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Club Owner | 4269 | Warrington Wolves |
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Apr 2004 | 21 years | |
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| Quote Barbed Wire="Barbed Wire"Is Ashton safer at kick retrieval? Or positionally? I honestly don’t. His kick retrieval isn’t the best, and Ratchford appears far better at communicating with his defensive line. Support play is great, and like I’ve already said the new coach may prioritise this skill over other, but for our current coach and his current system, he can’t do what is required.
Ashton’s chance will come, but I don’t think it’s now. He can’t play the role that the coach wants from his fullback. While his pace is useful, he can do that from a wing. Lineham, who is dreadfully slow, gets plenty of chances in the corner. And, especially in the Leigh game, we went to the left early and found Widdop and King in a bit of room, he could turn those into points from the wing while he develops his craft.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Ashton. He’s exciting, and that’s why we buy our season tickets, to be excited and entertained. But the coach wants the pivot option. And it works, see Lineham’s try reel.
Re: Ratchford exploiting gaps, while they are getting rarer he has shown the ability to break the line and get into the backfield over a long period. Magic weekend at Newcastle, the tip ons from Currie on the penalty tap, when we do get quick play the balls and he’s in at dummy half he can get in behind. The issue is, we don’t get quick play the balls.
Our pack is a 3 man job, Clark, Hill and Cooper. Philbin can be effective off the bench, but the rest are wet mattresses. Currie is a luxury back rower, doesn’t make a lot of meters and doesn’t knock anyone over. What he brings is the pass/kick threat which creates space outside of him. Hughes, well, is an enigma in attack. I don’t know what he contributes going forward. And the revolving door of J Clark, Davis, Sita etc whoever make up the numbers are really just there to hold the scrum up.
While we complain about props, and I am in that camp, you can get away with it if you have proper back row forwards who carry the ball. If we had Westwood and L Anderson/Waterhouse in the back row, who carried the ball 20 times a game and made meters while HITTING people, bending the defensive line and getting quick play the balls, you could justify having Ratchford at loose and Ashton at fullback. Nimble players to take advantage of half breaks and defenders that aren’t set. But with people who are carrying the ball slowly, getting knocked backwards and playing it slowly, you could have the fastest man in the world on your team, but he won’t have any breaks to support.'"
Can you take over from Briers please
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Club Captain | 57 | No Team Selected |
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Mar 2017 | 8 years | |
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| Yes top post
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Player Coach | 17476 | Warrington Wolves |
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Mar 2008 | 17 years | |
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| Last season Wire relented to fans pressure and played Ashton, he had an absolute mare and lost his starting spot as quick as he got it.
IMO Ashton plays when we can’t play with the first choice. The lad is fast and reads attack well, but that seems as much as he’s grasped currently, but he did show some improvement on defence vs Swinton.
So Ashton would go straight in for Lineham for me, as Mamo is required on the right centre, otherwise I’d have Mamo ahead of Ashton.
I would not weaken the combined weight of the pack and interchanges by having Ashton take up a bench spot. He either plays a like for like starting position or he plays in the reserves.
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International Star | 3953 | Warrington Wolves |
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Nov 2013 | 12 years | |
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| To be fair to Ashton he exceeded expectations last season and was unfortunate to pick up a long term injury. I do agree he isn't first choice at the minute regarding full back but he has potentially got 3 games to make it very difficult for Lineham to get his place back. I hope he takes his chance. I do think he is a problem that Darryl Powell would rather have than not, he offers us something different that can't be a lot of teams won't be able to defend against against without positioning a defender deep which opens other doors for our (cough) attack.
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Club Captain | 1098 | No Team Selected |
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Dec 2020 | 5 years | |
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| He did NOT have an absolute mare in the Salford semi final. He made one mistake and on that one incident far too many fans are hanging him out to dry. There are always calls for our young players to be given a chance. With our fans, I'd be reluctant as a coach as every single mistake gets magnified beyond reason.
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International Star | 37298 | No Team Selected |
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| Quote rubber duckie="rubber duckie"Last season Wire relented to fans pressure and played Ashton, he had an absolute mare and lost his starting spot as quick as he got it.
IMO Ashton plays when we can’t play with the first choice. The lad is fast and reads attack well, but that seems as much as he’s grasped currently, but he did show some improvement on defence vs Swinton.
So Ashton would go straight in for Lineham for me, as Mamo is required on the right centre, otherwise I’d have Mamo ahead of Ashton.
I would not weaken the combined weight of the pack and interchanges by having Ashton take up a bench spot. He either plays a like for like starting position or he plays in the reserves.'"
There is NO reserve team this season.
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Player Coach | 3153 | Warrington Wolves |
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Jul 2010 | 15 years | |
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| Quote Douglas Black="Douglas Black"He did NOT have an absolute mare in the Salford semi final. He made one mistake and on that one incident far too many fans are hanging him out to dry. There are always calls for our young players to be given a chance. With our fans, I'd be reluctant as a coach as every single mistake gets magnified beyond reason.'"
