Doesn't it make you feel proud how things have changed the last few years considering now when even though we haven't made the playoffs this time round we still have the challenge cup under our belts a great squad of players and a world class coach who can only take us higher as far as im concerned anyone else agree?

Aye, With a full pre-season under Tony and the 3 new signings we should be in a strong position this time next year.

More like the last 5 months tbh.

3 top signings and a strong youth policy which gives real depth to the squad.

Where we have come from, is nowhere near as exciting as where we are heading.

That's the real key in taking the club forward to a new level to match Leeds & Saints, allied of course to a fantastic coach

Not according to Live Wired.

I am going to reserve my judgement on this question, yes we now have a trophy which is fantastic still don't think it has sunk in, however, we finished a lowly 10th in the league.

We have had top signings before but in the past it usually seems that as soon as they wear the primrose and blue the suddenly become average

The reason i am reserving my judgement is because as a poster above said lets see what we do next season after a full close season under Tony Smith.

Can't wait for 2010 season bring it on.

Paul

Looking at next seasons sqaud its a very exciting time to be a Wire fan.

Three quality signings, the key one being Myler to allow Monaghan to play a full season at hooker.

With the young players coming through we will huge competition for places, especially in the forwards.

The squad still lacks a quality loose forward IMO, and we are also one prop short. TS hasn't said recruitment is over for next year has he?

With the squad we have, there's lots of head scratching really, who's future lies where.

Grix could be your loose y'know, he has everything, barring maybe the body. Is Clarke now looking at a life as thirteen that spends spells of games at hooker, thing with Smith is, there's plenty of positional movement 'in game', you often say half a dozen players spending small periods at hooker, or moving around, so sometimes it's not as black & white as we all make out.

I think any of Westwood, Harrison or Louis Anderson, maybe even Solomona would make a fist of that '5th prop' slot, and that's excluding Adam Neal. The emergence of Tyke, may push this along.

It's an exciting squad next year, especially with the numbers now starting to come through, and be 'instantly ready' for SL from the junior set up. It's a squad with many options, and with Smith and his willingness to play people anywhere, it gives him alot of scope week to week.

Agree with PostL.

The margins between success and failure can be very small, and how things are perceived can be very different.

We beat Hull KR by one point in the Challenge Cup quarter final. If we had lost that how would it be perceived. 10th in the league and a Challenge Cup QF - would we still have as much optimism...?

Still if you look at Tony Smiths past record, he took over a permanent wooden horse in Huddersfield and made them competitive, he took over a permanent "nearly there" team in Leeds and won them two Grand Finals, he took over us and won a bloody trophy. He does bring success with him whereever he goes so that bodes well.

Yep, can;t really disagree, but on your point about the margins being very small, well that works both ways.

After 9 games, we were 13th, and way out of it with some very poor performances, however there are a few games where we lost by the smallest of margins. Leeds home and away, Salford away, and then we had the period around the cup semi and the final. Had we lost at the qf stage, then the focus may have been greater on the league, and players wouldn't have been rested. Now I'm not saying we would have beaten Wigan away, Wakey at home, or Hull KR away, however I do think we would have been closer in all three, and we have proven that we can beat all of these teams.

For me, overall, it has been a pleasing season. We have done something that we have never done in the 22ish years I have been watching, and that is win one of the big two trophies. That'll do for me for starters, and then let's see what they can deliver next year. For once, our optimism is justified.

You are right, fine margins.

At least this year, we have something tangible to build our belief on, as oppose to the usual thought processes.

If nothing else, forgetting any player in the squad, we have the best coach in SL, so that gives you a fighting chance, as proven.

If we had lost that CC quarter final, I would have expected us to finish 6th or 7th.

ok then if we had not won the challenge cup and finished 10th then thigns would of been said diffrent but when you look back at the hull kr game the old warrington would of given up all hope after going behind in the 2nd half where as now theres more reason to be optomistic with smith in charge and the right squad of players to choose from exiting times next year i think and a few more players to come maybe?

I fear if we had not won the Challenge Cup we would likely be talking about a new coach now!

Take away the cup win and the boo's would have been ringing around the HJ at quarter to five last night. The phrase, "down to the bare bones!" has been trotted out for the past three seasons, by three different coaches. The difference this year has been the emergence of a good core of local youngsters, ready to step up to the plate. The highlight of this year for me has been Messers Riley, Harrison and Cooper becoming first team regulars. Personally I would rather see the youngsters given a chance rather than welcoming "Superstars" into the fold.

