morleys_deckchair wrote:
Towards the back end of the season, everyone knew they just closed him down, as we didn't really have any other plays.
And herein lay the problem. The first part of the season we had D Clark, Austin and Ratchford all offering an attacking threat, together with the cross field kick to Toby King, and we were 12 wins from 15. Without Ratchford we were at 50% win rate and once Austin was out or playing on one leg we were woeful save for the cup games. Coaches studied Austin and were more effective at shutting him down and Patton offered very little.
Price just didn't have a plan B.
A creative spine of 9, (13), 6, 7 & 1 is required. In the modern game Loose Forward is increasingly becoming a third Prop, which is fine, but we had a 7 who is not Super League standard and either J Clark or Davis at 13 a lot of the time, neither of whom can be considered a Prop.
Widdop plugs one hole but we are still light in the Prop Dept.
