Strangely 5he Guardian hints at Hughes moving up to prop.

I read that, I can't see him punching many holes in defences or getting many offloads or even quick play the balls, he doesn't do that at second row! Still credit where its due he is a good defender and would handle anything from a defensive point of view. Ultimately though he'd be well down my list of props at the club and so would Jason Clark. For me if all are fit the order of preference would be: Cooper, Philbin, Mulhern, Bullock, Butler, Harrison, Clark, Hughes/ Doro in that order until form proves otherwise. Its not as good as last years line up. Still at least the starting pair won't be as good, so the drop off won't be noticed as much when the interchanges come on. The prospective addition of Hughes or J Clark in the front row totally underwhelms me.

[*
Yeah that guardian piece was weird included clark but then at the end said his future was still up in the air.

At the moment, we don't seem to have anyone touted as a 13. And one would imagine the academy 13s would follow on from price's structures and pretty much be an extra prop.

I'll take this as a change of ethos.

I think J Clark's future should be up in the air - ie on a plane heading to Australia. Thanks for your contribution JC, but time to move on. Same with Hughes.

ANYONE who mentions Tyrone Roberts on this forum going forward should be banned, one month minimum. Second offence, life ban!!!!

I'm getting an Andy Currier in, before it becomes illegal on here.

I have a bad feeling about this signing.

Does not feel at all like the kind of signing a team that is going to be competing to win the GF would make. It's the kind of fringe NRL first team signing that will be a millstone round Powell's neck if he doesn't perform. The obvious question people will ask is, is there nobody coming out of our Academy who could have had this spot in the team and why not?

I was definitely pleased when we appointed Powell but having seen the signings that have come in so far it just feels like the squad is being weakened relative to the Price era.

The only source of hope is that Powell at Cas signed a lot of relatively unheralded players and they did for a while perform way above their previous reputations under him, so we will see. But right now I think we will be a team that's around 7th in the table with an outside shot at making the playoffs.

That's a very pessimistic view. The only weakness compared to this year is Hill going and I'm not sure that makes us 4 places worse. Who has improved their squad?

So we still have no update on Jason Clark, Riley Dean, Ellis Robson, Nathan Roebuck & Keanan Brand. Must say, I’d prefer we were looking to retain any outside backs given how light we are in that area. Dean is an interesting one, Will he get any game time?

Brand and robson are still contracted to us for 2022, so it's only the other 3 that we are waiting on an announcement on.

I appreciate that Magoulias may be a millstone round Powell neck because he is an Australian forward. It is all about expectation and the fact that most fans automatically assume they will be on double the money than an equivalent UK based player.
We don't know the contract terms of Magoulias compared to say James Harrison, for all we know they could be similar but they both take a spot from a potential academy player. If Harrison does not set the world on fire then it is an acceptable gamble that didn't pay off but if the Aussie doesn't make it then it is exhibit A in the case for the prosecution for the charge of poor recruitment taking the place of a young prospect for loads of dosh.
Some of the signings are a concern (Minikin, Bullock, Magoulias) but over the last 17 years we must be at the top of the leader board for players that have won grand final rings with other clubs but failed to win a GF ourselves.
We raided Bradford in the mid 2000's with Swan, Reordan, Parker, Forshaw etc. During the Smith Era we started to take ex Leeds players like Mathers and later Bailey and then ex Wigan players (OK usually via another club) Cosby, Hughes, Charnley and now Williams.. Also in that time we picked up some of the brightest talents in the game from other clubs like Salford, Wakefield and Cas and still the big one eluded us.
I remember the post match analysis after the play off defeat to Hull Kr when pundits were saying that we needed more players that were a bit more workmanlike, that would put the hard graft in. So maybe the likes of Minikin and Magoulias allthogh unremarkable signings and don't have GF rings or a highlight reel like Ben Barba maybe just what we need. Time will tell I guess.

Moving to prop??? He needs to move to Leigh

Is Philbin big enough and does he have the engine to play prop? Not for me.

So long as Magoulias doesn't get injured between now and the start of the season then I'd say it's a good sign !

You'll love this then, and wonder how anyone can put him on the same level as Bryson Goodwin :

[urlhttps://www.seriousaboutrl.com/rating-all-23-of-steve-prices-signings-as-warrington-coach-44877/[/url

Who on God's earth did those ratings? Jason Clark 9/10???!!! And I'd almost forgotten about signings like Ben Pomeroy!!

This is exactly our problem. We would never in a million years sign Hughes to play at prop so we are basically making do until his contract peters out.

The fact that we haven't won a Grand Final when we've signed bigger name players doesn't mean that we're more likely to win one if we sign fringe first teamers. We've tried that with Leon Felton, Tommy O'Reilly, Matt Sturm and we were no better with them!

Now there is a chance that because the general quality of SL is not very good at the moment, some relatively unheralded Australian players could come over here and do well. In the late 90s there was a lull in quality in SL and after the Aussies consolidated down the number of clubs after the Super League war there were a lot of Aussie players out of a job and you had some guys who nobody knew much about from Aus come over here and be pretty successful, Vowles, Dunnemann, Nutley, Eagar, Withers and so on.

So yeah, he could turn out to be a great discovery but this isn't a signing which gives me much hope, in the context of the other off season moves we are / aren't making.

It feels like we have this sort of discussion every year. Me or Wires71 will say our squad is lacking in quality and people will say but look at Saints, Wigan, Leeds they have shortcomings too, they are no stronger than us.

And then every year its one of them who wins the Grand Final and not us.

Next year will be the weakest Warrington pack I can remember (yes, even worse than when Anderson & Plange were here) and from that fact alone you can rule out the possibility of us being genuine contenders for the title.

Jesus Christ…..looks like sniffing glue is still legal!

OK. Tell me who in the Anderson/Plange era was better than Cooper, Clark, Currie and not to mention Holmes ?

TBF I don't think that you two are lone voices this year and particularly as far as Saints are concerned.

To be fair, we did have some surprisingly decent forwards in 2001. Wood, Gee, Nutley, Nikau, McCurrie, Guissett & Chambers as well as Mercer and Kidwell at centre.

I can see us keeping Clark just for added depth in the forwards.
I'm happy with Currie and Holmes in the second row with Magoulias at 13.
Cooper and Mulhern starting props, With an inform Philbin, Bullock and Butler is not a bad forward option, it's more the experience and consistancy we are lacking. But if powell can get the best out of these and Doro etc we aren't looking really bad. But still think we've made an error letting Hill go, but next year will determine if it was a big mistake or not.