Quote ="CAM."Absolute rubbish. Why would the NRL's top try scoring winger, one of the best under the high ball and has great speed signed to "switch to be a centre"? Even Millward wasn't that stupid. Please stop posting factually incorrect things.'" He was signed to play centre. I think the reasoning behind it was he defended at centre's for Wests with Benji on the wing. It absoloutly destroyed his confidence and when he was finally switched to the wing when Dallas (IIRC) got injured it took him a while to get going. When Nobby gave him the kicking duties in 2008 is when he started to shine. After a bad first year its safe to say Pat has been an outstanding signing for us. wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/in ... age_id=470

Quote ="CAM."Absolute rubbish. Why would the NRL's top try scoring winger, one of the best under the high ball and has great speed signed to "switch to be a centre"? Even Millward wasn't that stupid. Please stop posting factually incorrect things.'" He was signed to play centre. I think the reasoning behind it was he defended at centre's for Wests with Benji on the wing. It absoloutly destroyed his confidence and when he was finally switched to the wing when Dallas (IIRC) got injured it took him a while to get going. When Nobby gave him the kicking duties in 2008 is when he started to shine. After a bad first year its safe to say Pat has been an outstanding signing for us. wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/in ... age_id=470

Pat Richards was always likely to play centre in his first season. I'm assuming if he wasn't signed to play centre then it was an oversight by the coach or the board otherwise it was a bit of a mess when we really needed a centre and signed another winger.
Our only other out and out centres in the squad at the time were 17 year old Darrell Goulding, 18 year old Sean Gleeson and 18 year old Johnny Walker.
Kevin Brown played centre a few times during that season but only when there were injuries or someone was dropped, and then ended up at Huddersfield half way through. At the start of the season with a relatively fully fit squad Richards was playing centre and Kevin Brown was seen as a stand off usually on the bench.
Eventually we signed Nathan McAvoy and Dallas got injured (IIRC) which allowed Richards to play on the wing. Also Goulding's good performances kept Richards on the wing until he was dropped.

TOPCLASS KICKER, TOPCLASSWINGER, TOPCLASS TRY SCORER, JUST PLAIN AND SIMPLE TOP TOP TOP TOP TOP TOP CLASS,

Remember his first season everyone was saying what have we signed him for release him let him go. Was he not linked with a move to Wakefield.Good job we didn't let him go

It would be good if someone checked back to 2006 on here, lets see what we were saying about him!

Its an absolute pleasure to pay my money and see someone like Pat show as much passion as he does for our club. Each week its clear he loves playing for Wigan and i would love to see him play his career at Wigan.

To have the current top points scorer and the previous two seasons top points scorer in your side is worth its weight in gold.

Well in Pat and long may it continue!!

In fairness I bet we didn't moan that much at him, because the whole team and club stunk that year. I still say he was one of the better players in that season and had some harsh criticism. I certainly didn't think he was "gash", although Nobby did drop him eventually to the Under 21s. His head must have been spinning at how poor we were.




Think you all have to remember the fact we didn't sign him as a free scoring NRL winger who was part of a Grand Final winning team. He was signed in June 2005 playing for a Wests side that had only won 5 games he played in and lost 7. They only finished the 2005 regular season with 14 wins from 24 games, so when we bought him Wests never looked like Grand Final winning potential. Thus in long term hindsight, whoever spotted him made a cracking judgement.

And for those who question his goal kicking should take note of this

Wigan 65 Tries - 54 Goals
Warrington 62 Tries - 39 Goals

Those extra goals are a big factor in us being four clear of them.

Two absolutely outstanding finishes from Pat on Sunday.

I remember watching Pat rip Brisbane to pieces to score a try for Wests playing on the right centre, a position where he failed to deliver for us.

IMO I think as Pat gets a bit older he could switch if needed to left centre from the left wing spot, I wouldn't mind seeing him do that as it may prolong his career in doing so. (And maybe Ainscough outside of him)

Not everyone, mate.

What's the difference between left and right centre?

One plays on the left, the other on the right....

Ba dum tssshhhh!!!!

Pat was signed at a centre, Pat himself made it no secret that he wanted/prefered to play in the centre, hence why he was given the Number 3 shirt in his first season.

Bad judgement to sign him as a centre, but excellent judge him to sign him!!

I think if he played centre now he would be just as effective considering the confident he is playing with

Serious answer, it can come down to things like handedness, or which way a player could be better at passing the ball. If a player is better with his left hand its likely he'd play left centre.

I think.

bit o/t but not worth its own thread really... watch peter fox at 8:13 on here [urlhttp://www.superleague.co.uk/video/player.php?id=613[/url

haha, quality!

Love it

Whats he doing? Giving him the finger or just waving at him??

Finger/fingers lol

Quality!

oh that would be sweet if he chose to stay for the rest of his career here in a wininning team he

I was convinced that we would never replace Brett Dallas as a true 'Wigan' Aussie.
And i'm not going to say that we have.....Cos Brett remains as a bonafide cherry n white legend.


However, Paaaaaaat is already as much a Wiganer as Lockers IMO.
A genuine great, and [istill[/i writing the script.


Simple as.
Love to know how he thinks of his time so far at Wigan too.