I think with Patton now we should remember he's the number 3 halfback. We signed two blue chip NRL halfbacks to be the starters so the debate isn't really about is Patton good enough to be first choice, it's what he offers us as a 3rd halfback.
And on those terms, I'm pretty happy with having Patton there. Look at other teams' rosters and who they would have as their 3rd halfback. Usually it's a young lad who is unproven, or a utility type player or someone they would shove out of position eg a fullback or hooker or loose forward. It's not that common to have a specialist halfback with 100 games experience who is an understudy ready to come in. I'd guess that Patton is better than most team's 3rd halfback option.
Whilst it might be more exciting to have a young unproven lad because then you think, well we might hit the jackpot if this guy turns out to be special, most of the time they turn out to be duds and then you have a guy who is out of his depth and a liability. For me the most important quality of a back up is just to be capable and limit mistakes. He doesn't need to be a game breaker, just don't stink the joint out, and then its important that some other senior player steps up in Widdop's absence and not have us all waiting for Patton to be Widdop.
I might have got frustrated with Patton when thinking about whether he's going to be the long term heir to Briers, because I don't think he offers much of an x factor, but compared to other young halfbacks, he's not BAD, he doesn't stink the joint out.
The ideal 3rd halfback would be someone like Tyrone Roberts. The reason people gave him stick was because he took up a quota spot and was on a big salary and was expected to be a game breaker and he wasn't. But he didn't make many mistakes, he was capable in a conservative game plan, moved the ball around ok, kicked ok (not great). If you said Roberts was English and on a limited salary and would stay around as back up halfback, I would have taken that. Patton is about the same level of player as Roberts so I'll take that.
