This old chestnut again. 3 years since debut and nearly 80 games. How many breaks have you seen him make?

Exactly this, the British half backs are miles behind their aussie counterparts, we always had the mavericks who can break a game but in all reality werent really anywhere near the same level of game management. Nowadays we don't even seem to bring through the mavericks.

I want declan to do well but he goes missing far too much and seems too quiet when he plays in the halves.

Do you think Patton really has a 'will to win'?

Greg Mackey had will to win, so did Nat Wood. Has Patton shown that when we are up against it he will grab the game by the scruff of the neck and do whatever it takes to take his teammates over the line?

At the moment he seems to me to be a youngster with some talent who is patchy and this year in big games he's come up with errors.

Well I meant in the sense that he wants Warrington be successful and I never doubt his effort. The difference between Patton and the two you mention is that Mackey and Wood had the ability to influence a game like you said. Patton has not shown this.

The thing is it's pretty clear that an overwhelmingly large number of paying Warrington spectators who have watched many halfbacks for Warrington over the decades don't think he is good enough. I am in that camp. If he was from Australia (or even not from Warrington) he would not get the support he does. It's the Chris Riley phenomena again.

For as disapointing as our last No7 was, he was a much better player than Patton.

Yeah - this year, with Roberts struggling, the situation was open for Patton to put pressure on him and fight for his place but we never really saw anything. He did OK as a bench dummy half so he justified his place as a squad player, but not as a starter.

Or maybe Patton could be a starting halfback in SL but not for a club with its sights on winning the Grand Final, so it depends on our ambition. If we want to be mid table and play with a largely local squad then go for it.

I think some people are deluding themselves thinking that if we keep giving him a couple more seasons, he will magically turn in to a great player, like we strung out Rhys Evans and various others during the TS era hoping for something special. Then people say well if he'd come through at Wigan or Saints they would have persevered with him...no they wouldn't, he would have soon got overtaken by the likes of Sam Powell or been understudy to Matty Smith and now Richardson.

Believe me....if Patton was at Wigan...he'd be No7

I believe [iyou[/i think that, but he wouldn't.....he really, really wouldn't. Lower echelons of SL - AT BEST. I'll cut to the chase - he's rubbish!

"There are none so blind as those who will not see" John Heywood, 1546

I'd ask anypne to argue Patton isn't our best goal kicker, drop kicker, short game kicker, long game kicker, sharpest back half with ball in hand.

Compared to Brown and Smith currently?
Try arguing that Patton is one of the Top 4 half backs in the UK SL.

Currently in the top 4 English hb.
Yes available.

Better than Patton; Williams, Gale, Trueman, Myler, Lomax, Richardson, Connor, Hastings (can play for England), Sneyd. Probably missed a few as well. Now as HBs go it's a pretty sorry bunch (bar a few) but as i've said before Trueman is clearly class after just a handful of games - and is already playing at a level Patton can only dream of after 80 SL games.

I’ll leave it to Steve Price to decide how good Dec Patton is and what potential he has ,,funny how it only seems to be our fans that don’t rate him

Selected for England "A", go figure!

Steve Price seems to have decided that he is such a good halfback he will play off the bench as an interchange 9.

I think giving Patton 7 is the break he needs.

But

We could argue both sides.
There's no denying there has been times when I could shake him and say back yourself and just do it for that brief chance he might get.
I think TS scared the risk out of him, and O'Brian and Myler too.

I want Patton to selfishly think about himself and just rip it up.

I can see Patton ending up being like Penny, a player with a mythology around him that he would have been a great but was ruined by coaches.

It will be TS ruined him by 'stifling his natural game' and then Price ruined him by using him as an interchange hooker.

I've seen Dec do some great things But he isn't involved enough with last plays or decision making, if that's coaches saying Kevin brown calls and makes the 5th tackle plays then that's a sad indictment of what our coaches thought about Dec patrons kicking game and decision making.

My biggest reservation about Dec is that sometimes we are crying out for someone to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and just decide where the game is going to be played and I have never seen Dec do this. Maybe given a run he could develop but IMO the time is now, we should have a great chance next season given saints and Wigan could be unsettled for a while, I'm not saying they won't be challengers or better than us but they could both end up being weaker than this season. In 2019 both titles are there for the taking if we can get a player with the necessary game management skills to make up our major flaw. I don't think that's Dec patton.

I wish we hadn't given him a contract extension after a few good games as a bench hooker. 1, because I don't rate him and want rid. And 2, we could've all seen the calibre of club that would've signed him. It wouldn't have been anyone in this season's top 8 and it certainly wouldn't have been Wigan duckie

If Patton is our starting 7 next season then I do fear for us. Interchange hooker at best and I’d go as far to say we need to improve upon that too.

That's Patton in a nutshell.
We need to replace Brown, and Patton is no more than a squad player. Also, I'd have kept Dwyer to fulfill this role and let Patton go.

tell you what i find frustrating with dec, this thing where he stops dead just before the line and then throws a pass, he wont' take the line on properly, think how many late hits o'brien was taking a few years ago, now i don't want that, but i would wager he's took more of them this year than dec has in his entire career.

Looks like there is only me in the Patton camp....
And not for the first time I've been a lone figure on here and still came through.

The lad has it if he wants it. Perhaps Paul Anderson working closer to him has seen more in him in 2 months than TS has since Patton became a Wire.

I don't think Steve Price playing Patton behind SL highest ever earning 7 is dismissive of Patton...but rather an endorsement of his importance by awarding him a bench spot above other contenders or even snap recruitment.

Since GOB left, I haven't seen that he has it, nor that he really wants it, RD.

Weren't you telling us all that Roberts was going to have a storming end to the season when it came to the playoffs and Grand Final?