Refund? : Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:15 am  

How much did we pay you for Ryan Atkins and is there any chance of a refund?

Only joking about the refund

Re: Refund? : Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:19 am  

Not many Wakey fans were sad to see him go, and us pretending that we still wanted to retain his services to increase the price was probably the best bit of business we've done for a while.

A quick and strong player but no rugby brain. The best example I can think of was last year at Quins (or was it the year before?). One man to beat, open line, the tackler three yards from the line. A run to either side or a dive to the floor would have done the trick. Atkins? No, run straight into the player was the preferred option.

Potential that never developed. Matt King is going to get cold hands this year.

Re: Refund? : Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:26 am  

I wonder how much longer it will be before Smith moves him to the position he is more naturally suited for, the second-row?

Re: Refund? : Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:28 am  

Rumour has it he passed the ball for the 1st time on Sunday, and the winger scored from it. Happy days.

Re: Refund? : Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:31 am  

Had a bad game at Huddersfield at the weekend by all accounts, our other three games he has been steady but not spectacular.

Im just wondering whether there is more to come and what we should be expecting from him.

Re: Refund? : Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:34 am  

Dion The Donkey wrote:

Had a bad game at Huddersfield at the weekend by all accounts, our other three games he has been steady but not spectacular.

Im just wondering whether there is more to come and what we should be expecting from him.

He has the potential, it's just whether he wants to live up to it, or believes he is a 'star' already. Same with many in the past!

Re: Refund? : Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:47 am  

Dion The Donkey wrote:

Im just wondering whether there is more to come and what we should be expecting from him.

What you've seen so far is all you're going to get, I'm afraid.

Re: Refund? : Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:32 am  

Ryan’s a good player!

With a mid-table side, he's an invaluable asset who knows where the line is and scores tries against the best teams in tough encounters. However if Warrington were looking for the next Jamie Lyon or Matt Gidley then they bought the wrong player.

That's not to say that Ryan is a waste of money, he'll be a good player for Warrington just perhaps not the player they thought they were buying, however, in fairness to Ryan and Warrington, he was the best option on the market, without going to Australia again.

His assets are, he has good speed, extremely strong, dedicated, loyal, he knows where the try line is and he is fearless in the collision.

What he lacks are the subtle, finer skills of centre play, his footwork is ok but not great, as a result, he finds it difficult to position his winger or to manipulate the defence ahead of him to create space.
This means that the final pass, often isn't on, and a try scoring opportunity goes begging, over a number of seasons this has become a psychological problem, as well as a skills and ability issue.

Ryan knows it is a problem, I have no doubt his coaches tell him needs to work on it, he will be aware of the criticism from fans, and he'll also be aware of the number of times, his winger throws his hands up in the air in despair. Sometimes in trying too hard he's pushed the pass and made a complete Horlicks of it so the next time he ignores the opportunity altogether, and round and round we go!

He's now either incapable of executing the pass or recognising when to pass/when to stick or more likely a little bit of both.

I think this is a result of poor coaching when Ryan was a junior and despite having good coaches, whilst at Wakefield, he's failed to progress to any degree.

The longer this persists that harder Ryan will find it to acquire those skills, it may be too late already.

[PopTart]

Re: Refund? : Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:36 am  

The Clan wrote:

Ryan’s a good player!

With a mid-table side, he's an invaluable asset who knows where the line is and scores tries against the best teams in tough encounters. However if Warrington were looking for the next Jamie Lyon or Matt Gidley then they bought the wrong player.

That's not to say that Ryan is a waste of money, he'll be a good player for Warrington just perhaps not the player they thought they were buying, however, in fairness to Ryan and Warrington, he was the best option on the market, without going to Australia again.

His assets are, he has good speed, extremely strong, dedicated, loyal, he knows where the try line is and he is fearless in the collision.

What he lacks are the subtle, finer skills of centre play, his footwork is ok but not great. As a result, he finds it difficult to position his winger or to manipulate the defence ahead of him to create space.
This means that the final pass, often isn't on, and a try scoring opportunity goes begging.

I think this is a result of poor coaching hen Ryan was a junior and despite having good coaches, whilst at Wakefield, he's failed to progress to any degree.

The longer this persists that harder Ryan will find it to acquire those skills, it may be too late already.

Accurate assessment

Re: Refund? : Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:40 am  

PopTart wrote:

Accurate assessment

But doesn't the assessment proffered mean that he isn't a "good" player (I agree broadly with it, and the poster has more on-field expertise than me - mind you, so does my cat)? If he can't put the winger in, he's not a good centre, and he doesn't make breaks like JD used to do when he was last in that position.