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
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!
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.
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!
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...
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...
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.
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.
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.