What has been touched on so far by some but is worth emphasising is the loss of Brett Hodgson at the same time as Briers. Both were superb passers of a ball and distributers. Unfortunately both had to retire. The double wammy is the main reason we don't seem able to move the ball wide anymore. Mind you ... I'm still shocked just how bad we are in this aspect at the moment as other sides lose good players and have lots of changes and still cope.

Thanks for pointing that out. But your misquoting me now and leaving other conditions out of that equation too.

Adding to it, I raised points like we have the best backs and 3/4 line on form of early 2012. (All England internationals. Ratchford perhaps was a knight about then and wasn't playing for us.) McBanana assuming there wasn't a decent enough hb in the country to partner Myler so played a loose forward there Sinfield.

We need Atkins and Bridge to play at that level of form and Asotasi and England not to be crocks and England playing something like Hill's level.

I could see the season would be crucial that Atkins and Bridge hit those heights again, the form of the 3/4s upper body strength and skill adding width, power and handling skills to nullify failings in other positions.
I could see that wasn't going to happen hence we need a quality Prob and halfback and never more has it been so apparent.

To sum up. With a top class prop and halfback we could soften the lack of form out wide by playing up the middle.
Its like swapping one style of play for another.

Preferably I'd want balance.
Structure is a freekin mess this season.

Our only hope is for Atkins especially and Bridge to improve and stay 100% fit.
Bridge has handling qualities of a top class halfback and the upper body strength of a loose forward, Atkins doesn't, but has pace. Their attributes could lesson the need for a forward and hb. We need these qualities in abundance and their running nowhere that level required.

I'm sure GO'B would like to playing alongside a top quality halfback too...instead of being the scapegoat for a HB pairing that isn't working and doesn't want to work together.

Evidence?

For what its worth.
I think GOB being dropped may work well. Myler and ratchford know each others play well and we get to see Russell start ..

What do you mean by top-notch? Are you suggesting only State of Origin level players are good enough for Warrington?

Castleford (Liam Finn) and Saints (Walsh) have managed to pick up two good halfbacks, capable of effectively moving their team around, organising attack, leading a penetrative kicking game and generally winning their teams matches withing being "top-notch", whatever you mean by that.

I think to be fair, TS was duty bound to play GOB to see once and for all if he could make the grade. After that, his fall back position would have been to move Ratchford in with Myler - which is what we have now ended up with. Presumably, that was the game plan for the year whilst we searched for a organising / kicking half back in the mould of Briers.

Well its relative to what we have got. We have got three halfbacks, Myler, Ratchford, O'Brien so if we're bringing someone in they need to be better than what we've got.

It doesn't need to be Thurston or Shaun Johnson but someone like Blake Green or Matty Smith would do.

I heard a rumour last night GOB is talking to Saints about a move?

Let's be honest, though, neither really arrived with a Briers-like game and neither have developed anything like the abilities to lead a team from the halves. They're both (Ratchford more so) brilliant individual talents, with footwork, skill and enough pace to exploit gaps. Neither have a great short/long kicking game, neither are particularly skilled passers and neither organises the attack as ruthlessly as Lee did. Briers done the same stuff every week for us, but you just can't defend against such a high skill level, it's like Sinfield at Leeds, you just can't beat a halfback with a brain and the skill to match it.

I'd say us lacking this has been obvious for a while, if we could combine Ratch, Myler and GOB into one player, there might be a decent halfback, but individually neither are the right style of player, whilst all being talented.

Not too sure what we can do about it now, but with our centres not being too creative either, we look utterly toothless and grunting our way over the line won't be feasible every week.

The fact that liam finn has been mentioned in this thread(no offence to the lad)shows how far the standard of super league has sunk. I've seen woods, langer , johns and briers play at half back for this club and now we are talking about breaking the bank for players like danny brough who is massively overrated. The lower sides(yes, i know we were one not so long ago)have got their wish and now super league is more competitive. But it is only because the good sides are playing at the level of the poorer sides and not vice versa. Never thought i would say this 12 months ago, but koucash is right. We need a serious injection of quality into our competition and not run of the mill nrl half backs like walsh who eddie and stevo would have you believe is the greatest thing since wally lewis. Oh, and although GOB isn't the answer to our problems, he has performed MUCH better than myler so there is no justification for him being dropped. Although rhys evan's four try haul didn't stop him being sent to swinton!

I disagree, Brough isn't overrated.
He propelled Huddersfield to top of SL in his 1st full season.
How was the trip to Mars?

Brough is a decent player. You can be good and still be massively overrated(wayne rooney in football is a prime example). If he is the best half back in our competition then it really isn't worth forking out hard earned money to watch.

I'm no soccer expert but now I know your joking!

Well, since it was me that mentioned Finn let me explain. I was also brought up on Woods, Gregory (let's not start that again), Langer etc. I also marveled at the skills of Wally Lewis, Laurie Daley, Fittler and Sterling etc. in the aussie game and kangaroo tours/

BUT the fact of the matter is players even near to that quality (where they exist) are now exclusively playing in the NRL, and tempting them over here is well nigh impossible.

