He got lucky last season with the misfortune to Kevin Brown.

We know he is behing Widdop but is he now behind Ratch in the halves?

Planning to watch a few Reserve games this season and went to Sale at the weekend as I was in the area. Very heavy underfoot especially in the second half so not an easy game to assess and certainly not many standouts. However, you would have thought Dec Patton would do well at this level but, goalkicking apart, he didn’t impress and is still delivering passes straight in to touch. Expect he will be out on loan sooner than later unless there are injuries to Widdop and Ratchford.
Kabula wasn’t impressive either and looked less than fit and quite cumbersome. On a positive note though Eribe Doro got through a mountain of work, did more minutes and is far more athletic. I think he is still only 19 and needs to fill out a bit more but could make it at 13 or prop. Josh Thewlis showed some class but conditions not really in his favour. Brand scored a try from a kick through and was pretty solid.

Given that Price put out our best team against Salford, I would expect that Patton won't feature against Wigan, either.

I'm not expecting Hughes, Widdop or Latu to play. Not sure what was up with Hill but Price was certain he would play. No doubt they'll think long and hard about Ashton as Wigan away as your SL debut is a biggie - but I think that he'll start. Burrell did enough to make the 17 so I think that it will be as per Salford but with Hill starting and a bench of Philbin, Akauola, Burrell and I'm going to say Walker. Mamao plus one other to make up the 19 (normally I would have said Widdop or Latu put in there to keep the opposition guessing - but that's very risky this season with the new ruling on late changes)

Positives from the opening weeks of the season:

- Didn't let heads drop when down to 12 men against Wigan
- Nilled the Saints
- Matty Ashton looks like a real find
- Currie showing positive signs of re-emergence
- Widdop getting back to fitness
- Ratchford signing a new contract

and we don’t lose by many

We’re effective at kicking penalties

The fans enjoy a moan and being miserable.

Price has gotten us to no worse than when TS left.

We got Hoover as our major sponsor, and not Dyson or Shark.

TS is an infinitely better coach than Price and his exit still leaves a nasty taste in my mouth. If we played HKR tomorrow, who you put your money on?

Exactly this, some of the rugby we played under smith was unbelievable! If we take our blinkered glasses off we as fans will admit at Wembley price got lucky with a number of things that culminated in us lifting the trophy and he still should’ve been axed because of our league form, the board needs to wake up and quickly realise it isn’t going to get any better.

We have some real quality international standard players - Clark, Ratchford, Lineham, Charnley, Austin, Widdop, Murdoch-Masilla, Hill, Cooper.
We have the most exciting prospect in SL currently - Ashton.
We have exceptional facilities and resources.
We have all the raw ingredients in place to be a top team.

All we lack is better coaching, belief and discipline.

Agree with this but Tony himself said he had grown tired and said in 2017 "And I feel that it's now in the best interests of all for us to go in different directions."

He continued ...

"I wouldn't be excited about jumping into anything in rugby league just at the moment. I'd love to see some changes before I could get excited about the game as a whole,".

It was time for him to go. Everything that starts, ends.

Whether you’re in the Smith camp or not, the conversation must have been (at board level) as to who was available to do a better job than Smith. Price must have been judged to have been better (not sure on what yardstick)

The problem is now, the board would need to ask the same question. Given that the premium club in the competition opted for Woolf (missed a trick on the marketing benefit of that appointment) who is a relative unknown shows that the available coaches aren’t of a particularly high standard. Do the club gamble, or stick with someone who has a little success and is ‘close’ to achieving something.

Price was not even on the radar when Smith left. Remember KF went to Australia to a) find, then b) interview a number of applicants.

I'm not sure we need a well known name. How many had heard of Justin Holbrook before his appointment.

If KF got on a plane with a blank notepad then we should be more worried. The names at the time we’re Price, Garth Brennan, Dean Pay and Andrew Henderson. Brennan got the sack from Gold Coast, Pay didn’t set the world alight at the Bulldogs, Henderson’s credentials have suffered if anything by being number 2 (or 3, alongside Briers). So who’s next?

Quote ="Barbed Wire"If KF got on a plane with a blank notepad then we should be more worried. The names at the time we’re Price, Garth Brennan, Dean Pay and Andrew Henderson. Brennan got the sack from Gold Coast, Pay didn’t set the world alight at the Bulldogs, Henderson’s credentials have suffered if anything by being number 2 (or 3, alongside Briers). So who’s next?'" That's not what I said. I said the club only started actively looking after Smith's departure was announced and this article, a month later, lends support to that. https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/sp ... cruitment/ I cannot find any mention of Steve Price prior to 10th September 2017.

