It was summer of 96 for paul hulme, there was a swell of media opinion that was still moaning how unfair it was that widnes weren't in SL, and that certain top quality players like the hulme bros, and steve molloy and martin pearson weren't playing at the top level.

widnes released hulme to come to warrington, he played backrow for most of 96, then a mix with hooker in 97, david hulme signed for leeds who were absolutely dog that first year in SL, arguably they had their full time change over struggles earlier than everyone else, and probably got ahead of the curve.

Ah yeah, we beat Leeds at Headingley in our first SL game and thought that was a good sign as they'd been the strongest challengers to Wigan in recent years, but they fell apart that season. I think Dean Bell was the coach. The retirements of Hanley and Schofield probably didn't help.

Back in those early days of SL the hierachy of clubs seemed to be in flux. Going to a fully full-time professional league seemed to level the playing field, also it was a low point of talent generally with a lot of top players having retired or gone back to RU. So getting a good coach and one or two good signings could transform a team's fortunes. Leeds went from being rank awful in 1996, to getting in Graham Murray and Iestyn Harris and being Grand Finalists and winning the CC within a couple of years. Cas were as bad as us in 97, then they got Stuart Raper and Adrian Vowles and became a contender. Halifax under John Pendlebury were up there for a while as well with Cardiss and Clinch. It was probably why we got overhyped when we signed Langer, Nikau and Gee and started getting tipped as 'dark horses for the Grand Final'...people had seen teams make rapid strides. Didn't happen for us though!

The Danny Halliwell stuff was ridiculous. 'Gerrim signed' people were posting as if he were David Stephenson or even Ronnie Dwane, whereas he was a journeyman back who could catch and pass and run a bit. Desperate times, indeed.

Halliwell played a big part in us staying up to be fair to the lad. That's how utter garbage we were that year!

Halliwell was popular because we were starved of any kind of pace in our back line (Rivett was quick, but only lasted a few games). Our other centres that season at various times were Kidwell, Maden, Crouthers, Westwood, Alstead. We usually ended up having one of the back rowers (Domic or Burns) playing there. It was the most pedestrian backline I had ever seen us have.

Halliwell was not a top class player but was a welcome signing because he was quick and also we'd had a few years where a lot of our signings had been ageing players (often from overseas) at the back end of their careers, so a 21 year old British guy with pace was the kind of signing we were hoping for at that time.

He scored 8 tries in 9 starts in a poor team, he also played well in some of the games we won, in one of the relegation four-pointers against Salford which was key to us staying up, he took an interception on our own line and went the length of the field which was about the most excitement the Fletcher Street end had had all year, and was probably peak Halli-mania.

The bubble was burst when Halifax recalled him from loan but his career never took off after that. He had disciplinary problems at Halifax and then ended up touring the Championship clubs.

But he did play his part in helping us stay up so has his contribution to Wire history. Plange did manage to use the loan market well to re-energise a side that was plodding to relegation, as well as Halliwell he brought in Richie Mathers and Graham Appo. Appo took a while to get in shape but was just hitting form at the right time when Cullen came in and he was also a difference maker in some important games with express speed.

Appo was simply phenomenal for us in the final year at Wilderspool and really came to the fore when Briers became injured.
It seemed to go to his head after he made the Dream Team and he came back the next season on the wing and unfit, and (possibly) miffed that he wasn't in the halves.
That next year never really took off and he made way for Andrew John's and was paid off.
A sad end really to his Wire career.
Don't know what happened to him after he left us.
Unfortunately al

Appo took the mickey after he'd been given an enhanced contract on the back of his 2003 season. Went back to Aus for the off season and got well out of shape and never looked like he could be bothered after that.

If he wanted to compete for a place in the halves when Briers was back he had no chance of outcompeting Nat Wood or Briers when he was in poor condition.

The sad thing about it was we had to cut one of the overseas players because of the reduction in the quota, and we prioritised keeping a waster like Appo over Sid Domic who was a top pro. Domic went on to have successful spells with Wakefield and Hull long after Appo had disappeared from relevance.

Looking back through Appo's career it seemed like there was a pattern, he had runs of spectacular form and then became anonymous when he was in the NRL too. He was talented though, had more to his game than just pace.

I remember being stood next to a fella in the South Stand, in one of Appo's last "performances". He was going beserk. If I was to attempt to type what he said, the police would be knocking on my door.
Suffice to say, it was on the lines of him being lazy at each club, after a wonder season. Roy "Chubby" Brown would've blushed.

Ah yes the "Big Brown Hamster"

In the space of 12 months he went from:

He's quick he's smart
He runs the Kwik-E-Mart
Graeme Appo

to:

He's fat he's slow
He's really got to go
Graeme Appo