Atkins may leave, just as he’s hitting form

There have been a few players who have been key to Warrington’s rise from Super League also-rans to league leaders and multiple Challenge Cup winners, and one of them has been Ryan Atkins. His signature from the Wakefield Trinity Wildcats in 2010 helped Warrington onto the next level.

There was however, a significant drop off in performance in the 2014 and 2015 seasons where he wasn’t making close to the impact that he once did for the club. There can be a few mitigating factors in this, with one of them being injuries, but it’s clear that Warrington’s struggles coincided with his.

This season however, has seen a return to form. He is no longer making the same errors and is starting to break through the line and come up with the big moments that he used to. Atkins seems like one of those players who can liven up a dead game, and is able to provide inspiration to the crowd. His sheer athleticism means that he is able to make breaks where most other players can’t, and able to provide huge hits on players that you wouldn’t expect from a centre.

His influence on games seems to get greater and greater this season, and he appears to be getting some way back to his best. We’ve missed him when he’s not been in the team, which can’t be said for the last few years.

It may have all come at the wrong time though. There are reports that he may be leaving the club at the end of the season, and Warrington aren’t scared to be ruthless with such things. We’ve seen it with quite a few players with Warrington where if they aren’t performing to the standard expected, they are quickly let go.

It’s a policy that means that you are constantly able to supply your team with fresh talent, but it can also backfire. With the way Rugby League works, with the tight finances involved, decisions for the following season can be made very early. The problem with Atkins is that he didn’t deserve his continued place in the team for his form of the last few seasons, but things have now changed. Do you let a player go who is currently in form and risk that he’ll keep those levels, or instead take note of the previous poor form and let him go?

Whether he leaves or not, Atkins has been a great servant to Warrington and has been a huge part of our success in the past, and will hopefully be a huge part of some this year. Warrington are still capable of winning the treble and if they do, Atkins would have surely played a key part of that. I hope he stays, he is a great player to watch and I’d give him the benefit of the doubt and go off his form of this season rather than any other. At his best, before the emergence of Kallum Watkins, he was the best centre in England. He’s getting close to those levels again.