No way another one for Salford retirement home me thinks,unless a cheeky little move to widnes tickles his fancy!!

On the subject of Clarke, he was poor at the weekend I have to agree, but I'm not yet of the belief that he is any worse than Higham. He seems to escape a lot of criticism but is so ineffective when he's on the field it's untrue, this becomes all the more noticeable on occasions like Sunday when Catalans are allowed slow the ptb down and 'win the floor', he just has no other idea than that scamper.

You find your eyes wandering over to the dugout constantly almost pleading for Monas to come with this left hand gripped around a square carrying the number 9 or 10.

I don't buy this argument that our pack was well beaten today. We were making 50/60 yards per set, they were making 30/40. They broke our line about five times and scored 4 tries. We broke them about ten times and scored 4. We lost on goal kicking which is interesting as I thought the received wisdom was that we'd not do that with Hodgson in the team. So, in effect that loss vs Catalans was just the same as the loss at home to St Helens last year. Hmm.

No one criticised Clarke in previous weeks when we were winning.

Clarke is just too slow and predictable in everything he does, Warrington have become one of the quickest and best sides to watch in SL, the way we move the ball reminds me a bit of saints of old.

Clarke will never fit into a quick playing side where he`d compliment what we do, he`s not quick enough in his thinking to pull it off. His game is pretty basic and fairly easy to read for the opposition, Jon Clarke isn`t the reason we lost on sunday as one player can never be blamed for any kind of loss.

Micky Higham is a very quick player and very quick in his thinking, he quite often puts us on the front foot and he makes it hard for defences to read his play as opposed to Clarke`s basic play, yeh i`d like to see more consistency from Higham but he`s head and shoulders above Clarke in ability and speed of thought.

Here's my twopenneth - although i was exremely upset by the result at the time, the more i think about it i am glad we have got that kind of performance out of our system. Every top team plays like that at least once or twice a year, even wigan last year. It's just that we normally save those kind of performances for the play offs. If we were approaching the back end of the season and hadn't yet had one or two really flat games then i would be a little worried.

Not for me Rob, can read Higham like a book. [size=85(and not a very good book, certainly not Bravo Two Zero...)[/size

Monas > Clarke > Higham for me. Although If I could put a massive space between Monas & Clarke, I would.

I agree with Rob. I think Higham is the better 9 over Clarke. Remeber the Hudds play off game last year? Higham was one of the few that stood out, when ge came on.

which actually gets better after every read


I agree with your Hooking hierarchy too JWP. I've never really "got" Higham, but maybe that's just me.
With regards to the Clarke bashing.....it was just a matter of time, as soon as we ost a game , and Clarke was involved...well, we all know the rest. IMO, Woody has his worst game for a LONG time, but there's no witch-hunt against him. It's funny, every generation of Wire teams I've seen, HAS to have a scape-goat (cue the picture).....WE WIN AS A TEAM, WE LOSE AS A TEAM.

Oh, and while we're at it, some of our fans are STILL imbicilles. On Sunday, I stood on the half-way line, virtually at the back, and had the misfortune to stand in front of, what can only be described as "the missing link", some fat-head in his mid 50's - obviously old enough to know better. I'VE NEVER HEARD SO MUCH FOUL LANGUAGE, AND WHINGING IN MY LIFE. It must have said the F word about 30 times whilst the Cats player was getting treatment, all this with under 10's being stood around him. Even David Attenborough would have shook his head, and found his behaviour unacceptable.

This thread has been a ritual of Warrington's early season every since internet forums have been invented. After our second defeat of the season one of the loyalists always starts a thread saying "put everything in context".

The difference between now and the DVDV/Cullen eras was that the "don't panic" thread after 2 defeats would usually come in week 3, and you wouldn't have had quite so much excitement from other clubs fans about Warrington losing at home to Catalans, it would be like us hearing Huddersfield got beat by Harlequins, we wouldn't be frantically discussing the implications of the result.

The other difference is now it is more credible to describe it as a blip. In the old days we'd be trying to convince ourselves that once our vast injury list eased and we got Reardon, Sullivan and Rauhihi back off the treatment table that we'd be storming up the league.

To be fair, Higham Day for me, was the CC Quarter Final at Bradford last year. We were rank that day, Higham pulled us through that one. When you go on & win it, it's the little details of how you got there that sometimes get lost.

wasn't that the league game against bradford that he won for us?

I think you might be right y'know ace, thinking about it.

gotta agree with this

The gap between monas and everyone else is huge though.

Would like a roby player to slot in instead of the tweedle de and tweedle penalty-machine-knockon

Whilst we're talking about players getting criticism, Clarke, Higham et al. Please can someone explain this to me:

Why is it Solomona is some kind of hero regardless of how he plays? He was awful on Sunday and two of his several errors lead to tries being scored. Yet not a murmur of criticism either at the ground or on here it seems. Just that stupid song with everyone inexplicably waving their arms (what IS that about?). Imagine if Mike Wainwright was making those errors...

Probably because of the popular 'ooooooooahhh solomona' hand in the air chant, I can't remember any songs relating to Clarkey or Wedge. Solomona was also awful at Wakey a few weeks back.

Also, I believe the real reason we lost on Sunday was due to the fact that the boys didn't get their Duran Duran fix just before the match.

He isn't a hero however he plays, look back to the first game of the season when we lost to Huddersfield there were threads on here saying he's been at the pizzas in the off season, unfit overweight, can only do 20 minutes etc.

If we go into a bad run of form I predict Solomona will be one of the main ones to cop it from the fans. He has always been one for making errors, you take the good with the bad with Solomona but he is a destructive player at his best, which is why he will have a cult following where Wainwright didn't, Wainwright was a good hard worker and decent offloader but he wouldn't tear teams up like Solomona.

Some players are afforded a little bit more grace than others, the ones capable of sublime moments are always given a little more 'respect'. Saying that though no one is beyond criticism. Monas, King, Hicks have been panned, at the moment i'm thinking only Moz and Evans(loads of time for that though) are the only ones i can think off who haven't had a thread slating them at some point.

Every game he either knocks on or gives away a pen within minutes of coming on.

But he's still the better 9, IMO. Watch the speed from the lay the ball how faster it is when Higham's on the field to when Clarke is, and Higham's a much more better impact hooker than Clarke, without question. Clarke has been a good servant to our club (I'm not denying that), but I know which one I'd prefer coming on when Monas leaves the field, just my opinion though.

You have got to stop using that example. Admittedly for a short period of time against hudds last year he was the best in a wire shirt. But we were so dire.

As other's have said. He steals a ball in plain sight of the ref. I don't condone cheating but if you are going to, be smart about it.

Secondly, he knocks on about 3 times a match (average) and he doesn't even play that long.

He is dire.
Gleeson, MAthers and Higham. All bought when we were , we have gotten rid of two dead weights (sorry MAthers) let's finish the job!

Didn't we buy/sign King, Monas, Morley, L Anderson when we where poop.

Didn't smith give higham a new contract as well?

yes and they have proven to be great.

Would you honestly out higham in their company?

I think you'd struggle to find 20 people in town centre on Saturday who would say that those names are , I think I could find 20 people who'd say Micky Higham is at Warrington Library on Christmas day.

Just because higham isn't great and his constant ball-stealing right in front of the ref is extremely annoying, that does not automatically make clarke a better hooker. Clarke has more versatility as he can do an adequate job covering other positions, but in the hooking role higham is better. The reason? Mick - one trick, Jon - none.

just a worse player over all?