Irish Wire wrote:
I have it from someone close to Patton that he did not see eye to eye with Tony Smith because of restrictions placed on his playing style.
After the Broncos game Smith made certain comments to Patton but was given Patton's view in no uncertain terms.
Personally I think we will see a big year from Patton under a new coach.
Well, there's two schools of thought on that situation...
I don't like the fact that Smith allegedly didn't seek to maximise the use of Patton's strengths (Daryl Powell seems to be a master at that tactic) as we needed some off-the-cuff stuff to balance the predictable structured play of Gidley and Brown. On the other hand, I don't want to see players believing they can dictate play against a game plan from the boss.
I think Smith's style is probably to knock slightly cocky players into place with a period in the reserves to teach them a lesson. The problem is that the likes of Patton and Savelio (also rumoured to have fallen out) are young and therefore passionate and want to be heard. A good leader should be able to bring them into line without losing their respect, and that requires good communication. At the same time a good leader would also listen and empathise with the opinions of their subservients to make the most of the resources at hand - last season we saw moments of brilliance from Patton as he has a good long kicking game and some quirky tricks in his bag with his short kicking game (see Atkins try record and the reverse kicks for Brown) and he's also a good support player.
I can only imagine he wanted more freedom to run things as maybe that's what he was used to in the academy and reserves. As much as I like Gidley and his calming influence, he was no midfield general and that is exactly what we need.
Price has stated that Patton is part of his plans and I guess we may see more responsibility to run show placed on him in games this season. Cocky players tend to rise to the occasion under pressure - think Goulding, Long, Briers, Gale et al as opposed to Leuluai, Gidley, Brown etc.
