I hope you have not bet the league and cup double every year for the last 63 years.

Saints were crap all last season yet came within a Morgan brain fart of the grand final. They could and should have been facing Leeds at Old Trafford.

Whilst I don’t want to see us play as crap as Saints did, I would be happy to slowly improve over the season even if the start isn’t great. Last year showed that this league format enables you to be mediocre all year and peak when it counts.

So I wouldn’t say 3/6 puts us in a relegation situation, especially as we won’t be relegated when licensing comes back in. I want better but 3/6 is not the end of the world.

If you’re being serious then you talk absolute rubbish. Warringtons recruitment has been nowhere near as good as you and loads of others have been making out. The only top signing is BMM with Goodwin and Brown, Akauola struggling to get a game in the NRL (doesn’t mean he’ll fail, I know) and Roberts who by all accouts isn’t a bad player but not marquee standard. I’m not criticising that recruitment either I think it’s good on the whole but not good enough to take a relegation contender to grand final contender even if this league is average. For me, a lot of wire (and non wire) fans need to be more realistic and patient, this is very much a transition year with a very thin squad so 5th or 6th would be a successful season and as a non Warrington fan I don’t see Warrington as contenders and am not particularly worried by them. I’m not saying all this to criticise Warrington either, I just can’t believe that you would actually want Price sacked if you weren’t top 4 by May, if you’re being serious.

You've got your head in the sand or you know zilch.
transition my posteria.
This team is to buy success and fast. Loads-a-money is bang what it is...yeah if prefer a team of Warringtonians...but that ain't going to happen in my lifetime I'm half sure.
If Price can't deliver in season one he can go...if we're struggling he can go sooner.
There's nothing smokey about the expectation this season...
TS was here only because a honeymoon period....way too long. I'd been calling for his head years ago. Not proud of it, just how it is.

When it comes to betting Rubber Duckie is spot on, on what his says. 6/1 now is a massive price for us it was 9/1 with paddy power at the start of the season. The reason it is down to 6's is the squad we have assembled and the money has come for us at that price. I gave to agree with RD again if we are not in the top for by the split questions should be asked. The owner will be expecting top four by the split if truth be known. The only way to make money on an individual game in rugby league is to the handicap bet, only my opinion. RD

You would have to ask for an accumulation like that as a special.
No I'm talking 23 or 30 games not 6.

Look.I'm not blinkered to the possibility or no new scrum half early doors but I expect the team with Patton to be almost equally at strong, string enough to get 5/6 at least not 3!

What you haven't factored in is the return of Ben Currie and Dom Crosby. Add these to the additions we have made and we will go fine. Tyrone Roberts will be a massive improvement on what we had in the halfs last year and will lead the team around the park. He will certainly be better than anything else on show this season. BMM will add grunt in midfield. Our bench props will add grunt up front when the starters are spelled.

Tell me who you think will boss this season?

Yes you're correct here...it gives us a full squad...the issue both us and Pies struggled with.
Pies missed Sam, they paid a full season of a marquee wage to him.
I think that and that they made a cc final kept Wane in his job for this season...if they too aren't top 4 in the first 1/4, I'll be trying to get a bet on him as the first coach sacked.

I'd be ok with 3/6 depending on positive performances in the losses. Given we have a new half back (a very good one) who may miss the start of the season and two of our bigger forwards, Crosby and Akauola, in the same position we need to be realistic. I think we're the only team in the 'big 5/6' with a new coach who want the team to play differently than last year and is trying to instill a new philosophy. That, and Roberts starting a little late (given he's here to boss the team and provide x factor as our marquee player) are the primary reasons I'm being cautious. It would be absolute madness to start calling for Price's head at an early point in the season.

Having said all that, there's no reason why we can't win more than 3/6 with the squad we have. I just won't be reacting like POTUS if we're on 6 points after 6 rounds.

Let's put it this way...if we are 3/6 then it's nailed on to be 3/7.

6 points from 14 isn't remotely ok.

Well said Rico. It's early days and the performance and attitude are key for me in the first few games. If they are right then the results will come.

I'm a Warrington fan and agree with a lot of what you say, but not the bit in bold.

What [iis[/i the standard for a marquee player if Roberts does not meet it? Off the top of my head the marquee players in SL I can think of are Tomkins, Williams, Watkins, Barba and previously Sandow. The only players better than Roberts are maybe Barba and Sandow, but even then they are not as consistent and have played in better teams which makes it easier to look good.

The question for me is not Roberts' marquee quality, it's whether he settles. If he does, his off-the-cuff brilliance suits the English game and is just what Warrington and Super League need. Take a look at some stuff he's done in a more defence-based league and you'll see what he could achieve in our more open game:

[urlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puHA-W01SDc[/url

Okay, let's step back and think of this in the following context...

The year Smith joined us early in the season we finished 10th in the league but won a Challenge Cup Final after an easy cup run and [ijust[/i beating Wigan in the semi. If we had lost narrowly to Wigan in that semi it would have been another failed cup run and a poor position in the league... would we be calling for Smith's head, bearing in mind what we would have missed out on in the following years?

Just saying'...

