Surely now we've seen enough positives to cement Dec Patton as a starting half for the rest of the season, injuries or suspensions permitting?

Not only is he more effective than Brown already, but he's a good goal kicker and the more he plays now the better he'll be long term

Hope his career is at Warrington for sure

patton will learn nothing from brown he is just a bacic player no vision

Not impressed,

We talk about him as if he is the next Andy Gregory don't we.

What's a half supposed to do if he doesn't have a platform to work off? Patton gets the ball and he has 0 options to work with. no ones running or hitting lines for him. I'm not sure what people are expecting him to achieve when he's got naff all to work with.

You could put Thurston in this team and he'd look s***e

Out of every half we've played this season Patton if the only one who looks the part.

His passing is slow and laboured

He's got no one to pass to that's why!

No, I've seen him pass to players, just slowly, seems to have an exaggerated swing.

That must be why we're losing then. Nothing to do with lack of aggression up front or the lack of attacking options from centres and back rowers...

Just Patton and his exaggerated swing.

HA HA HA HA HA The downfall of many a team that, the Exaggerated swing

This is a thread about Patton isn't it. Hence discussion of Patton.

Whether the problem is coaching staff or players the teflon coated bad apples need to be got rid of.

Can't do his golfing any harm.

Patton will be good championship half back. Too slow, takes a lot of wrong options and doesn't organise anyone around him. Not best defender either. He may develop with time but not what we need at moment

Neither was Gale, Williams, Mellor, Fages, Sneyd or Smith when they were coming through, but hands up who'd want them in their team right now. A team HAS to have two half playing together week in week out to allow the team to learn to play around them, get used to their plays, their runs, learn to time their runs to collect their passes.

Our half pairings chop and change every week. Patton needs to keep his shirt and find a half to play alongside him and keep him there.

Problem is Smith panic bought Brown and now we have a situation where Patton at 6 and Gids at 7 is when our team looks its most dangerous but Brown is on too much money to keep him sat in the stands. If Smith had any balls about him he'd dump Brown into the reserves.

Patton and Ratchford at 6 and 7 with Gidley as interchange 6/7/9. Hiku at 1 for now. Or Gidley, come to that.

Although I don't disagree we were electric with Sandow from the get go in 2016.

I think most people on here are fairly quiet about Patton, with good reason. He has shown good spells and is an excellent kicker, but he has not quite reached the standard we need. Admittedly it is a really demanding position and he is still only 22, lets hope the experience he is picking up turns him into the finished product. I agree about playing him to the full this year as it's a write off anyway.

Almost league split time and it seems nobody knows the best 17, not even messr smith.

I know our best 17 based on all being fit and I'm sure Smith does...

Gidley
Hiku
T King
Atkins
Lineham
Ratchford
Patten
Hill
Clark
Sims
Currie
Westerman
Cooper

Hughes
Westwood
Savelio
Crosby

Never had a fully fit squad at any time this season so yes no idea what our best team is.

What has T King ever done to show he is a deserving of the centre spot above Hiku?

Harvey Livett has to be in the 17 ahead of Hughes and, unless we are expecting Clark to do 80 minutes, it is time for Morgan Smith to step up.

To be fair to myself I did rush that a bit. I think I'd have Penny and Hiku on one side. And yes, Livett would probably be in there. Clark can do 60+ and we can cover dummy half when he's off.