The dross he inherited finished 3rd last season, losing only 5 games along the way(same as the mighty saints). Oh, and we scored more points than them as well. It can't all be down to hill leaving surely?

Yeh then knocked out the playoffs by HKR. Letting Hill go was a massive mistake without replacing him. This club is not a middle of the table club with the backing and infrastructure in place but we may as well be, like Lefty says we to nice and not ruthless enough. Wonder what entertainment Mr Fitzpatrick as got for us next week, would rather watch Saturday night takeaway than whatever he comes up with.

I think Saints, Catalans, Wigan and Huddersfield will be the 1st to 4th teams at the end of the season.

We are contesting the 5th spot in my opinion, which is pi$$ poor given the investment in our club.

Of course there's zero guarantee that Hill would have made any difference, and had he still been here the cries would have been:

"He's too old, we should have let him go and given Bullock/Philbin a go...."

I’ve been quite open with my reservations, but Powell hasn’t had his best team on the field yet. It’s not much of a saving grace, given that a few absences have been suspensions but let’s at least see what the first team can do.

I would imagine that Harrison would have been one of his first choice pack members, given that Powell made a move for him early.

Charnley is effective and was missed on Friday, his suspension hurt us. Holmes (for reasons unknown) appears to be a cornerstone of Powells pack and has sat out 2 games. Cooper, Clark, King are all starters who have missed.

That said, scraping home against 11 men against Leeds and putting away easy beats in Castleford and Toulouse is the summary of our success so far, not inspiring.

Do you realise speaking sensibly and reasonably can get you a ban lol

I don't see how we can continue to point out how many players we have that are not good enough or how many times we remind ourselves this is the worst pack we've had in over a decade yet still keep putting the blame on the coach.

Walkers pass to Philbin when widdop was expecting it shows that some players are getting Powell's system where others are still reverting to older systems when under pressure. I think we've won the games expected and lost two games against sides that are peaking and have been together under their coach for sometime our squad is on its way out and under a new coach really unfair at the moment to make comparisons.

My main worry is that saints gave away enough penalties and turned over enough ball for us to make a better contest than it was on the score board.

There's four things that I hope DP is focussing on, improving each players individual performance, changing the style of play, promoting teamwork and team ethic and recruiting the right players for positions we are weak in. This would be the focus I'd be expecting, no matter who was in charge. Time will judge DP, with recruitment being difficult, as we can only change the squad when members come off contract. The playing style may take a season to implement, and that goes for individual player development too. Work should have started on all of these, with no quick fixes or guarantees that we'll get what we wish for. It's a case of be patient and suck it up, something we ought be well practised at.

One thing I wonder about, is are we rushing players back too soon? Last season, Daryl Clark was not the player he has been last season, nor is he in 2022. It was reported that he needed treatment for more than one injury during the off system, and I was surprised that he came back so early in the season. Cooper doesn't look as if he's as effective after suffering from a reported illness, either. There's others I could mention. Having said that, it's highly unlikely that any coach is able to put out their best side, fully fit, on a regular basis, but It does affect the side when your more influential players are in the stands, or not firing on all cylinders. I hope that DP will put more trust in other members of the squad, rather than risk the health of one or more of his first choice 17. It may turn out that we fail to make the playoffs, but we need to plan for being part of them, having as many of our best players available when the time comes, playing as a team, knowing what the plan is, and effectively executing it.

I'm prepared to be disappointed when we get to September, as long as there are tangible signs of us moving in the right direction.

Lineham seems to have a different opinion of the management at warrington than many on here. He's right about Toby though, ppl lamenting him, everything we did well for him at the start of last year, we haven't done (high balls) since he came back from injury https://twitter.com/WhatBevan/status/15 ... us6wg&s=19

Lineham seems to have a different opinion of the management at warrington than many on here. He's right about Toby though, ppl lamenting him, everything we did well for him at the start of last year, we haven't done (high balls) since he came back from injury https://twitter.com/WhatBevan/status/15 ... us6wg&s=19

Am I being fussy to suggest I want more from an international centre than just the ability to catch a high ball?

nope thats bang on, but when you've got a player who's got a strength that 9 times out of 10 teams couldn't defend it, why would you stop utilizing it?

