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

I think it may have been during the period he was covering for sandow got us through the play offs and into a lead in the grand final. Never really improved from there I think maybe a new set up could be what he needs.

I don’t think you’ll get a laugh, that sort of comment is better placed on a bacefook group than on here.

i think he needs to work on his delivery (on this occasion I mean JackFlash ). It would have been punchier (but still unwarranted) if he had gone with "started at the bottom and WORKED his way down".
This was actually true of my dad who was a tunneller.

Or if he'd started out as a Proctologist before retraining as a Podiatrist.

Compare Patton to other young halfbacks that have come through our Academy (invariably to much hype)...Duffy, Durbin, Hulse, GO'B. Each one of them was 'the next best thing'.

The first three of those, you could quickly see they were never going to make it in SL. Just were not at that level. In Hulse's case, you could see he was really determined to make the most of what he had and had a great competitive spirit, so he played quite a few games and in some games he made a decent contribution, but ultimately all three of those were Championship quality.

GO'B and Patton were better. You could see from their early games that they weren't out of their depth in SL, so that gave them a chance. In GO'B case, there was steady progress during his time, and some good games, he just never showed the ability to take over a team from the halves. He ended up showing versatility and making a decent career for himself at fullback after he left. Patton's issue was there wasn't much forward progress. He never gave you the flashes of hope that the real talents do....where they show you some glimpses of genius but have flaws that take time to iron out, like Briers did in his first few seasons. Patton was just...there...he didn't show that he could influence a game.

He would be out of the team for a spell and his reputation would grow, people would call for him to be brought back in, then he'd come back and be anonymous in games and his reputation would fall back till he was dropped. After a few cycles of that fans started to stop calling for him to be brought back again. I think for the last couple of years most of the fans (at least from the evidence of this forum) had decided he wasn't the answer. But he wasn't hopelessly out of his depth, its just that if you want to have a title challenging team he's not good enough to be a starter. You can say with hindsight that season where we brought over Tyrone Roberts at big expense, we may as well have just played Patton instead, but he wouldn't have driven us to a title.

And the issue with Patton was never about being denied chances in the first team, he got a lot more than he would have got in Saints or Wigan given the competition in the halves in those teams. He found his level like Duffy, Durbin, Hulse and GO'B did. The difference is the first three are Championship level and GO'B and Patton are starters in a lower SL team, back ups in a stronger SL team.

Gary Hulse always gave it his all.
You're right SC that he didn't have an x factor and was at the Championship or possibly lower SL player (which we were at the time).
My favourite recap was when a 20 stone Paul Anderson was through the line with only a 10 stone Hulse to run over.
Anderson ran over him......almost, but Hulse carried him about 7 yards over the dead ball line.
Anderson simply couldn't get the ball down.
Absolute class.
Well done Gary.

Regarding Patton I get the impression that Salford fans are quite pleased with the signing gives them a bit of balance and strength in depth cover at 7 and 9.

I think cutting ties with us will be good for both parties as he was going backwards here at best standing still at a level below our expectations.

Good luck to the lad hope he makes the most of a clean slate

I'm sorry. I'm not going to trawl back 6 pages, but WHY are we having an inquest on a BANG AVERAGE player?
He tried his best. But for a team competing for honours, spending (I imagine) our salary cap limits, we're willy measuring who's better

He's gone. Tried his best, but nowhere near the the level of Kelly, Briers, Gregory
Not even at the level of Crompton, Bishop
Just another player.

Let's move on

Because he's a Warrington lad. If he'd signed from Wigan we'd have forgotten him by now.

And it's a slow news week

I think all has been said with regard to Dec. Good luck to him at Salford, as Riley Dean needs the game time more than him, to ascertain if he's the future at HB in the P&B.