James Webster?

I'd be very, very surprised to see Penny go. Especially if we're lead to believe that we won't see Hicks again, add this to Carney retiring [it seems we'd only be left with Riley, King & Penny with any SL experience.

Penny would like to go back to Widnes but on dual contract. He's got too much potential for Warrington to let him go completely.

Wonder if TS would give Rhys Evans a chance yet? He did play for Wales in the winter and although he has no experience in SL, Smith could well give him the chance to earn some.

Clarke going wouldn't really hurt us, as has been pointed out he's 3rd choice hooker and the back row is crowded - if he can land a 3yr player / coaching contract it makes good sense for everyone.

Penny on the other hand has the potential to be a great SL winger, and I'd hoped Smith would have kept him for at least 1 more year to see if he can fulfill that potential.

I think you're getting confused ace.

Rhys Williams played for Wales, he's from our academy, bit older, stocky winger, Smyth-esque.

Rhys Evans didn't play I don't think, he was selected in the initial 50 (along with his twin), obviously earmarked as a player with huge potential, for club & country, but I don't think he figured after that. He's only 17 I think.

Words fail me. It's twice I've done that on two seperate threads

, I say a player's name in my head then type somebody else. You're right, chief.

Rhys Griffiths (Clive Griffiths' son) played in the game against England with Rhys Williams as his wingman. Easy to get confused.

i hope we don't sign a young welshman called william griffiths or evan griffiths or we'll end up as confused as ray french if that's possible.

Maybe our new prop is Richard Griffiths

IMO if Penny doesn't get his act together then he wont get a new contract...has he got another 1 or 2 years?

JWP's love affair with Penny could be over in the not too distant future unless he is prepared to start following Widnes or Leigh.

As for Hicks surely pre season training starts in the near future so we should know soon whether these rumours are true or not.

I'll be very disappointed if Penny leaves permanently. It wasn't so long ago that "The New Martin Offiah" had us all thrilled with what we'd unearthed.

His confidence was badly affected by a few poor performances but I really hope he gets a bit more time before being consigned to the "not good enough" pile for good.

Hearing some of our fans screaming abuse at him when he desperately needed support sickened me at times last season.

I think he's got 2010 & 2011, so two years left.

What will I do if he does go eh, the love affair over, sniff. I'll probably just spend some time around horses, and whizz the picture off to loadsa' birds.

There's no love affair, I just appreciate his talents. I don't want King on the wing who couldn't outrun Malcolm Alker, I want the exciting kid, with pace to burn, that's all. He's exciting.

Pace is exciting but it needs a brain to coordinate and execute it properly especially when ball handling/timing and positioning is required too.

Unfortunately im not sure Kev has both attributes which is sad cos he is indeed very quick.

Lets hope Sir Tony Smith can work his magic and that Kev turns into the player we all wish he was.

I believe Hicks has sorted his visa problems out,but is carrying a serious hip injury,which will rule him out for most of next season.

I thought there were signs against Harlequins he was on the right page so to speak. If Hicks stays, he'll be gone, dual registered, he needs to be, for him, reserves is no good to him now.

Whatever next...

June 2010...Chris Hicks has recovered from a serious hip injury but will never play for warrington again due to alcohol dependancy and a chronic gambling addiction. Such a shame after he overcame the much publicised visa problems in November 2009.

You just couldn't make it up could you.

i'm sure you would/could

I think Penny may become one of those mini tragedies in the sense that his initial promise (and wow, he seriously burst onto the scene), fizzled out rather annoyingly.

I certainly dont feel as excited about his prospects as I once did. And its a real shame. But I would honestly love for the lad to prove me wrong. I really would.

As for Jon, no comment. Dont want to lock this one.

Agree with all that but I do think KP has had a bit of a raw deal in the last
12 months. Hope we persevere because the result of a bit more paitence could be well worth it.

I tell you what annoys me, and I'm not disagreeing with you as such, is that I don't think his fault. What I mean is, generally folk fall away because ..

They don't maintain their fitness, say Appo, come back, look out of shape or whatever, not appilcable.

They don't maintain the same level of enthusiasm, come back looking disinterested, not applicable, he looks as bubbly as ever.

They believe their own hype, which I don't believe he has. This arrogant thing that folk throw at him is because he wears coloured boots, but whenever I've seen him, heard him talk about RL, he's known where he's at, learning, long way to go etc, he's never said he's the new Offiah, he's left that to Joe Public.

I think two things have halted his progression, firstly us having three coaches in two years, all having different ideas, wanting to play differently and all that, different structures and such. And secondly, I think what created him hung him, as in, the freedom that we played with under Cullen, the expansive, off the cuff, freestylin' rugby played to Kev's strengths and but it also meant we had no defensive structure whatsoever and he was exposed, but when you score 10 in 10 no-one cares, or they're willing to neglect it, as soon as we played with a more structured attack, it surpressed him somewhat, and left his defence there to be shot at, whilst he didn't have the weight of tries to counteract this, so fans pointed the finger, even though he'd improved his all round game, the numbers didn't stack up.

He had a blinder the last game of the season, the Quins game, but in a way, it was the most 'Cullenesque' game of Smiths reign, just 80 mins of madness really, and he looked brilliant, in all areas of the game, drew praise from here. It's when the game is tight, and you get into this game of fractions I worry about him.

jwp,you have hit the nail firmly on the head there cheif.

That's something I have never got when he get's stick.. the lad is a Wire born and bred and gives 110% in EVERY GAME! So just because he's made a few errors give him aload of grief?

You can understand players getting stick when don't look bothered but Penny? Not at all for me!

Can someone explain to me how Hicks has ended up with a serious injury considering he hasn't played for 3-4 months? And just why he would have Visa problems? Talk sense.

smokescreen?