Now that the dust has settled on Warrington's 2020 season, it is time to properly and fairly assess the squad.
After every Warrington match this season, I have awarded each player a rating out of ten for their performance in the game. I have compiled every mark from all 20 matches of Wire's 2020 and from this, calculated each player's average match rating. From this, we can then order the squad from top to bottom based on the average match rating. Why is this a good metric to use? Because it's holistic - it takes into account the whole of the season and removes any chance of recency bias or false memory. It is accessible for all players - it doesn't rank players on tries, assists, tackles, metres or goals, all of which are heavily weighted in favour of certain positions. Unlike those, it follows the same criteria for everyone - how good was your performance in that game? Furthermore, it means that those who have missed matches due to injuries or selection are not at a disadvantage, because the average mark is calculated on the number of games they have played. Having said that, in the interests of fairness, I have not included any player who has made less than three appearances (Josh Thewlis, Eribe Doro, Riley Dean, Samy Kibula, Ellis Longstaff, Nathan Roebuck, Connor Wrench, Kyle Shelford). So, let's get underway...
0 starts, 5 sub appearances, 0 tries.
Finishing in last place in the countdown, perhaps unsurprisingly, is Luther Burrell, who only made five appearances, in the first five matches of the season, and then was never seen again. Bringing him in from rugby union was an experiment, an expensive one, which failed miserably. He never looked like getting to grips with league and off-field issues didn't help either. It was no surprise to see him leave the club mid-season and return to union.
Next up is young Keanan Brand, who made three appearances at centre this season after signing from Widnes Vikings. His debut was a disaster at Headingley, but recovered well the next week against Castleford, though was lucky not to be sin-binned as the Tigers scored their try. It would be good to see more of him next year to properly assess what kind of a player he really is.
1 start, 8 sub appearances, 1 try.
Now we move onto Sitaleki Akauola, who only made nine appearances this year. It looks for all money that this will be his last season at the club after falling out of favour. The player's stamina and influence on matches has lessened once again this year and with his size and strength, should be far more dangerous of an asset. The main thing I remember about him this season is bombing an absolute certain try against St Helens in the second match.
The mysterious Murdoch-Masila is next. With all five of his best performances (8/10) coming prior to the announcement of his NRL contract from 2021 and only getting above a five twice after that, it's clear what's going on here. He started the season on fire, earned his contract with New Zealand Warriors and then downed tools for the rest of the year. What I will say though, is that the coach's use of him has once again been completely wrong - his best form for Wire at the start of the season came when starting in the second row, yet Price insisted on using him as a battering ram from the bench, removing his pace and threat on the edges. What a shame. I won't miss the player but that's largely to do with the way he was used.
The most underwhelming of Wire's 2020 signing was undoubtedly Leilani Latu. The prop was signed from Gold Coast Titans and struggled to even make the matchday squad at first, before finally being included in September against Hull. He got a try on debut and put in a solid showing, though failed to impress in his two subsequent appearances. A player who only played when we were down to the bare bones, I'll be staggered if we see him in a Wire shirt again.
I have said a few times that I would like to see more of Luis Johnson. Wire paid a handsome sum for the forward in 2018 but we are yet to see him used on a consistent basis, despite putting in some decent showings in the rare opportunities he has been given. He had a very good game in the defeat of Hull in September and I am surprised that the likes of Latu and Akauola, who clearly have no future at the club, were chosen ahead of him at times.
This is a sad one. I have been a big fan of Hughes during his time at the club. He has always been a consistent and hard-working player. However, it has become more and more clear that the injuries have taken a huge toll on him. Hughes missed the first seven games of the season and upon returning, has not seemed the same defensively or offensively and his awful individual performance in the playoff exit was a real low point.
Gelling is everything I expected him to be. Consistently inconsistent. You really do never know what you're going to get from him and that's reflected in his ratings this season: 5, 7, 7, 7, 6, 9, 8, 3, 8, 3, 4, 7. He's a real powerhouse in front of the tryline and has proven very difficult for opposition defences to stop - shown by his seven tries - but he is a player who makes a lot of errors, which often prove to be costly. I wouldn't mind keeping him as a backup, but he isn't good enough to start.
