Re: Kevin Brown : Wed Nov 30, 2016 6:45 pm  

I'm not running round overjoyed but he is a decent player with a good kicking game. Strange that we are in for him and weirder that apparently he approached us. He'll do a decent job and patton can learn off him so i'm not amazed but not gonna cry about it. And it could literally be a case of he's the best of who is availble to sign. But the supposed 100k for him is a bit much but we may still have a good chunk of money left over incase another player in a different position becomes available, still would have just rather of signed Jorge Taufua and let Patton do a job for the season........Strange times my friends.

Re: Kevin Brown : Wed Nov 30, 2016 7:40 pm  

Brown is a great signing for me as its ok saying we don't need a half back, get a full back ect ect. I bet if you look back over last season and say that Gidley and Sandow were our first choice how many games did they play together ? Leaving just Patten and Gidley would mean switching players around and out of position again. Yes sign Cronk, Thurston, Johnson, but I don't see any of those knocking on the door asking to play for us. He is a creative player, a leader on the field, a talker and a thinker and comes across as a player who will help develop the likes of Patten and Smith.

Re: Kevin Brown : Wed Nov 30, 2016 7:50 pm  

I think we have an ideal member of the coaching staff to bring our half backs along in Lee Briers & i think it is a crying sin if Patton is consigned to being a bit part player again. He has done nothing wrong all season & at least he scored in the GF. We will finish up with another disillusioned young player in the quest to make it our year.

Re: Kevin Brown : Wed Nov 30, 2016 7:58 pm  

Winslade's Offload wrote:

TS said that he was not that bothered about Sandow leaving, but he was about the timing. So the club has had little time to sort out a replacement and we might end up with Kevin Brown. Opinion seems to be divided about his strengths, but at 32 he is only going to be here for another 2 years max, hence we are only looking at a stop gap - which ought to soothe the nerves of anyone worried about the long term prospects of the club, not to mention the prospects for the younger player coming through. If the figure of £100k is correct, then Widnes have got the bargain of the century for a player at the end of his career. Having said that, we can easily afford it after all the money we will have raked in last year.

It's still all speculation at the moment anyway, but is this really a 'big deal' ?

Winslade you have brought rationale and reason to the debate.

Warrington's hands were tied, up until last week Sandow was coming back and your half backs were sorted(ish) but he has dropped you in the preverbial and you had to act fast. Personally i don't think it is a very good signing (from a Wigan point of view) but who else could you have got?

Williams, Gale and other top sides' halfs are pretty much off limits this time of the season so although overpriced he is probably the best you could have got. I think Soward for 1 season would have been a better option though if he would have considered it. Gives you a full season to look for a replacement. Could have even gone down the route of taking an NRL rookie on loan for a season. The Roosters and Broncos lads seemed to do very well in recent WCC games.

Re: Kevin Brown : Wed Nov 30, 2016 8:06 pm  

theadore wrote:

Diabolical signing if it comes off... Either Patton is good enough or he isn't, but he showed enough lady year that "not ready" is definitely of the table.

I struggle to see what brown adds in the short term that we don't already have in the squad, and he won't be cheap or hapoy as a squad player.

Short sighted and just plain wrong

I know it was a typo but i couldn't help but say that in a Brummie accent and i still came up with what you meant

Re: Kevin Brown : Wed Nov 30, 2016 8:19 pm  

Re: Kevin Brown : Wed Nov 30, 2016 8:44 pm  

Lol. I'm hapoy too

Re: Kevin Brown : Wed Nov 30, 2016 9:11 pm  

Well if true he's only got play 3-4 good games then he'd have matched Sandow's last seasons performances.Agree with some on here that this smacks of a desperate signing but having said that the club I'd guess have had to act quickly + being a man who likes the odd bet I'd put him up as being better than a lot of signings we've had in the last few years.Only time will tell.

Re: Kevin Brown : Wed Nov 30, 2016 9:59 pm  

This idea that if we sign someone it consigns Patten to the bin is a fallacy in my view. Look how often our halfbacks were injured last season. This season we will start without Ratchford and Patten, a bit of depth will do us no harm whatsoever.

Re: Kevin Brown : Wed Nov 30, 2016 10:39 pm  

I find the negativity about Brown amusing.
Widnes were top at the start of last season with him and Mellor then injuries got in the way.
Apart from relying on Dec and Gidley with occasional smatterings of Ratch and Smith no-one has suggested a viable (and available) alternative.
Who else from SL ? - given Williams is tied to the goons in 2017.
And a dependable half from NRL? Barba? Carney?

I don't think it's a slap in the face to Dec either. I can easily see him playing half the games in 2017. Given he has an injury - as does Ratch - we'd be short in numbers at the start of the season.
I've no doubt he will develop and has a great long term future at Wire.

100k? Maybe a bit steep but supply and demand.

It does make me seriously question what Widnes have planned without Brown.

Everyone seems to think it's a cert. If it isn't we could see Westerman or Penny in the halves. ??!!