In the course of a clearout at home I've just found all the press cuttings I've saved from the last SL game at Wilderspool as I bought 6-7 of the national dailies on the Monday after the game. It was certainly a day never to be forgotten, but if you look at the team that day and look at the current squad, it gives you some idea of the progress that the club has made both on and off the field. The team that day was as follows; Cardiss, Westwood, Grose, Domic, Gaskell, Appo, Wood (c), Fozzard, Clarke, Wood, Noone, Wainwright, Burns. Subs were Hulse, Gleeson, Guissett, Stevens. Briers and Sibbitt were both injured and Mark Hilton had just copped a 3 match suspension.
No disrespect to that side which did really well on the day, but the different in class of the current side, especially the back line, is unbelievable.
One little aside, there's small photograph of the author of the League Express report, it's a very young looking Nathan Ashurst.

can we have a silver away kit again please?

Bar the ones that are still here, we've improved (immensely in some) in every position. Pity we got rid of Domic too early. Thank heavens for the Moran millions, so we've been able to attract players of a much higher calibre than 8 years ago.

Ooooohhhh no, designed by Gok Wan after 10 pints of Tennents Super. GO GIRLFRIEND!

Playing wise we did a lot with what we had that year. Appo played out of his skin while Briersy was out and he and Nat Wood were the driving force behind that side. We've come a long way in 7 and a half years in every respect and the blokes who played in that last year at the Zoo didn't let us down.

I liked Paul Cullen for reasons that have been discussed to death on here but I have also wondered what would have happened if we had Tony Smith back then.
Would Nathan Wood have played at 9 Just like Monaghan.
Would Dean Gaskell have been given chance to improve just like Riley.
Is Carvell that much better than say Guisset.
Is Louis Anderson much better than Burns was or Paul Noone could have been.

I admit that there has been an increase in quality but If you look at squads for 2006-2007 the difference in quality between then and now is not that different. I often feel sorry for a lot of the players that played here between say 2004-2008 and think that with a different coach they could have achieved much more.

So what your saying is that Paul Cullen was e?

corrected for accuracy

A huge factor must have been that until '07 we weren't in a position to spend up to the full amount of the salary cap. With the extra spend came players of the quality of King, Monas, Hicks and Louis. Whether TS could have made a huge difference in the years before that with the restrictions that Cull had to deal with is anyones guess. TS struggled at the Giants for a few years who were probably in a similar financial position as us back then. It was only his move to Leeds that proved that he was an exceptional coach. Money talks in every sport but its not just Simon Moran's input that has changed the club, there's been a huge amount of hard work off the field that most of us don't see that have contributed to the success we've enjoyed. The trick is to keep it going and continue to improve.

point taken.

We had to because of that Quota. We brought in Wilshere, Leikvoll and Lima, didn't Grose and Wood make up the rest of Quota rules at the time? 5 players? Not 100% sure, Cat will know, but we deffo had to let Domic go rather than wanted to let him go.

Wilshere in, Domic out. Good bit of business that was.

Oh,"cat'll know" "he'll know" i'm offended by that implication that i'm some sort of [inerdy know it all [/i































But....quota was coming down, burns wanted 12 months, as he was retiring domic felt he had a few years in him and wanted 2, at least.

And also Appo's contract was up, so we had to lock him up after his wonderful end to the season.

Nathan Wood might have played at 9, he did sometimes under Cullen. But he was not as good as Monaghan.

Dean Gaskell had a lot of chances, remember he was in the first team for the best part of three seasons, and he hardly scored a try. Riley during his early years made the odd mistake but he was always a prolific scorer. Gaskell probably felt aggrieved that he was replaced by Richie Barnett jnr who was a bit erratic. But he at least scored tries. I think Gaskell got as many SL games as he could legitimately have expected.
Is Carvell that much better than Guisset? Yes
Is Louis Anderson much better than Burns was or Paul Noone could have been? No I don't think so. I think Burns was better than Anderson and Noone was about the same level.

In Cullen's day there were basically two eras, the first was when we were a roundabout the fringes of the playoff type team with guys like those you have mentioned above, and Lima, Hilton, Leikvoll, Wainwright and so on, and then the team in his last season and a half which was the one with all the big guns in which was basically the team which Tony Smith ended up leading to the Challenge Cup twice. I don't think Tony Smith would have led the team of Cullen's early era to the Challenge Cup, he needed the quality players that he inherited.

Ultimately what did for Cullen was we got all of the improvement that we had got under him, by the end of 2003. He had taken us from a relegation battling side to a mid ranking side on the fringes of the playoffs. He was coach for basically four and a half more years and we stayed as a mid ranking side on the fringes of the playoffs, despite the fact the personnel improved.

Quiz question. Who was the ex-Wire player in the Wakefield side that day?

Ian Knott

That was quick.

Did Andy Farrell get MOM ??? I know he may not have taken part in that game but it didn't usually prevent him from getting the award !

The biggest change ive seen at the club is were now a lot more professional in the way we approach games, in the past we seemed to turn up for the so called easier games with the attitude that it would be a walk in the park without much effort, we went on to lose a lot of those games.

That seems to have changed along with the culture of the club, we all hear rumours and from what you hear their were a lot of bad influences in the past with certain people getting away with far too much.

The progress is huge, were now considered a team that other clubs would prefer to avoid especially in a knock out game. Simon Moran has put pride back into the town and a feel good factor with his backing, Tony Smith was the missing piece of the jigsaw.

Is that right Westwood on the wing.? i was at the game but really don't remember that..Imagine Ben playing wing now..?

Some Wilderspool pics added to my blog below

Yep that's correct. Benny broke his leg earlier that season and Cull eased him back into the side on the wing. From memory he did more than ok there. Had a blinder in the battle we had at The Galpharm a couple of games from the end of the regular season. Nat Wood belting Jamie Bloem after Mark Hilton nearly got dismissed for a high tackle was my highlight.

Personally i think it was more that he was at centre that year, combination of not passing to his winger and taking turns with guissett running into touch with the ball.

While he was out briers got injured, rob smyth seemed to fall out of favour and generally we were lacking 3/4s, domic was doing a much better job of playing centre (as we all knew he could) than looseforward and as has been said sibbit was injured.

think he spent most of the season with is leg strapped up, despite cull saying we wouldn't play players who weren't fit.

That is one of the craziest things I have ever read on the internet.

First time I saw Benny play in the P&B I thought he would make a better back rower than a centre. He was never the best back with ball in hand was he? but came into his own when there was any tackling to be done as he is now. Remember him pushing Darren Burns out of the way so he could smash Adamson when he was at Leeds only for Benny to get mullered himself. Never expected he would turn out to be the best back row we've had since Mike Greg.