I have just read in league express that this season is likely to be the last for Chris Hicks at Warrington. Never say never,but it looks like we will lose him. It would be a shame if we did in my opinion as he has been a really solid player for us when fit. Unless we have an even better replacement coming in then I would be looking to keep him if I was Tony Smith. I wonder if Smith is planning on another year working on Kevin Penny before replacing Hicks with him next season?

Bear in mind he will be 33 this year, I think hes on about retiring.

'We all know that hicks is probably going to leave'

yeh it's a shame but looks like he is set to retire hopefully on a high wth us

With the emergence of Riley & the fact that Matt King will have at least another season, we will be in as strong a position as we are now. Williams & Penny waiting "in the wings" so to speak and 3/4 is one area of reserves we are very strong in.

Be interesting to see which player smith brings in to fill the overseas player squad spot.

Got to reduce overseas players to 5 next year. We are currently at 6, so unless Vinnie leaves too, we are at our limit. (This is assuming King, Monaghan, Louis and Solomona do not leave).

I would be suprised if vinnie stays to be honest.... With everyone fit he appears to be outside the 17.

Does David Solo still count on the quota as he has been here more than 5 years?

He counts as overseas trained.

Hicks, V Anderson and Solomona are out of contract at the end of this season. Hicks, ia an exceptional athlete as well as an exceptional RL player. I sincerely hope he doesn't leave, regardless of his age.

Hicks is a couple of months older than Morley, draw your own comparison.

Surely we can get at least another year out of hicks? That's unless he just genuinely wants to go home.

But forwards seem to last longer in the game than backs do. As a player gets older he loses speed and pace, which a back relies on more than a forward.

I see where you are coming from, but that is a rather sweeping generalisation.

whats also been said in the same report is that hicks isn't pleased that warrington have moved the goalposts on the image rights issue and so isn't getting paid what he was promised. So it may be he's not wanting to stay over that as well.

I don't think that the Club had any alternative. The tax man rules this sort of thing and the Salary Cap is also a problem. The Club has acted early and probably negotiated itself out of a fair bit of trouble. Some Football and RU Clubs haven't done anything at all and are about to get seriously hit by the Inland Revenue.

I'd expect Mr Smith to be looking at next season even at this stage and uppermost in his thoughts I would hazard a guess would be a play making loose forward which in the modern game is expected to operate as a third halfback. For all his honest endeavour Ben Harrison just doesn't fit the bill. There's a replacenment for Chris Hicks already at the club..Kevin Penny.

Tony Smith doesn't seem a fan of the playmaking 13 - he often played Kevin Sinfield at 6 when at Leeds, and the same player featured at 9 when Smith in charge of GB. Harrison is a player who simply must be in the team these days & is fitting the bill at 13. It could be the days of the ball playing 13 are numbered - not that many around these days who would fill the Mike Greg/Paul Sculthorpe/Andy Farrell mould.

All things being equal we should keep Hicks as he is top drawer. Don't believe age is an issue as he is one of the naturally fittest sportmen I have ever seen.

If he wants to leave/retire then that's a different matter.

Riley would surely cover for him next year if he left.

Mike Greg was not a ball-playing forward.Tackle machine and good runner of lines off the half-backs.

I sincerely hope we keep him (Hicks)
IMO he is an outstanding RL player who offers the team more than he normally gets credit for.

Only when there was an injury to one of the half backs. He played at 6 a couple of times in 2004 with Burrow coming off the bench and David Furner @ 13.

I respectfully disagree wholeheartedly re the loose forward issue.

In modern day rugby league, the loose forward tends to be closer to a third prop, with someone like Sinfield the exception rather than the rule. Langley, O'Loughlin, Flannery etc are there for their ability to tackle all day long, not for their ball-playing ability (despite O'Loughlin being The Best Passer in the League© Phil Clarke).

And in that sense Harrison is exactly what we need - a tough, uncompromising forward with lots of energy and no little size. With Monaghan, Myler and Briers in the side, we have more than enough playmakers in the side. Having said that, Solomona's size and handling ability is a terrific asset to mix it up.

Couldn't argee more. Ben Harrison has so much potential.

I understand the issue isn`t so much image rights as the GBP -Australian Dollar exchange rate - was around 2.6 Aus to the pound when he signed now he`s getting 40% less than that - conversely it`s one of the reasons why we have SL players moving out to the NRL because even a moderate Aussie squad salary compares well with SL ...