The British game is, for various reasons, either not producing genuine, off-the-cuff wildcard talent or is not prepared to give it a chance so we're left to feed off the crumbs. Matty Smith, Liam Finn, Walsh etc. couldn't hold a candle to the kind of player we were all lucky to witness, but they are doing a job for their teams nonetheless.

I myself have commented that our expectations of half-backs have dropped alarmingly these days, but if the job spec these days is no more than a good kicking game, put your strike players 1-on-1 with their opposite no.s or into a half gap ................. then our HBs are not even meeting those basic criteria.

You are right morrissey, it is hard to get the quality over here which is why Dr. Marwan is right. Money talks(why is sam burgess going to be playing union?). And to get some top drawer players over here you need to pay top dollar. Thurston has achieved everything you could possibly achieve in aus, but the only way to tempt his ilk to play over here would be to pay them more. And yes, rooney is overrated!!!

And where are these clubs awash with cash with nothing to spend on? Even with the likes of koukash, it's an uphill battle, given the celebrity lifestyle, 3rd party deals, and prestige of playing in the "elite" (including being in the frame for state of origin etc, which means a lot to a lot of players regardless of what they've achieved) - and given the financial ability of the Aussie clubs, outbidding them isn't as easy as it sounds.

Even if we manage to peel away 1 or 2, so what? These are fallible players, they will improve their teams, but ultimately, how did wire vs hull go all those years ago? To improve the quality of the league teams need significant improvement across the park. So either we scrap the home grown development rules, and put ourselves in an all out bidding war with the Aussies (who will shrug their shoulders and produce 13 more capable of beating us on the international stage) OR we look at ways for improving the quantity and quality of players coming through the uk.

Would GOB be any better is he was earning 50k more?

Sam Burgess has a celebrity lifestyle over there with a lot of lucrative deals outside of playing. Why is he going to union? Money, pure and simple. Why not let the teams with the cash spend it? If you can't afford to bring in quality, tough. And before people say its just because warrington have got money, i preferred watching us go up against wigans all stars in the 80s even though we couldn't get to that level. It was a challenge, as it was for other clubs, and it made certain players from other clubs(gregory for us, schofield, ward etc) raise their game and become international class. In those days we could actually give australia a game, and heaven forbid, sometimes even beat them. The game is slowly dying anyway, we may as well give the good doctors ideas a chance because we won't be any worse off if they fail.

Being celebrity in England is a bigger deal than being a celebrity in aus? - SBW turned his head of the publicity about being "a dual international" and the long term gains of that, above and beyond the capabilities of either 1 code.



People can spend what they like on developing players. If more was spent on that instead of "marquees" maybe our England team would be stronger. Of course, that's not to say a smattering from aus isn't good for the game, but they aren't the saviour of the sport either.



Yeah ask Bradford about that.

As far as I can see Bradford are still in sl and at worst will spend a couple of years outside of it! I'd take that for 3 world club challenges. Moe is right super league is on its arris. I've been a wire fan home and away for thirty years and sl depresses me these days. Before all else the main reason to watch pro sport is to see fellas do stuff us mere mortals can only dream about, as it is super league could have a gimmick of picking 16 and a raffle winner in the crowd joining the squad. Anyone claiming this season is not the worst, standard wise, in the past thirty years is deluded. Something needs to be done

So why is the standard so poor in rl now ?

Well, all our high quality Oz players have got old and retired. And with all the money in the Oz game, we can not afford to bring in top notch stars to replace them. Will we even have a match against the Exiles this year ? And as those Aussies have disappeared it has gradually shown the threadbare quality of our own game. That is down to under-investment in youth training as far as I am concerned. Remember it is only a season or so ago that 12 SL clubs voted to ditch 2 of the four age classes in order to save money. And how exactly are we now going to afford e.g. Thurston on 1.3 million Aus dollars per year ? Even if the money was found, it would be like one of our better SL players agreeing a move to Hunslet. Don't forget top quality players dream of silverware and public acclamation not just the money. A trip to Broncos in front of a crowd of 1,500 is not going to cut much ice.

We need to wake up and smell the coffee. The new Sky franchise money is a lifeline, it buys the game some time. We will still be able to buy a smattering of reasonable quality Aussies, but we need to spend much more time encouraging growth of the sport in local schools ( Salford have I believe only two), clubs, and academies. The main reason we are going from 14 to 12 SL clubs next years because we don't have enough SL players to go around. Buying in players from abroad is a short term fix that simply underlines our problems. Agreed, everyone is really only interested in short term, quick and easy solutions, but that is not going to help the long term survival of SL.

Let's be honest, as a business model, we simply cannot compete with the NRL and Rugby Union - We are the Southampton to their Man United or Chelsea - We are there to supply them with added attraction to their competitions.

I agree that we don't produce the same number of quality individuals that we used to, but even when we do, we cannot hope to compete with the Aussie game or the English RU to keep them in our game (Look at Tomkins, Eastmond, the Burgess's, etc).... We have to accept we are now a feeder to these financially superior organisations and unless we find another 10 Koukash's or Simon Moran's, then we are going to have to put up with a diminishing quality within our league.