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.

Noone wasn't too bad GDMM (Sal's entitled to an opinion) he rated Noone better than Burns, so what.
Just remember, some twonk from Melbourne Storm thought Ian Sibbit was good enough for the NRL. NOW THAT'S THE CRAZIEST THING OF ALL TIME

Mike Worrincy to Penrith left me wondering for the same reason. Noone wasn't mobile enough for SL but seeing that for most of his career with us we were garbage he did ok imo. Shame because when I first saw him he looked like he was a prospect almost in the Scully bracket but never seemed to kick on.

backrow version of ian sibbitt was a monster, he was the shizzle however for about 4 seasons we had him playing centre, and at one point wing, to paul noone who was playing centre.

That isn't how I read it. Burns better than Anderson, which I loosely agree with. Noone on level pegging with Anderson. Do you agree with that assesment?

As for Sibbit, it is amazing what you can do with video editing software.

Burns was a good player....agreed

Noone at the same level as Louis Anderson



If that were true why isn't he still playing in the Super League....he was in fact poor...a weak link.

I'll have 8 pints of what Cat has been on. At best, Sibbit was average (just a good job he had Alfie Langer throwing him passes), and most of his tries could have been scored by an average BARLA level player (fall over tries with the line at his mercy, THAT St Helens game for instance). As a centre, he'd be lucky to be classed as poor. We needed our bumps feeling when we resigned him.

But hey-ho, we all have our opinions

No, as MKC said, Noone was a good player that never really kicked on.
I was just saying that Sally is entitled to his opinion.

To be honest, re Burns, he was always going to stand out, in what was the WORST Wire side I've known since 1979. I don't get the godlike status bestowed on him for keeping us up. It's a team game, and he was our best player in a 5h1te team. Mind you, my memories of that season are very vague, as I've tried to erase it from my memory.

Sibbit, just pooh

Burns was easily one of our best players - but that was in a poor side. Louis Anderson would have stood out too. I'm not as sure as others which is the better player. Probably about the same level, with Burns having more creative ability and Louis having more in terms of power. However I am quite certain both are several levels above Noone.

Read what i said. He was a very very good back row forward. Who killed it in the fol academy team round 99 from pretty much the opener against london in 00 he played in the back line for warrington. The only time he got anything like a run in the back row was at the end of 04. When he put some form on and people were questioning his release when we were also losing forshaw. Burns and guisset.

Genuine question Cat, where was he playing in '01 Melbourne came swooping . I seem to remember it was back row, but I could be wrong. As I said, imo, he was an average player as a second rower, and poor as a centre. Again...it's just MY opinion

centre. Back row ghat year for the early part was busby knott mccurrie guisset and nikau. Oh and mercer when he returned.