I believe Tony Smith to be the best coach in the competition by a country mile. Lets get behind him and see where it leads! Time to end the fickle nature of support that has been evident over the past few years!

Come on the Wires!

Not to mention your huge transfer kitty.

Without Moran, you'd be nothing!

I don't think its as simple as, if we'd lost to Hull KR we would have finished 6th. It wouldn't be exactly a first at Warrington, if we had gone into a tailspin for the final couple of months of the season and then said "the Challenge Cup defeat flattened us". We usually find that those last minute defeats to Saints have a demoralising effect that take us 4 or 5 weeks to recover from, so who knows what damage either a narrow defeat to Hull KR or losing that semi to Wigan would have done....I don't reckon it would have seen us boost form thats for sure!

We finished where we finished on merit, we weren't a very good team. We played some good rugby in parts and looked a match for anyone, but we did that under Van de Velde and Cullen.

I think over a three or four year cycle under Tony Smith we will we a much stronger club at the end of it compared to the start but the biggest enemy now could be expectation, because expectation breeds anger and vitriol when things turn out harder than we expected.

Take the World Cup last year, I remember the hype on here about how we were going to shove it up those arrogant Aussies, and when I came on as the soothsayer of doom warning what awaited us in the World Cup, I was assured that this time it would be different, it was a different England team and a different coach who'd coached GB to a 3-0 series win against the Kiwis. Fast forward about three weeks and that coach was a disaster who couldn't get the Saints and Leeds players to sit together at the lunch table, whos selections and tactics were all wrong etc.

Those sorts of things will be said by Warrington fans about Smith next season because realistically we are going to finish about 4th/5th in the league and not win any trophies, some people who hated Cullen when he was here will point out the obvious....we achieved the same under Cullen. A lot of teams have strengthened now and so its not easy, 4th or 5th would be a good achievement and what will separate whether it is a good or disappointing season will be whether Smith can do what he did with us in the Challenge Cup this season, ie get us to do what we have to do in the games we have to do it, and make an impact in the playoffs. He got Leeds to the Grand Final three times out of four, the only time he didn't was when we beat them at Headingley in 2006, so on that score it bodes well. Whenever we made the playoffs under Cullen we went into them in bad shape.

Another feature of next season will be how mercilessly Richie Myler will be slated, unless he is genuinely brilliant and hits the ground running - which he might do. The same thing is brewing that Penny faced a couple of years back when people were calling him the new Martin Offiah...the whole world of RL including our own fans were waiting for the first chance to slag him off and say he was overrated, and Myler will get that for sure next year. Myler and his big transfer fee will be a target to hear about how Latchford/Tomkins etc were far better, Warrington got mugged, etc. He will have to be a tough character to ride it out.

Bloody ell Cinammon,you cant go stating obvious facts like that on here,you might upset rugbythick and her myopic cronies.

Still,Grinner looks to be going in the right direction,getting rid of the deadwood,Doug"let me get on the pitch" hoyle leaving and hopefully Broomhead will be next to leave.Which to my eyes just leaves,p45s to the souvenir shop,the defensive trainers and the publicity team.

But you are correct.Realistically,we are looking at 5th place at best,not because of any great improvement on our part, but the decline of other teams,namely Saints,Wigan,wakefield and Bradford.

See, I just can't find a reason to agree with that.

Are the sands of time playing tricks with your mind?

I don't recall ever seeing a thread on here, during the whole time I have been registered where it has been stated that GB/England would turn over Australia.

How about,Leeds,Hull kr,St Helens and Huddersfield for a start.And thats without mentioning Castleford,who if their home form,matched their away form,would have finished 2nd!!

If any of the also rans are going to improve massively next season,it will be Castleford.They're only downfall seems to be the pack size,but positionally,in Sherwin,Chase,shenton and Westerman (future GB captain),they have more to offer than we have.

That's just it, we don't need to "improve massively" to find ourselves in that four.

If we just "improve", we'll walk into that four.

well we do in defence.Any defense that ships in 30/game,seriously needs looking at.Years ago we could rely on our defense,but the last few years,defensively,we've been awful and I would'nt be surprised to learn if we started going downhill when Paul Derbyshire left the training ranks for Ireland.

we've got a lad here potentially is explosive and he's already proven it.All he needs is a good defense coach and he'll be talked about like Offiah.So what did we do?blamed him for everything that went wrong early in the season and knocked the confidence out of him,by publicaly dropping him into the reserves and critising him.

Our defence seemed pretty good in the final. Tends to suggest that it is the commitment of individuals that is letting the team collectively doesn't it? Players win games, coaches lose them and all that...