I'm hoping Butler comes to the fore next season. He was excellent at London and I thought he'd be a new Hill but just didn't seem to get going. Hopefully Powell can get the best out of him again. That will be like a new signing if so. I think Harrison is the Hill replacement signing - which is a shame he's got a bad injury before even joining us.

Going back to the OT - I like this signing - we've tended to do better when signing younger Aussies looking for a chance - Mackey, Domic etc all came over with little fanfare and did the business for us. Also the likes of Bob Jackson were unheralded at the time.

The return of the Reserves should help in terms of prepping players to come through rather than just farming them out.

Agreed, we are likely to need it for players returning from long term injuries as well!

In all honesty regarding recruitment the signing of Williams gives me good cause for optimism, he's a fantastic player. In Williams and widdop we have the best half back pairing in superleague on paper IMO. Just need the pack to be a better overall unit to give them the platform to do their thing. I'm sure powell will allow them more freedom in plays and make sure there are other players actually looking to support breaks.

Would anyone else be up for giving Thewlis the no 1 shirt in 2022 and using Ratchford as more of a utility player? Nice vote of confidence in an outstanding young player and a bit of a ‘changing of the guard’ statement of intent

I think Ratchford`s contract with Wire expires at the end of 2022.

Thewlis is ready now and I agree give him his chance and use Ratchford as required within the 17 man squad.

Ratchford with the 8 shirt then

Possibly the only position he hasn't played for us!

Joking apart and pardon the pun, but I'm looking forward to seeing how Mulhearn goes this year under Powell and without Hill. I think (probably hope is more accurate) he's got a chance of stepping up and taking on a bit more of a responsible leading role.

BTW J Clark 9/10 Roberts 7/10 Mulhearn 6/10 what was that all about

Starting shirts should be given on performances rather than potential. I thought Thewlis had a very good year last year on the wing and merited his selection as a starter even when Lineham returned.

I haven't seen from him yet that he deserves to start at full back ahead of Ratchford, although I hope he is given first opportunity if Ratchford is unavailable due to injury / moving to the halves to stake a claim.

Saddened!

He said in an interview months ago that he is solely responsible for hiring and firing. If the squad is weaker, that is on Powell. He had the chance to resign all except Inglis, but has hand picked from his current squad and has luxury of Williams starting the season having been in the group for 6 months with full pre season under his belt. No excuses, I expect improvement.

To be fair he has not been able to handpick the vast majority of the squad. He has inherited a lot of players I doubt he would have signed.

Yeah, he'd probably have got Danny Richardson in.

We are on thin ice mocking other clubs' signings. Those in glass houses ...

In Powell's defence, not that it is neccessary, Richardson was a dream team member in 2018, selected for England Knights, and got a grand final ring for 2019. His form then fell off a cliff for reasons unknown. So at least this signing was based on a reasonable record. Some signings just dont work out as we are well aware.

If Powell starts extending the contracts of prop forwards and playing them on the wing then we will know we are ed again.

We have a better all round squad than we had this year, a coach who has a habit of getting the best out of players, and a coach that builds teams....TEAM being the optimal word......that play for each other. Rather than a team with a few stars littered about that they rely on.
I'm happy with our squad for 2022 and know what the players we have can produce in the right enviroment.
I'm happy with the squad, happy with the coach and can't wait for next season the start.

Totally agree. I have optimism for 2022. Not that we will win all before us, but we will show we are taking the first steps on the right path. I think we will play nice rugby too. It's the same feeling I had in 2009 when we appointed Smith.

I’m not so fussy. I’d take any of them over any of them. If there’s any jealousy, they can join in and I’ll watch.

Not that excited about any signings in SL this year.
Hill and Mamo should do well, as should Hurrell.
Not sure how Agar is going to play the Austin/Sezer/Gale/Myler thing though.

I agree about the 'team' being more important than individuals and think Powell has a good record here.
Whether that's enough to win trophies remains to be seen.

The one thing going for the squad this year should be less pressure. Powell has talked about it personally, and the media should be off our backs a little bit as we aren't gambling on the likes of Inglis et al. If anything, it's Leeds and Agar who will really feel it this year. With Sezer and Austin, and the media love-in over their academy breakthroughs (who at this stage don't seem any better than ours to me) the fans will want results. They'll need Prior and Oledzki to maintain their form if that is going to happen.

Oh, and on the Atomic Kitten issue: I don't think you can honestly say that they're any better or worse than Little Mix. Atomic Kitten were part of the Cullen era and we all know what distractions were around to stop them reaching their potential. Sure, Little Mix have been more consistent and the change in culture of the Smith era certainly got the best out of them. Still didn't win them the big prize though, just a few Brit awards, which as we know are just Mickey Mouse trophies and a night in London for the fans.

Took my daughter years ago to see atomic kitten in Manchester..surprising how many dad's were there..as for our signing Billy magoulias never heard of him...let's hope he goes well for us..as for the season ahead top 4 would be a bonus.but can see us fighting it out around 6th spot

Agree with this, I've been really encouraged by what Powell has said so far in interviews, he seems to have identified problems which is something that our previous coach couldn't do. We do have a lot of good players on our side and more to come from most of over last couple of years form.

Leeds have to play Gale and sezer in the halves surely? Myler will possibly be reserve fullback if jack walker is fit, Austin could be used as LF or maybe to play 9? If it was us with those 4 in the squad I wouldn't be viewing that as good use of the cap.

May be a bit on the pessimistic side there... the current Cas squad under Powell was battling around 6th this year - surely we are better than that Cas squad, even if we are a bit light in the front row? On paper, how much better are our nearest rivals for 2nd place (Leeds, Wigan and Cats)?

Here's an interesting one for everybody to ponder... Would you rather have (a) our current squad plus Hill or another top prop, but coached by Agar, McNamara or Peet, or (b) our current squad [iwithout [/iHill or A.N.O Prop, but coached by Powell? It's the latter every time for me.

Definitely the latter. Hill is good for another couple of seasons BUT he needed to be replaced. Jordan Abdull played really well this past season behind a pack which isn't as good as ours will be in 2022 (IMO) he benefitted hugely from a coach who understood him, gave him responsibility and freedom in a team which emphasised attack and he kicked on massively. I think every one of our players except maybe Cooper (should be made captain this season) could benefit and reach higher performance levels under Powell. I don't think anyone else performed to their maximum ability (certainly in attack) last season except maybe Hill and Mamo who have left. So by my book practically every player we have can perform better.

We have to play differently with the squad for 2022 but that really isn't a bad thing at all. I do think there will be games where errors just kill us and overall i don't think we (or anyone else) can compete with saints for top spot. Saints will be the favourites this season for every trophy and in every game they play, rightly so, but we may not have to beat Saints to win anything and we can absolutely compete with everyone else.

I think I will enjoy watching more warrington games in 2022 than I have in each of the last 3 seasons. Surely that's reason for a little optimism.

We'll be in the top 3

Well it looks like this is sorted at Leeds Sneyd has gone to Salford on a 3 year deal and Luke Gale has signed for Hull FC for 2022. So Sezer and Austin it is then with Myler as cover by the look of things.