The Warrington way as he says as not win us a Grand Final, we have to be different but right now it is just not working.

5 games into a new coach’s tenure, lost to Saints and Catalans, seems a bit early to say “it’s not working”.

But the fact is our attack looks no better than it did under price. In fact, I'd say we look even worse.

I’m not saying he’s the Messiah, just it takes time for systems to bed in, 3 off season signings haven’t made it onto the pitch. Give the new coach a bit of time before giving up on him.

against saints and catalans, prior to that, as sky have highlighted, we did appear to have some success working our overlaps, the 3 on 3 and putting the winger in which we definitely weren't able to do last year, hence ratchford coming in for a lot of flak for his lack of assists.

If the last 3 years of Lineham's tenure is the "Warrington Way" I'm glad we're changing course. Price's rugby league was awful to watch.

Tom Lineham… “Darth Powell”

These are not the props you are looking for!

What?..,when you’re 1/14 to win and get trounced?

What were the odds against HKR in the playoffs? Lots of work to do, so yes it is too early

Far too early IMO. It would be good to have a full squad available before judging really. There hasn't been much in terms of performance, our prop situation really isn't helping at all. Catalans and saints are better than us, the spirit shown in fighting to the end against catalans was encouraging albeit too little, too late but we Steve price teams threw the towel in if we went 2 scores down and far too often scoring 20 points in a game looked very, very unlikely.

I hope we see some changes this week, time for Powell to select the players who are best adapting to his systems. Longstaff in for Hughes who for me shouldn't make the 17, I'd like to see butler for Philbin as well.

I am happy for Powell to be given time build the success we aspire to.
Just looking at Huddersfield. Last year everybody was saying that Watson over performed at Salford because he was a Salford lad. It takes a good 12 months to 2 years to mould a team to how you want them. Similar applies to Brett Hodgson. It will take time. When you look at our results for Tony Smith's first year in charge we were pretty poor but managed to get a decent draw in the challenge cup. In 2010 apart from regulation defeats by saints, Leeds and wigan we only lost to Hull KR and Catalan away before the Huddersfield game when Nathan Brown went galloping down the touchline then progressing to the performances of 2011
The club need to be strong here. If players dont want to embrace the Powell philosophies then the club should back the coach all the way and if that results in big name players leaving then so be it. I am sure it took Tony Smith a bit of time to persuade players like Briers, Bridge, Westwood to buy into his style of play. It also took a while to sign Solomona that was a very similar player (ball handling) to Ali Lautiti that Smith signed for Leeds.
I would prefer we dont go back to signing the forwards like we have signed in recent years just because they are "available" or we go with what we have got and if the right player becomes available then we will be in a position to put a deal together.

Well said. Tony Smith took time to get the side into shape and got rid of high profile players (Gleeson) and dropped others (Briers).

No more "filler" signings or "gamble" or "last chance saloons". Less is more. Go for quality.


Some atrocious singings since 2014 (start of our demise)

Roy Asotasi
Anthony England
Matthew Russell
Gary Wheeler
Ryan Bailey
Ben Pomeroy
Dom Crosby
Jordan Cox (RIP)
Matty Blythe
Sitaleki Akoula
Matty Smith
Lama Tasi
Leilani Latu
Luther Burrell


Quality players lost since 2014
Lee Briers
Ritchie Myler
Michael Monaghan
Brett Hodgson
Ben Westwood
Paul Wood
Ryan Atkins
Simon Grix
Trent Waterhouse

Those. ‘Atrocious’ signings was hard reading.

Huddersfield...

They've lost against Wigan and beaten no one special. Let's see how they do against Catalans, St Helens (and us) before we get carried away by Watson.

Oh God, I had forgotten that Matty Smith played for us! I must have been trying to block it out, for the purposes of mental self-preservation.