karetaker wrote:I hope Hayes is pushing Drinkwater hard for his spot.
SB discussed this tonight at the fans forum, he said they would be working on playing a style of rugby that allows JD to play his best rugby and said he has been excellent on the training pitch but also bigged up LH and his qualities.
Wires71 wrote:Re Worries : Mine are mainly that Drinkwater will continue where he left off - that being having 3/4 season of having very little positive impact on games. Another worry is the fragility of the players confidence/egos when under duress.
Re: fullback. Leeds won the title in 2017 with Jack Walker at full back, Wigan won in 2016 with Dan Sarginson. I don't think Dufty will be the reason we lose a GF if we get there but he may be the reason we win one.
Re : "Challenging in at least one final" - Personally I am only interested in one final, the GF.
Drinkwater is Out-Of-Contract at the end of 2024, so I expect that he will playing for us to offer him a new deal and show us what we could have had for the past 2 seasons.
Even if he does show a massive improvement in form AND effort, it won`t continue into 2025 onwards.
Joined: Jun 25 2006 Posts: 14100 Location: Forum21
Boss Hog wrote:Drinkwater is Out-Of-Contract at the end of 2024, so I expect that he will playing for us to offer him a new deal and show us what we could have had for the past 2 seasons.
Even if he does show a massive improvement in form AND effort, it won`t continue into 2025 onwards.
Hope he leaves at the end of the season.
Philbin is up end of 2024 too. I look forward to seeing him exhibit his 2019 form and winning an extension. I think SB will get a lot out of him.
Joined: Feb 10 2012 Posts: 6036 Location: Stuck in 1982
Wires71 wrote:Philbin is up end of 2024 too. I look forward to seeing him exhibit his 2019 form and winning an extension. I think SB will get a lot out of him.
I agree as I thought ended last season coming back on decent form. IF he stays injury free I think that Sam could fine tune Philbin to his early career form and hopefully reach his potential.
In what might be considered a lean year or two he didn't lack application IMO but needed to be less predictable and discover a bit of self belief (all not helped by injury)
Joined: Jun 25 2006 Posts: 14100 Location: Forum21
Uncle Rico wrote: In what might be considered a lean year or two he didn't lack application IMO but needed to be less predictable and discover a bit of self belief (all not helped by injury)
Yeah I have never doubted his commitment at all, and he was becoming more effective towards the back end of the season.
Years 2013 St. George Illawarra 2014 London Broncos 2015 Wests Tigers 2016–17 Leigh Centurions 2018 Catalans Dragons 2019 Hull Kingston Rovers 2020–22 Catalans Dragons 2023– Warrington Wolves
We are Drinkwater's eighth club. He is the classic journeyman professional and I don't believe you will ever see the level of commitment that you would get from most other players, particularly the home grown like Thewlis. We are stuck with him for another year and I guess SB is just trying to make the best from a less than optimum situation.
Winslade's Offload wrote:We are stuck with him for another year and I guess SB is just trying to make the best from a less than optimum situation.
And thankfully Burgess has been harping on about how impressed he is with Leon Hayes in training. I get the feeling a Price / A.N Other Aussie type coach would have Drinkwater as first option every day of the week.
easyWire wrote:And thankfully Burgess has been harping on about how impressed he is with Leon Hayes in training. I get the feeling a Price / A.N Other Aussie type coach would have Drinkwater as first option every day of the week.
Good to hear his comments about Conor Wrench playing centre too.
Hopefully he will give Wrench a decent chance to secure that position, it depends I suppose if Tai settles in Warrington, or whether the lure of the NRL is too great.
Joined: Sep 20 2005 Posts: 1083 Location: The Yard
Winslade's Offload wrote:Drinkwater
Years 2013 St. George Illawarra 2014 London Broncos 2015 Wests Tigers 2016–17 Leigh Centurions 2018 Catalans Dragons 2019 Hull Kingston Rovers 2020–22 Catalans Dragons 2023– Warrington Wolves
We are Drinkwater's eighth club. He is the classic journeyman professional and I don't believe you will ever see the level of commitment that you would get from most other players, particularly the home grown like Thewlis. We are stuck with him for another year and I guess SB is just trying to make the best from a less than optimum situation.
Drinkwater often looked impressive for Catalans and Hull KR though, to be fair, and the reaction on here was largely positive when we signed him. I hoped that he was going to finally provide us with an excellent attacking kick option. Instead, he just became Mr Anonymous for most of 2023, unfortunately.
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