Couldn’t see a thread on it, so maybe it’s not big news, but Harrison has extended 2 years til the end of 2025.

You could clearly see the effort was there last season for the few games he got, and it’s obvious he has impressed with his attitude. Impressed enough to get Cooper’s slot. I’m not convinced that’s where Powell sees him though, I think it’s just a first 17 jersey as a reward for improvement and pushing himself to get up to standard.

Bench prop for me.
He still has some proving to do.
I accept he came back from a terrible injury, however he was part of a pack…a team, that stuck the town out!

At the minute I'd say he was an excellent bench option, capable of covering 8,10,11,12 & 13, not sure I'd have him starting ahead of the 4 props we have brought in, but clearly Powell see's something in him and sure there is lots of development in him and hopefully can pack some muscle in over pre season, he did seem to get dominated after impact too often last year.

So far I wouldn't class Harrison as 'excellent'. Maybe his versatility might be his downfall, if I were him I'd beef up and go all out as a prop as I don't see him lighting up SL in the second row or at loose.

Powell really sees to love him though so we shall see.

He looked solid last year, which is probably as much as could be expected when coming back from an ACL injury. Hopefully, with a full pre-season behind him, he can kick on in 2023 and become a valuable member of the side.

Seems like a big call by Powell. Yes, he will be better next year after his ACL injury and perhaps he is already being bulked up by the back room staff, but he looks like a cross between a prop and a BR forward atm.

I thought he played well last year, and given the injury comeback and the promise he displayed i think he's got a big year ahead of him. He must be doing all the right things to get an additional 2 years added already. Great things are ahead of us

In my opinion, what I saw from Bullock was more impressive than what I saw from Harrison. But with our depth, 1 prop has to miss out on a bench spot if we put Walker on the bench.

I can't see Philbin getting much game time unless we need to replace McGuire at Lock because of an injury or suspension. Sadly, I think Bullock will be the one to miss out for a while.

But it's nice to know that there is a replacement available that can be effective if we lose anybody.

With props there is always injury and suspension to factor in. If most stay fit and available, then we might well use squad rotation to try to keep everyone as fresh as possible. I think the props will all get good game time across the season.

Definitely agree about Bullock last season which was a positive in what a miserable time to be a Wire generally, in addition to all the palaver with Cooper, the changing of the guard with Hill and Philbin's injury

It's good that we have genuine competition for places in the pack, unlike previous years where there were players who became complacent and perhaps thought themselves bigger than the club.

Yeah i thought Bullock had a solid season for us, if he carries on his form he could take Dudson's bench spot. I think The bench will be Walker, Kasiano, Dudson and rotating Between Bullock and Mikaele. But it's a nice problem to have for a change. I do agree though that i think Philbin is genuinely going to struggle to get a spot in the 17 again.

u thought he was ok, didn't look tremendously off the pace considering the injury and the step up

one thing i did think last year, he got hung out to dry a bit when we were losing games and clark was trying to hit him with the chris bridge bullet pass at the line, i think he dropped every single one of them and the crowds were getting on his back a bit, but it wasn't his fault

I think the thing with Harrison, and the same with Anthony England to be fair, is that he isn’t Chris Hill.

Hill came in and added to an already great pack, taking to Super League in the first few weeks. Walmsley did the same. So anyone that came after them was expected to step up seamlessly, which is really unfair given just how good Hill and Walmsley have been proved to be.

Harrison did ok, not great, but ok. And he didn’t have a pre-season. He’s had a chance to get a feel, now an undisturbed pre-season in a pack that is equipped to stand up for itself we should see him improve and develop. He may not get to the top, but he looks to have the basics to be a super league player.

I've still got hopes he'll be a top player for us.

He's got a great pedigree given his father's outstanding RL career. Fingers crossed.

I agree too on Philbin, it's going to be a tough ask. I wonder whether he'll regret taking the foot of the pedal over the last few years.

Philbin would do well to try and squeeze every bit of knowledge and advice out of mcguire while he's here, to try and model himself on him, change his style to that kinda 13, and stop being a full on prop, its not gonna happen,

Yes, unlike Chris Hill, Harrison didn't get to join an established, functioning pack. When Chris Hill joined in 2012 we had Morley, Monaghan, Carvell, Wood, Cooper, Waterhouse, Westwood, Harrison, Solomona

We say this every year.

I remember this time last year thinking that we had the crappest pack I could remember and I speculated on here that even the pack from our grim 2002 season was better than what we had for 2022. All the replies here were people telling me how much competition we had for each spot



Then after the pre season friendly against Wigan everyone saw the writing on the wall.

And yes that pack with Fozzard, Clark, Wood, Hilton, Burns, Domic and tennis ball Pepe would have steamrolled the 2022 pack!

True but how many players could have come out of the Championship and immediately become the best player in that pack.

I was trying to put a positive spin on things. Personally I did not use the argument of competition for places last year. That pack was garbage. However I do think there was complacency in previous seasons that we had 2 automatic pick forwards who were never in danger of losing their spot.

A matter of opinion of course, but I don't think he did, well certainly not "immediately". My take FWIW was that he made the smoothest of transitions possible because a) he was definitely SL standard and b) he was surrounded by top performers that were still doing the business.

I think that it's fair to say he surpassed our expectations, and lived up to the well meant hype from our pals in Leigh but the best thing about it IMO was not the performance but that it was (unfortunately) an all to rare occasion where we looked like we knew what were doing in terms of recruitment and succession planning

It was evident to me how poor the pack was by where I put Wire in the start of season ‘how will the SL finish’ post.
I for sure didn’t have Wire top for a change. I think I put Wire in the mix to try to make that 6th spot.
Which was pretty much as good as we got.

Which now reminds me….

It was a weakness of the squad but I don't think there was complacency amongst those two players. They carried the pack and they kept up their performances. When they left the pack was exposed as absolute trash.

Yes the duck's pre season predictions generally fit into one of two categories:

"We will win the lot"
or
"You can't win anything behind a beaten pack"

It didn't take long to work out which category 2022 was going to be in.



The question is, now we have made some big name forward signings, what category is 2023?