After being a permanent fixture in the team last season, Patton became a backup this year and was limited to just four appearances. To his credit, he came up with some good plays in them, particularly the game-winning pass against Castleford. With his contract up, it's unlikely he'll play for the club again, but at least the feeling towards him is a little less sour than it was in 2019.
Now we come to the industrious and hard-working Matt Davis. The Londoner signed a new contract with Wire this season despite rumours about his future. He has always done reasonably well when coming off the bench and brings plenty of pace and energy, though he doesn't quite have the size to be a prop, I'd like to see him tried as an interchange hooker.
It's a bit of a surprise to see Charnley, who finished 6th in last year's countdown, all the way down here. He has only crossed for six scores all season, a very low number for such a good winger. It should be mentioned though that he has suffered from Warrington's lack of attacking structure, with the wingers hardly ever being presented with opportunities. There have been occasional lapses in defence in Charnley's game, most notably at Leeds and in the playoff exit to Hull, but his yardage and carries can never be faulted. I hope he's given more service next year.
I feel like Joe Philbin has stagnated a bit this year. Last year he was outstanding and finished third in the countdown, and so I was hoping that this year he would make the step up from interchange prop to a starter, but this has not happened. He has only started four games - three in place of Chris Hill when he was suspended and one in the playoff defeat Hull in place of the injured Mike Cooper. He hasn't quite had the impact or go-forward from the bench this year and as he turns 26, it's getting to the stage where he needs to be moving into the starting team soon.
We move onto Danny Walker, who benefits from never scoring particularly lowly in the player ratings - he doesn't have any matches that badly drag his average down. There have been times when I've been impressed with Walker this season as he has deputised for or replaced Daryl Clark. His energy and pace of distribution has always been good, however at times his decision making hasn't been great at key moments. I need to see more before I am fully convinced that he is good enough.
Blake Austin was last year's runner-up but fails to make the top ten this time around, with a string of below-par performances costing his average score dearly. At times, Austin has been scintillating, the hat-trick against Wakefield and the double away at Hull springing straight to mind. However, in too many big games Austin simply hasn't shown up - the two Wigan losses, the cup semi-final, the playoff exit. Austin's biggest weakness is his inconsistency in performance and he has shown himself to be a bit of a flat-track bully - a player who will dominate against low-standard opposition but doesn't have the killer moments against better teams.
The co-captain's season started in nightmare fashion with a straight red card early in the opening game of the season away at Wigan. Since then though, he has shown his worth and has enjoyed a largely good season in terms of yardage, discipline and performance. There are still question marks over his captaincy, with vital mistakes coming at important moments, but I feel that if we had another prop, we'd get a lot better out of Hill as he wouldn't be tasked with so many minutes.
Just missing out on a place in the top ten is Jason Clark, who has shown us at times why there was such excitement around his capture at the start of last year. He is rarely put to ground and hardly ever makes errors. My question marks around him revolve around whether his contribution justifies being one of our highest earners though. He's not a bad player by any means but he rarely has a telling impact on matches, I feel.
Our first entrant in the top ten is Jake Mamo. The Australian didn't make his first appearance until round three and then wasn't seen until restart, where he came into really good form playing at both centre and on the wing. He bagged a brace of tries in the home win over Hull and impressed fans with his energy, quality and work-rate. Mamo is a very useful player to have as he can cover full-back, wing and centre, though would we ever want him starting there for a long period?
Widdop certainly hasn't been quite the signing we expected or hoped for. He hasn't had the game-changing impact on the squad that was expected of him, and he has found it hard to establish a successful partnership with Blake Austin in the halves. However, he hasn't been nearly as bad as some fans have made out. He's had very few genuinely poor games, but quite a lot of middling performances. When he's done well though, opposition have found it very difficult to deal with him and his passing. His short kicking near the line has been largely decent and his intelligence and quick thinking has caused problems for opposition on a number of occasions. I've also been impressed with how good and hard-working he is defensively. Not as good as I'd have hoped for, but still pretty decent. Certainly the better of our two halves.