It was the wettest day for years (probably since records began). Any full back can make a mistake in such conditions. Bevan French playing for Wigan on the same day (who is a super player) did have a bit of a mare v. Leeds.
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Club Captain | 1098 | No Team Selected |
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| Coote in 2019 Challenge Cup Final is another example.
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Player Coach | 17476 | Warrington Wolves |
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| Quote Douglas Black="Douglas Black"Coote in 2019 Challenge Cup Final is another example.'"
No at all. It was a gorgeous day, Coote had a mare because he wasn’t match fit.
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Club Captain | 534 | No Team Selected |
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Jul 2019 | 6 years | |
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| From 2022 under Powell, I think the fullback position will be up for grabs between Ashton and Ratchford. For now, I would let Ratchford continue as he is at full back unless he has a serious dip in form. Under a new coach with his own team and own ideas there will be a lot of tough decisions to be made on & off the field.
Especially, when you consider the amount of players out of contract at the end of the year and linked to the NRL (Clark/Widdop).. We could see a serious overhaul of players and staff, which I would actually welcome to be honest.. the team seems very stale at the minute & has been for the last 18 months or so.
We need change.
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Player Coach | 9979 | No Team Selected |
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Apr 2010 | 15 years | |
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| Quote Barbed Wire="Barbed Wire"Is Ashton safer at kick retrieval? Or positionally? I honestly don’t. His kick retrieval isn’t the best, and Ratchford appears far better at communicating with his defensive line. Support play is great, and like I’ve already said the new coach may prioritise this skill over other, but for our current coach and his current system, he can’t do what is required.
Ashton’s chance will come, but I don’t think it’s now. He can’t play the role that the coach wants from his fullback. While his pace is useful, he can do that from a wing. Lineham, who is dreadfully slow, gets plenty of chances in the corner. And, especially in the Leigh game, we went to the left early and found Widdop and King in a bit of room, he could turn those into points from the wing while he develops his craft.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Ashton. He’s exciting, and that’s why we buy our season tickets, to be excited and entertained. But the coach wants the pivot option. And it works, see Lineham’s try reel.
Re: Ratchford exploiting gaps, while they are getting rarer he has shown the ability to break the line and get into the backfield over a long period. Magic weekend at Newcastle, the tip ons from Currie on the penalty tap, when we do get quick play the balls and he’s in at dummy half he can get in behind. The issue is, we don’t get quick play the balls.
Our pack is a 3 man job, Clark, Hill and Cooper. Philbin can be effective off the bench, but the rest are wet mattresses. Currie is a luxury back rower, doesn’t make a lot of meters and doesn’t knock anyone over. What he brings is the pass/kick threat which creates space outside of him. Hughes, well, is an enigma in attack. I don’t know what he contributes going forward. And the revolving door of J Clark, Davis, Sita etc whoever make up the numbers are really just there to hold the scrum up.
While we complain about props, and I am in that camp, you can get away with it if you have proper back row forwards who carry the ball. If we had Westwood and L Anderson/Waterhouse in the back row, who carried the ball 20 times a game and made meters while HITTING people, bending the defensive line and getting quick play the balls, you could justify having Ratchford at loose and Ashton at fullback. Nimble players to take advantage of half breaks and defenders that aren’t set. But with people who are carrying the ball slowly, getting knocked backwards and playing it slowly, you could have the fastest man in the world on your team, but he won’t have any breaks to support.'"
Ashton, for me, is not big enough to be on the wing neither is he a pure finisher. He'd just get bundled into touch all the time similar to Kevin Penny.
Looking at the stats per game at fullback for Ashton and Ratchford, Ashton makes more meters, takes more carries, makes more average gain and scores more tries.
Obviously there are no stats for positional awareness or communication however again, I think you're overrating Ratchford's ability to be a third pivot. I've seen him throw many passes into touch.
The one thing this team badly lacks is genuine pace. Charnley has lost his, Lineham isn't as fast as he once was, the same with Currie. We literally only have Ashton and Mamo who give us raw speed and that many defenders wouldn't be able to catch and both seldom ever play. You compare that to Wigan and Saints and the likes of French, Grace, Makinson, Manfriedi, Gildart, Marshall. Our backs literally have no pace.
If you were to put both players (at the same age) with the same attributes they have now into the NRL and made each side pick I would be confident that every NRL side would chose Ashton.
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Player Coach | 5606 | Warrington Wolves |
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Apr 2006 | 19 years | |
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| I think if we had more attacking ,running threats in the opposition 20 , the lack of pace would not be a problem. We need to be slicker at creating gaps instead of relying on kicks to the corner which make life difficult for the goal kicker.
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