Fourth Tackle - Move!

It’s not often I advocate kicking before the fifth tackle, but in a metaphorical grubber after a quartet of challenges, here I am blogging about the Wire’s first four games of 2019 (our year). So far, we’ve seen a marked improvement on the start to the 2018 (our year) season, with Steve Price’s men picking up three wins out of four to kick the campaign off. Here are some early reflections...

First of all, I wouldn’t say we’ve even played that well yet. Other than the first half against Leeds and the first half an hour at Huddersfield, we’ve played some patchy and error-prone stuff. We’ve been pragmatic rather than scintillating so far, and there are clearly concerns over our discipline. Despite this, we comfortably won our first three games and were defeated by a solitary point away to Catalans, always one of the toughest games of the season physically. So things are looking good as the Wire go into a set of fixtures that will go a long way to determining our league fate – next up it’s Castleford, one of two realistic rivals for the top spot, before Wigan, the architects of our 2018 Grand Final defeat. There have been flashes of brilliance in all four games, flashes of what we are capable of, and when we are able to produce that in consistent patches rather than flashes, we will be a phenomenal Super League team. The technical quality is there, as is the heart and desire, the only thing missing from this squad is some fine-tuning, some polish if you like, and more games together to iron out the errors and lack of telepathy that have ensured this has been a good start to the season, rather than a great one.

The Wolves’ season took a massive twist a week before the season began, when it was revealed that vice-captain Kevin Brown would miss the entire 2019 season after suffering an achilles injury in a pre-season friendly against Widnes Vikings. With Brown out of contract at the end of the year and almost certain to leave at the end of the season with Gareth Widdop’s 2020 arrival on the cards, Brown has very likely played his last game for the Wire. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a fan of Brown (though I was wowed by his debut in the World Series in 2017), but this is an absolutely gutting blow to the 34-year old, and I hope his playing career isn’t over. He may not have been the best player we’ve had, but he’s been a great rugby league player and a good ambassador for the sport, too. The job of replacing Brown in the team has fallen to Declan Patton, another player who divides opinion. Working alongside marquee signing Blake Austin, there was always going to be pressure on Patton but with the caveat that there was arguably more pressure on Austin – the Australian is the man charged with dragging Wire to our first ever Super League title. So far, their partnership has gone well, I think. Austin has shown tremendous moments of quality – his tries against Leeds and Huddersfield were all about impudence and individual brilliance – and has also shown a willingness to get involved in the dirty side of the game too. I have been impressed with Patton in the scrum half role next to Austin. While he is a divisive player among Wire fans, his kicking game has been excellent in the last two matches, exemplified perfectly by Ryan Atkins’ tries in the last two matches against Catalans and Huddersfield – almost an identical pair of tries scored by the centre after getting on the end of inch-perfect Patton kicks. Patton looks to be forming a partnership with Atkins and he is being trusted to have some responsibility over the kicking game, which shows the trust the squad and Steve Price have in him. I also enjoyed seeing Declan chase after his own kick in the Catalans game – a move that almost came off. It was nice to see the number fifteen receive Chris Hill’s audacious pass to score his first try of the season at the Stade Gilbert Brutus, too. My only gripe with Patton so far is discipline-based, giving away silly penalties. This is a theme running through the whole squad in the first four games, though Patton is bearing the brunt of fans’ anger on this topic because he gave away a completely needless penalty late on at Catalans which proved to be costly. Fans’ perceptions of things are always going to be affected by results, and that’s why any ill-discipline in the first three games isn’t mentioned, because we managed to win those games regardless.