Young Ellis Robson came into the team in September out of nowhere and immediately impressed. His go-forward and work-rate has been good in all four of his appearances and it's good news that he has reconsidered his future and is now staying at Warrington after previously signing for Ottawa Aces.
Now we come to a really intriguing one. Lineham was having arguably his best season to date at Wire, notching up seven tries and was at the time the club's top scorer for 2020. The winger had dramatically improved his defence as well, and was benefitting from Wire's new-found ability to attack from deep. However, it all went wrong in September when he was banned for eight games for a terrible offence during the win over Castleford. There is no doubt that Wire missed him in both attack and defence, so let's hope we see him back on the wing next season.
After a very difficult return from injury last season, Currie has been back to somewhere near his best this season. He has offered so much more in attack, running the lines well and contributing to a number of tries. Currie has also been very good in defence and is Warrington's top tackler for the 2020 season. He has only missed one game in league and cup all year. An absolute stinker to finish the season for Currie was his worst game of the year, but this shouldn't detract from a much-improved campaign for the second rower.
The top five! For me, Toby King has been the best centre in all of Super League this year. He has improved like I could never have imagined and cemented himself as one of the first names on the teamsheet, missing just one game all season. Three tries might not sound the most impressive return, but consider that King has registered 11 assists and is Wire's top assister for the year. His defence has improved dramatically too, and has become one of the most influential players in the team. An excellent season.
What a find this boy has been. No-one would've expected that signing a youngster from the Championship would be our top scorer in his debut year. Ashton was one player who benefitted from the lockdown as it enabled him to recover from his lengthy injury. His pace is searing but what has impressed me most is his decision-making and knowledge of when to join the line. He has looked SO threatening at full-back and is capable of finishing off attacks down the middle. However, he needs to properly learn the positional side of a full-back's game. I really hope that we persevere with him at full-back because I think he could be an absolute star in the making there - he won't have enough chances to influence the game on the wing.
Last year's winner Daryl Clark comes home in third position after another very good season at number nine. Defensively he has been as good as ever and while he hasn't quite hit the heights in attack, he has still been very consistent through the course of the season. Clark is probably the closest thing Wire have to an NRL-standard player. It has been noticeable that Clark hasn't quite been at his sparkling best for much of the campaign yet still makes the top three - an indicator of just how good he is.
This year's runner-up is Stefan Ratchford. The Englishman started the season at stand-off, before moving back to full-back, then had a game at centre before coming back to full-back for a while, then being moved to loose forward and finishing the season in his traditional spot at full-back. It is testament to what a quality rugby league player he is that he is capable of playing in all these positions to such a high and reliable level. Ratchford has managed to cut out the errors that blighted his 2019 season and he has been incredibly consistent all year. He's unfortunate that Bevan French plays in his position because on the merit of his own performances this season, he deserves a spot in the dream team. Granted, his stats aren't brilliant in terms of tries and assists, but he contributes so much to the structure of the attack and is excellent defensively too.
Which means that Warrington's player of the season is of course Mike Cooper. The prop forward has been absolutely incredible this season and has given Wire his best season to date. He may be well into his thirties, but he still has so much to give and this year has shown that. His performance level has been extremely high with his monstrous yardage carries, his defensive efforts and the offloads that have become a huge part of his - and Wire's - game. It was clear how important he is to the team from how much the forward pack got rolled over in the playoff loss to Hull FC, which Cooper was absent for. The number ten has completed eighty minutes on three occasions - a remarkable feat for a prop. More often than not, he has been the leader of the forward pack. He doesn't get the credit he deserves and is still waiting for international recognition but it is clear to most Warrington fans that Mike Cooper has been the club's player of the season in 2020.
@ALooseWire
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