Whilst certainly not disagreeing with the point that we need better props, I think the issue is a bit deeper than just that. We don't seem to deploy dummy runners and variation on our passing anywhere near as much as other, more successful teams do. This has been an issue for the last 3/4 seasons. It's just a case of the 1st receiver passing to whichever big bloke runs in to take the carry. It's predictable and easy to defend against. There's no guile to cast doubt into the minds of the defence.
Warrington have players like Briers, Ratchford, Myler, Monaghan, Hodgson who, although they do it different ways, each can make a defence hold back, wondering what they're going to do.
wi*an do it a bit differently, more structured. But very effectively - they deploy quick and often short passing from the first carrier to a second, and even repeat that. Defences get sucked into tackling the first carrier, which creates space outside/inside them for the next receiver to exploit. Thinking about it, this looks much like Jammer used to do - attracting 2/3 defenders to him then popping the ball up just before the moment of impact.
We've had successive coaches who've orchestrated our gameplay on far too simple a basis. Potter was woeful in offence, with a safety-first approach. Simmons was admittedly hamstrung by a team in the midst of transition and at least seemed more attack-minded. Rush was too inexperienced and just fell back into 'keep it simple' tried & tested tactics. Dunno what Brown is doing on the training pitch to remedy the mindset which has built up over several seasons, but it's not seeming to make much improvement and we're as one-dimensional as ever. In his defence, he's having to work with extremely limited resources in terms of creative players and effective props.
So, in summary, there are three areas we need to address:
1) Props - get rid of Perry & Laffranchi and sign a genuinely top class prop to complement Walmsley & LMS (Clough & Thompson to back-up). If TP goes, sign another similar-type prop also. That frees up one big salary.
2) Half-backs. Walsh will go a long way toward sorting this, but we need to resolve the No6 issue. If Walsh is an organising ballplayer, the choice is whether to have another pivot to share the load, or a running stand off. If Wilkin plays 13, he can be a second pivot. Sort of.
3) Gameplay. We need to mix it up much more than we do. As I've said, we lack deployment of dummy runners and variability of passing. But that's not the only problem that causes us to be predictable. We've used Manu well in the left channel only fleetingly, too often using him through the middle. And who do we have doing a similar job on the right? We all remember when the rot started to set in at Saints, when we only had one strike centre to we predictably always went that way when we spread the ball, so opposing teams knew to stack that side's defence. We need balance to give us the sort of unpredictability that served us so well in the not so distant past.