I now want to talk about Stefan Ratchford. One of the best full backs in the league, and one of the stars of this Warrington side. The former Salford player picked up man of the match in the season opener against Leeds after an all-action performance and has been similarly impressive each week since. His try at Catalans was one of my favourite of the season, getting his side back in the game with a great little dummy and a wide run to cross the line. Currently, he is leading on the You’ve Got a Loose Wire Twitter poll for player of the season so far. There is one problem with Ratchford right now though, and that’s his goal-kicking. This first became a concern to me in the Huddersfield game, when Ratchford missed a number of conversions, some of which should’ve been simple enough. It hit me again after Catalans, when we were involved in our first tight game, a game that was decided by successful goal-kicking. I am concerned that we may suffer when we get to the business end of the season and we’re hopefully fighting for the Challenge Cup and the Super League title if we have such unreliable goal-kicking. Having Tyrone Roberts in the side last year was a nightmare because he was one of the most disappointing, underwhelming and not bothered players I’ve ever seen in my lifetime, but the one thing he did give us was consistent goal-kicking, which was absolutely crucial to the play-off semi final victory over St Helens last year. With Ratchford, it’s pot luck what you’re going to get from his goal-kicking – sometimes superb, sometimes head-scratchingly poor. I do wonder if Price may opt to switch the responsibility to Austin or Patton at some point this season. This won’t be something to consider next season when Widdop is here, but for now we need to ensure that it doesn’t cost us this season, and also it would be unfair on Stefan if his status among Wire fans is knocked because of this.

Thinking about the rest of the back line now, I am a massive fan of both Josh Charnley and Tom Lineham. Charnley is one of the most prolific scorers in the league and scored four times in the first three games, including a glorious long-distance try after intercepting a Hull KR pass in game two. Charnley is key to this team’s success with his pace and finishing ability, so it is crucial that we get the ball out wide to him as much as possible. The former Wigan winger had a poor game at Catalans, though that was partly due to a misfiring partnership with Ryan Atkins, who himself has had an interesting start to the season. Tries against Huddersfield and Catalans from the aforementioned Patton kicks have been overshadowed by frustrating performances filled with errors. Given his experience and the number of big games he has played in for us, I wouldn’t be dropping him yet, but with Mamo, King and Livett all arguably feeling most comfortable in the centre, Atkins needs to improve his performance level. Atkins’ future looks to be elsewhere from the Halliwell Jones, with the signing of Luther Burrell, effective from 1^st July, appearing to be the Wire proactively securing Atkins’ replacement. On the other wing, Tom Lineham has had a few iffy games after a great start to the season, though similarly to Charnley/Goodwin, Lineham’s performance in France was badly affected by a lack of telepathy between himself and his centre, Bryson Goodwin. Goodwin is one of my favourite players though surprisingly is yet to score this season.

My personal player of the season so far has been Daryl Clark. The former Castleford hooker has produced monster performances in the last two games and never lets his side down. His try in France was delightful and came at the right time, and some of his runs from dummy half have been very effective so far this campaign. To his left, prop Mike Cooper has continued his sparkling 2018 form with a great start to 2019, including a try against Hull KR. On Clark’s right, captain Chris Hill has had a mixed start to the season, with injury and ill-discipline being the themes. The prop forward is a Wire legend and is rightly adored by fans, but his performance at Catalans was questionable. As glorious as his reverse pass to Patton was, the number of penalties he gave away in that game was unacceptable. Part of the issue is that we don’t really have many good options at prop, because Joe Philbin hasn’t looked like he’s up to much from his sub appearances so far, and the only other option would be to play Lama Tasi there – something I wouldn’t be against but find unlikely.

The second row is an area of mystery for Steve Price at the minute. This is the only area of the team he’s really switched up so far, although that has largely been down to suspensions. Toby King and Jack Hughes started the season there, and while Hughes has kept his place for all four games, King has been in and out after being handed a one-match suspension following the win over Leeds in game one. Harvey Livett started the Hull KR game in King’s place and took his chance superbly by scoring two tries. It has therefore been surprising to see Livett fail to make the matchday 17 for the last two games. Hughes is a consistent performer but I’m yet to see what King offers in the second row, whereas Livett is a scoring threat and is quicker, too. For me though, our best second rower without doubt is Ben Murdoch-Masila. BMM is easily our strongest player and wins every physical battle he enters. His try away at Huddersfield in game three was a perfect example of that, as was his great running to help set up Patton’s try away at Catalans. A fully fit Ben Murdoch-Masila is one of the best second rowers in the league and needs to be in our team. I hope Price starts to utilise him more, as I think he is a far superior option to King. While I am a big fan of Livett, I think his best role right now would be as a squad option for both the centre and second row positions. Considering Livett and King both see their futures at centre, it will be interesting to see how Steve Price manages this area of the pitch when Ben Currie returns from injury. As well as Currie, Ben Westwood may move to the second row eventually, considering the form of Jason Clark.

