually make us very limited in terms of attack.

Now, arguably ratch's best work is when he picks up and goes, which he can do best with a light touch from FB on occasion, which leaves 6 and 7 setting up outside when the gaps are appearing when the defence is getting pulled in. He doesn't work as well as an orthodox 6, so (sorry to harp back to it) when RD wants him picking up and going, you're heading back to when you had leon pryce at stand off for GB, just because of his DH running, which was useless against an organized defence.

I don't want us to end up with the stats stated above on every game, or worse if we can't get that going.

It works when it is a surprise as much as anything - that game against Leeds, the 2009 SF is another classic example. I agree I wouldn't want it full time. I want the spine of the team to be Ratch, GOB, Myler, Russell with Higham and Wheeler off the bench. When Grix is back at 13, that adds another variant.

that was a perfect game plan for the game in hand, it was ideal, however go back to the start of the season, and we were all lamenting lowes' tactics to start the year off, higham had just joined, it was him and clarke DH running and the forwards were all just one pass off, it was route one up the middle and was a waste of time.

Since when we're Leeds and Saints a lower standard team?
They were both battling the top of the league if my one dimensional thinking serves me well!?

If the answer is about dummy running then that's great.
So why isn't that the case now?
Where has all the dummy running gone, long time passing.

Our dummy half scoots are the reason we are much more effective attacking the line from 20/30 or even 40 yards out & when we we have 2 hookers on the field we tend to rip defences apart. Sadly many of our problems appear within 10 yards of the line when sometimes we look short of ideas to break a defence. What i would like to see us do instead of the desperate kick to the corner for the winger would be what Australia were doing in the 2013 World Cup , namely a kick from the wing towards the posts & that way it would bring our whole centrefield attack into play & make any conversion attempt easier.