Quote ="Barbed Wire"If KF got on a plane with a blank notepad then we should be more worried. The names at the time we’re Price, Garth Brennan, Dean Pay and Andrew Henderson. Brennan got the sack from Gold Coast, Pay didn’t set the world alight at the Bulldogs, Henderson’s credentials have suffered if anything by being number 2 (or 3, alongside Briers). So who’s next?'" That's not what I said. I said the club only started actively looking after Smith's departure was announced and this article, a month later, lends support to that. https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/sp ... cruitment/ I cannot find any mention of Steve Price prior to 10th September 2017.

Good enough to be "a" top team, not "the" top team.

We already are "a" top team. We won the Challenge Cup last year and have made three major finals out of the four available during Price's time. Like you say we have plenty of good players, but those players don't separate us from Hull, Wigan, Saints. How many of those, will be remembered in the same vein as Les Boyd, Lee Briers, Adrian Morley, Michael Monaghan? (None of whom ever won the main prize with us either).

The recruitment has not been good enough if we want to credibly push for being the top team. Yes good enough to keep us there or thereabouts but not to separate us at the top, despite the bullocks that KF spouts about with our squad we should be clean sweeping Wigan, he hasn't given us a squad that much better than them.

Also when you say we have all the raw ingredients, the glaring omission is: an Academy system that is better than our rivals Wigan and Saints.

Whoever takes the Warrington job has a disadvantage relative to those clubs from the relative weakness of the Academy.



Sure but there are a lot more relative unknowns who don't do well. Going with an unknown is just rolling the dice and playing the lottery. If we sack Price and promote Lee Mitchell to head coach are you going to think, well he might be the next Holbrook....

I would play a long game - unless we look like getting relegated. Price has won us a Challenge Cup and even with the Holbrook comparison we need to be careful. Before he beat Salford in that Grand Final he was seen as a coach who lost all their big games, against teams they should have beaten. If he'd taken over as Warrington coach and had us clear top of the league then losing a playoff at home and losing at Wembley we would have had a lot of angry questioning at that point too.

I'd keep Price rather than play the lottery, but keep an eye out for the availability of guys like Wane or anybody from the NRL who has a proven record as a winner, and then at the point someone comes available, make a move.

This is the only thing stopping Wire dominating the league IMO.

Havent we just had the most academy players selected for the England squad? More than Saints, Wigan and Leeds, so this cant be an excuse anymore. We've made HUGE strides with our Academy. Our problems lie with the coaching staff, I agree with Sally in that Price should be given time until someone becomes available. I'm not sure if Watson or Danny Ward might be worth a go.

I'd forgotten about Ward. He performed miracles with London laat year and they are punching above their weight again this season.

I'd have him above Wane, based on the quality of rugby.

Quote ="Wires71"That's not what I said. I said the club only started actively looking after Smith's departure was announced and this article, a month later, lends support to that. https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/sp ... cruitment/ I cannot find any mention of Steve Price prior to 10th September 2017.'" The general consensus is that Smith’s leaving was a ‘managed exit’ with both parties wanting to go separate ways. Are you suggesting that the club entered into these discussions without forward planning? Or that they accepted his resignation without consideration of a replacement

Quote ="Wires71"That's not what I said. I said the club only started actively looking after Smith's departure was announced and this article, a month later, lends support to that. https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/sp ... cruitment/ I cannot find any mention of Steve Price prior to 10th September 2017.'" The general consensus is that Smith’s leaving was a ‘managed exit’ with both parties wanting to go separate ways. Are you suggesting that the club entered into these discussions without forward planning? Or that they accepted his resignation without consideration of a replacement

I honestly believe the club started looking for a replacement when it became clear that Smith's position was no longer tenable. I don't believe there was a master plan that resulted in Steve Price.

I was saying that a relative unknown does not necessarily mean a "lower quality coach" as hinted at by the previous poster and used Holbrook to back up my point. Of course I am not advocating that we promote someone [ibecause [/ithey are unknown and hope for the best.

The Holbrook comparison is based on conjecture to say "if this, if that", just look at his stats.

P 87
W 70
D 0
L 17
Win Ratio 80%

Truth is he came in shortly before Price when Saints were in a shambles, delivered 2 LLS and a GF in 2.5 years. I'd rather have that than a CC win and 2 runners up medals and a downward spiral of league form.