Jason Clark is one of six new signings for 2019 and I have been really impressed with him so far. He makes a lot of yardage and occupies good positions in the loose forward role. Steve Price has decisions to make with this role though, with Wire legend Ben Westwood the regular loose forward. Perhaps surprisingly, Price has trusted another new signing with that role in the last two games – Lama Tasi. Tasi was signed from Salford Red Devils in the off-season as a prop or a second row, so it is interesting to see him start as the loose forward. Tasi hasn’t been particularly impressive so far, unlike marquee signing Blake Austin, who has shown us in short bursts why there was such a clamour around signing the stand-off. Austin is already the bookies’ favourite to win the Man of Steel award. One of the more intriguing situations regarding our transfers is that of Jake Mamo, who has only made two short substitute appearances despite scoring a hat trick on debut in a pre-season friendly against Widnes. A versatile player signed from Huddersfield, Mamo can play as a full back, centre or winger, let’s hope we start to see more of him soon. We are yet to see much of Matt Davis or Danny Walker but they are clearly signings with the long-term future in mind.

So, what of the rest of the league? Castleford and St Helens are undoubtedly the ones to watch from our perspective – they are likely to be our two rivals for finishing top of the league, and both boast a 100% record so far. The Tigers have played superbly at times and have a squad full of quality – the likes of Greg Eden, Jake Trueman and Paul McShane are superb players to watch. St Helens have been less impressive and have relied on winning games narrowly on more than one occasion – having to come back from way behind to beat Leeds and winning in the last minute at Wakefield. Wakefield themselves have played some quality stuff at times, defeating Catalans and Leeds with some classy rugby league, and have a prolific scorer in their ranks with Tom Johnstone. Salford have impressed too – with winger Ken Sio looking like being a contender for one of the top scorers this season, and the Red Devils look worlds away from a relegation battle. Meanwhile, there’s been bright sparks from both Hull sides. FC were excellent as they dismantled Huddersfield and they recorded a superb golden point win over Wigan. KR have a strong kicking game which is centred around new signing Josh Drinkwater, a player I’d have loved for us before we signed Widdop for 2020. Huddersfield have been absolutely atrocious so far and look like a side that will be battling relegation, whereas London, who were supposed to be relegation shoe-ins, have impressed greatly, with superb home wins over Wigan and Wakefield so far. Leeds were terrible against us in game one and looked to have improved in their following few fixtures but reverted back to a very poor performance in their home defeat to Wakefield last time out. Then we have defending champions Wigan, who have been a shambles so far, losing to London and Hull, which is delightful to see. Next up we have Castleford – one of our major rivals for the title this season and they have won four out of four so far. Then it is Wigan and an away trip to Wakefield, so the next three games will be big tests of the Wire.

So, to summarise. I’m happy so far. Genuinely happy. We are nowhere near our best and yet we should’ve won our first four games – three of which we’ve won very comfortably. When we click, we will take a lot of stopping this season. Perhaps the will to win and ability to dig deep when the performance level isn’t quite there – shown in the wins over Hull KR and Huddersfield, and even in the Catalans defeat – will be valuable skills when it comes down to the playoffs (assuming we get there). We just need to sort out our discipline now, the performance level will come with time. What are the hopes for this season? Finish top of the league, win the Grand Final and give the Challenge Cup a good go too.

It’s always our year.

Daniel