Watching that footage tells me two things. Firstly, we will be a far, far better team with Roberts in it. Secondly, I don't think we actually need any centres with some of those cut out bullet passes!

...and there's only Barba and Sandow as recent imports who've produced anything similar in the NRL. If Roberts isn't marquee-quality I don't know which other half-back in Super League could be. I like Gale, Williams and Tomkins but I couldn't see them tearing up the NRL.

The biggest thing for me is that he has the whole package - good footwork, speed, a good long and short passing game, and a good kicking game. He is also a very good goal kicker. Lets hope he settles in okay and stays injury-free.

I'm getting really excited and hold much hope going in to the new season. I'm hoping the new coaching structure will bring a big turn in our fortunes fairly soonish, in the same way Smith dramatically changed our performance and results when he arrived. First and foremost, we should be patient and give Price the time and space he needs. That said, with the new energy, players and returnees, I don't don't see why we can't win our first 6 and more. Firstly though, I'll be happy if there are signs of effort- that will make an instant improvement on last year. Anything else will be a bonus during the early rounds.

Although untested as a unit, our pack should cause at least a few problems with these players on the pitch at any one time:- Hill, Clark, Cooper, BMM, Sitaleki, Currie.

I think we have so much to look forward to this year with some exciting recruitment and new coaching staff. COYW

Haven’t watched much off him tbh, just gone off what I’ve seen a few people say so I might well be wrong but either way definitely an improvement on Brown, Patton and Gidley as well.

Leeds could go either way (inspite of any preseason games, both teams will be "rusty"icon_wink.gif, I expect a loss away at Hull, and wins in the other 4 of the 6.

As others have said 3/6 in March is not 'relegation zone' for a brand new coach with a very new team. There will remain lots of time to continue to gel and improve our results. Equally, to sack Price for not getting in the top four at first time of asking is crazy - the sort of idiocy that goes on in Premier League soccer. I'm also puzzled that you'd sack Price and appoint his (presumably also guilty of poor coaching) assistant even for a few months: what happened the last couple of times we tried that? I am as ambitious for the club as is anyone here but heaping on the pressure for instant magic after the money our directors have splashed out in the close season is totally unreasonable.

And so it begins. The roller coaster which is being a Wire fan.

The other thing to consider alongside the time required for the new team to gel and to perfect Price’s style of play, is that there are huge changes behind the scenes from the bottom up.

I don’t know how Price will go as a coach but as a ‘Head of Rugby Ops’ he’s already impressed me with the structures he’s building below first team level. It might just be that missing link we’ve needed to be properly successful as a big club (I don’t think you can count Warrington or Hull’s recent trophy successes on the same level as Leeds, Saints and Wigan, nor the the success of the youth system).

So lots to be positive about even if we lose 3/6 early on, and finish outside the top 4. Onwards and upwards.

EDIT: A lot of people point to Price’s record in his first head coach job at St George. As well as being fairly young and inexperienced for a head coach at that level, it’s worth comparing his record to that of the now legendary Tony Smith in his first job:

“He first season in charge saw Huddersfield relegated to National League One, which consequently followed their dreadful start to the season losing 13 games in a row. A record number of consecutive defeats for a coach who held on to his job in British Rugby League”

We all know what Smith went on to do with Leeds a season or two later...

My expectations at this point are quite low.

Last season we were a team in a relegation battle.

We have made changes but they are changes with question marks over them. The new coach had one previous head coaching job and it went badly. We have signed journeymen type players plus one guy who has done well in SL in BMM. We lost to Widnes in pre season when we had a fair few of the first team squad out against the worst team in SL. We've scrapped the reserve team.

I'm not writing us off, but I can see exactly the kind of criticisms which will be filling this board in a few months time by the hindsight brigade who will say it was obvious we hadn't done enough in the off season.

I think we will be between 6th and 9th this season - my main hope is that we avoid the bottom 4 but I don't see us being close to contending with the top teams. I would guess we will win 2 from the first 6.

The difference there was Smith took over the worst team in SL, had a bad start but turned them round and by the end of his third season he had made them more competitive than they had been in years. Price took over the NRL champions and was sacked during his third season after overseeing a period of decline.

Fair points. For the avoidance of doubt a lot of people were hoping for another signing(s) to the forwards. A team relying on the likes of George King, Philbin, Hughes and Crosby won't win SL in my opinion.

I think we will do better than last year and make the 8 but that's about it. By mid-end season the talk will all being about building for 2019. We fell a long way in the fag end of Tony's reign.

I wonder if by mid-end season a lot of the talk on here will be about Andrew Henderson.

We have the opposite situation to Agar, who was a scapegoat on this board for us doing badly. Henderson is rated highly, and seemed to tick every box at London in what you would want from a coach.

As SL teams start sacking their coaches, Henderson will be linked with the vacancies. If we are flying high then it will just be accepted as a reality that he was going to get picked up by someone else, but if we are struggling there will be calls for Henderson to replace Price before we lose him. I wonder how we would feel if we were in the bottom four at the halfway point, and one of our rivals like Huddersfield or Widnes sacked their coach and appointed Henderson...