That's all well and good personally for him, but it clearly didn't translate all that well outside of his own performances. Wise crack all you want, but if he's as much as born winner and leader of men as people say, it simply hasn't translated through the teams he has played for nor coached overall. He hardly led a dynasty at Souths did he? And nobody as yet has an answer to that. If he couldn't get his teammates to win consistently then I can't see it changing as a coach.

Dear me fella - what have you got against him - did he p!ss on your chips or something?

Souths won the 2014 premiership and he was Clive Churchill medallist in the final - that's 'leader of men' stuff for me. I've watched plenty of games where he's pulled out the big hits to fire his team up when they seemed flat.

As for coaching - he's never been head coach so it's a bit of a stretch to hold that against him.

All ths stuff I'm hearing that he's doing behind the scenes - [ibefore he even takes over[/i - is exactly what I want to hear.

Quite. And if that was all he'd done in his career, it'd be more than 99.99% of all rugby league players have done.

I'm not a big fan of this appointment but you can't knock Burgess's playing record or say that he isn't a winner. Right up there with Adrian Morley as an English player who went to Australia and established himself as one of the most dominant forwards in their game.

I think it will change the perspective of Aussie players wanting to play for Warrington just because of his standing over there. He is somebody they will all view with huge respect. It will be easier for us to attract certain players if Sam Burgess is calling them up. Also I think there's less risk of Aussie players at the club forming cliques and downing tools because they don't like or respect the coach or if they have an idea in the back of their minds that Warrington and England is a bit beneath them.

So there are positives. However, I wouldn't go overboard about this as we hear it often, especially in football. Frank Lampard, Patrick Vieira, Steven Gerrard they haven't exactly been fantastic in the Premier League. Neither was Graeme Souness who was the ultimate 'born winner'. Being a great player isn't the same as being a great coach.

So who do you want as our head coach..don't say wane cos he will never ever come here...

If he's able to recruit an able assistant who can fill in the gaps, ie attacking tactics etc etc, I think this could work out really well. I think the biggest problem we've had is that the incoming player signings have not respected the club enough and been attracted mainly by money - this lack of respect has manifested into lack of effort and aspiration. This changes overnight when Sam arrives and hopefully our players will at least be playing for the badge, a major element in the success of an SL side. The examples of failures by high profile footballers is a good point though, so I do respect your concerns on this.

With a broken cheekbone for 79 minutes. That says something about his guts and determination.

Time will tell.

Once again, its not my job to figure that out. It doesn't mean I can't have a negative opinion on a decision made, based on the facts at hand. Which is - Burgess' personal success never did anything for those around him, because aside from 1 solitary year, all Souths were, were nearly men. We've had that ad nauseum.

I state facts, and it apparently means I've got something against him for some reason. I don't. I am against HIS APPOINTMENT. You lot believe he will do great things for us based on the guys personal success. His standards are clearly high, he's proven it time and time again. Good for him. Those standards however, never rubbed off on any of his teammates bar one year. And it took him 5 to do that. So if he couldn't get Souths to build any longevity while he was on the field, why would he be able to do it with Warrington from the sideline, in 2 years? Our problems run far deeper than theirs.

I think your challenge is fair, and I think those comments in support of Burgess are fair also. It could be a master stroke, it could be a disaster, it could be somewhere in between. Either way - it's done now. We ride the roller coaster.

Well as most of us have stated it will go one of two ways - very well or very badly. This is Wire so the latter is certainly the more likely but you never know they may surprise us. It is not as if Burgess is going to be pitting his wits against many coaching giants of the game during his time here.

But the alternative traditional coaches available were all more of a risk than Powell was. Holbrook doesn’t have that much pedigree in fact, and wasn’t tearing up the NRL.

So since we can’t get your desired Bennett/Bellamy style coaching guru, we may as well try something completely different, knowing that this path will have a better chance of galvanising this group of players. As for the technical aspects of the role, we’ll have to hope that the staff we put around Burgess will keep things in order.

I’m less perturbed by this than I thought I would be. And I’m normally a glsss half empty sort of person where Warrington is involved!

When Burgesses time with the Wire is over & he returns to the NRL as a winner or a loser in the superleague , the real outcome will be the verdict on the competence of the board of directors. Their reputation is on the line more than Sam's with this appointment.

As supporters,all we can do is embrace this appointment for the next 2 years & hope Sam works wonders with the cloth he has as we contest SL probably by the seat of our pants.

Look, you're right - you're welcome to an opinion, however gloomy. I just wonder about the absolute certainty you have that it will all end so badly. I'm willing to accept that it could end badly. But I prefer to think that Sam has looked at us, decided there is a job that could be done and offered up his services. If the reports of him requesting training videos and keeping Gary Chambers up til 2 am are right, then he certainly means business. All the testimonials he's received from down under since the announcement are positive. Surely the winter will pass better with a sense of optimism than utter dread?

My final point - sorry about this but my inner John Cleese just won't let this go - nausea is first declension - the accusative takes -am. So ad nause[iam[/i - write it out 5 times!

2 points. 1 for the comments on Burgess and another point for the Latin.

Watching training videos should be the minimum expectation of a coach walking into an organisation lol? And keeping Chambers up till 2am? Well for Sam its 2pm, so he's just up at normal hours, nothing above and beyond about that.

Also, i'm not saying it'll end badly. I'm saying the best we're gonna get is top 4. Which is useless, we've been there, done that, most seasons. Burgess getting us to do that is just the absolute minimum expectation based on the previous decade. So people saying he'll do a job, and 'can't be any worse than Powell' well no, i'd agree. But 4th shouldn't be acceptable either and yet everyone seems content with that just cause we've had a couple crap years.

OK - but the fact he doesn't start the job for months must deserve some credit - even from you!??

To an extent. But its still largely just due dilligence and likely something every coach does when hired months in advance of taking over a club. I'm sure Price did that before he came over. He very clearly did because there's no way he just turned up day 1 and had us in two finals first year.

No that was down to Tyrone roberts

It would appear that the club previously went with what the fans want in their decision to appoint Powell and not consider wane. Sick of the we want to be entertained ideology some want this more than a grand final win!!

Burgess is a risk I think he is taking a bigger risk by coming here as his first big job so both parties will be doing their utmost to make sure it works out but he extends his contract to stay longer rather than go to the NRL.

I don't understand how so many people know him and his rugby knowledge and coaching ability when they probably didn't know who he was coaching or what he has been doing after he retired ??

But ,then again, so did DP & that didn't end well .

https://warringtonwolves.com/news/2023/ ... of-season/

https://warringtonwolves.com/news/2023/ ... of-season/

Shudders

Respectfully, you cannot say that with certainty at this stage. It may well turn out to be the case but you cannot be 100% certain.

I don’t know what happened over night but I have woken up brim full of optimism! Of course it may just be that we don’t have a game this weekend but I don’t think so. C’mon the WIRE!!!!