Would have him back tomorrow. Fullback.

He's got exactly what he needed - game time. He's a better Full Back than a Half Back, needs that extra time on the ball I think.

I wouldn't swap him for Ratchford or Patton at this stage, but if he keeps his improvement up, he's looking good.

It's nice to see Warrington boys in other SL teams doing well though, plus all the warringtonians in the current squad is promising.

He needs to have a good season as he has been overlooked for a long time I hope it has made him stronger and he can kick on and be a top player weather it is for us or not, I hope he makes a good.

In cases like this one you need a coach who can foresee these changes in a players career, clearly TS doesn't have this skill just yet, if he did who knows where we would be, but we will still persevere with Russell at FB and Evans on the wing until he learns that skill!

Id agree if he has a consistent season, with last nights performance. If not, fully right decision to move him on. Lets not forget, he had a number great games for us. But, for me, his average games far outweighed his great games.

Fair play to him last night though. Always good to see a Warrington lad playing well. Some of my muckas have walloped me in the fantasy league this week with his inclusion.

Last night on the Radio after the game, Salfords Coach said that Gareth didn't have a great game last week. He went onto to talk about consistency (part of this was about his whole team and not just Gareth)

But Russell is our reserve full back, and Evans isn't a first choice winger. You are proving the point in a way, O'Brien isn't good enough to take a shirt of Gidley or Brown, and he isn't good enough to take a shirt off Ratchford at full back. Therefore he would be back to being in and out of the squad. What he needs is conisitent game time to develop, he wasn't good enough to warrant that with us, Salford has done him the world of good on that score it would seem.

TS will give chances to young players that are good enough. Currie and Toby King being examples. O'Brien is also older now than the likes of Currie, King(s), Savelio, Clark, Lineham and the seemingly much maligned Evans and Russell, both of whom I believe have shown more promise in a Wire shirt than O'Brien ever did.

I'll repeat my point from earlier though, I'm delighted that with regular game time he is now developing in to a good SL player

I think he's good enough to take the shirt of ratch, and I'm a supporter of ratch as a fullback.


From what I saw last year and last night, gob seems to be the closest replacement for hodgo that we were trying to manufacture.

I know exactly what you mean . Still wouldn't have had the chance to develop to said level if he was at this club , too much pressure .

I think he would need a season being consistent before we even considered him

I disagree that smith gives youngsters a chance or not a fair crack of the whip at least. And often their inclusion is due to cover injuries. He didn't have the courage faith to give Patton the hb spot King would be at centre too. Yes we need cover but often faith is repaid with performances on the pitch Williams at Wigan as an example. We are to afraid of taking that risk but more than happy to spend on risks a la sandow

Toby King isn't good enough

Bit early to be writing off King, has the potential to be an excellent player. He'll be first choice centre for most of this year I expect.

Can't give you an argument

The ts wenger comparison is also true wenger buys wingers n plays em at striker smith buys full backs n plays em at half back

The bar is higher at Warrington than it is at Salford. When Myler and Ratchford were at Salford a lot of our fans admired them but were then critical of them at times at Warrington and its the same with GO'B just in reverse.

It seems Smith learned pretty quickly. Maybe he spent the week trawling through this board and took your advice?

You, RD, Wires71 are all very quick to jump over Smith's team selections when we lose, so it would be interesting to here an assessment this week.

Still, imagine what we would have to done to Brisbane with GOB at FB instead of Gidley...

GO'B wasn't hitting the heights we needed him to be at.

We've moved on.
So has he.

Fair play an excellent result, Brown made the difference in attack and kicking game for us in the first half. We were unrecognisable from the Catalans game. What we will never know is whether TS would have switched around if we had won at Catalan...

As for backs, Evans is still a weak link (did you see how he bombed that chance to pass to his wing?), impressed with Russell's try, Atkins a handful in attack and Lineham's lack of composure could have cost us.

Let's not get carried away though. Brisbane were pre-season with players missing, but as I say, fair play it was an exciting game and an excellent result.

Will we back it up against Cas?

PS I made no comment on GOB, he couldn't make a first team place his own at Wire.

Rhys Evans will be gone when his contract finishes this year. Toby King will take his place.

[iBrisbane were pre-season with players missing,[/i




From what I can see, Broncos were only missing two players; Korbin Sims and Adam Blair. Lets not forget that we were missing Hill, Ratchford, and Currie plus Brown only just returning. We were not playing an under-strength side, we simply put Broncos under far too much pressure and they made too many errors. Our completion rate in the first half was 100%, our kicking game penned Broncos into their own 40m for much of the game, Gidley was very secure and never once attempted to pass after collecting the ball from the last tackle kick. In fact, other than the 2 charge-downs and offloading, we played a very similar game to the NRL. I think the only valid excuse that Broncos can use is the fact that they were further back in their season than we are. But make no mistake, this was a rude awakening for a top notch NRL side who expected a comfortable win.

Coming in rusty counts for a lot especially when you've just had to fly the other side of the world.

It is a good effort from us and beating Brisbane is always going to be an honour but it would be interesting to see what would happen if we played them mid season 10 times, 5 at home, 5 away. My guess is Brisbane would win between 8 and 10.

Probably. I dont think I would entertain the 'flying the world' reason, haven't they been here a week ? And how much flying do they do in Oz. I guess they are about a third through their pre-season though, and the error count was probably indicative of that. I would say that was certainly a significant factor.

I was interested though in our 1st half completion rate and more conservative offload rate. Was that game a one off, a fluke, or could we replicate it if we really tried ? I am wondering if the reason that we see so many errors is simply because in the British game it goes unpunished. Ok, you drop the ball or try a ridiculous Ryan Atkins type offload, but a couple of minutes later the opposition give you the ball back anyway curtesy of one of their errors. If Wire played in Oz, what would our error count look like ?


But the value of the WCS for me is to try and extend the series and get some TV rights signed up. If we can sell it internationally then the cash starved game over here has a chance to grow again. So a slap in the face for the Broncos, and now Cronulla, is probably the best outcome we could have hoped for. The Aussies hate losing.

Hang on a minute, we've had 1 competitive game leading up to this, Brisbane are less than 2 weeks from the start of the NRL (and have had the 9s, etc) and didn't we have more players in internationals thus having short pre-seasons? There's a strong case to be made that the odds are stacked against the UK teams!

Home (crowd) advantage helps, but I don't think the flight is that big a deal (well, the flight isn't at all IMO, it's the time zone change, but for a pro team that should easily be manageable).

It doesn't fit with the self-deprecating narrative the game in this country has at the minute, but the evidence of this weekend suggests that our top clubs are a match for the best of the NRL.

It shows what an impact Tony Smith has had at Warrington. A few years ago nobody would have ever thought we would consider Warrington to be a match for the best of the NRL especially as the boom in TV rights has seen the NRL continue to rise in leaps and bounds. For Smith to take Warrington to that level without having the same money to spend is an incredible achievement. Of course this won't fit with the self-deprecating narrative some of our fans have about Smith.

You genuinely think Warrington are at the same level as Brisbane because we won a pre season match against them...? Does that mean Catalans are also better than Brisbane because they beat us the week before?

Money obviously isn't everything... Wire have invested more than any other club since Smith took over, we still haven't managed to win the big trophy.

If we have another trophyless season is this something to comfort us, we won a pre season game.