I appreciate we can't win every game, but the manner in which we lose is extremely disappointing at times and worryingly consistent. 3 off the top of my head, Hudds at home, first game with fans after Covid, Hull KR in play offs and weakened Catalans tonight. There's more clearly, Hull in playoffs year before, Catalans in CC final etc etc

After 20-25 mins tonight we have a sub 30% completion rate. That's untenable. What is it in us that doesn't want to go 20 up in the first half. Why are we so poor are bullying teams?

Do we ever look like winning when we go behind? We only beat Leeds after going behind because they played with 12 and then 11 players! 4 games in and we have put in 1 decent performance but that against a team coached by radford!

I have been watching the Wire for many years, and in recent times I feel we are lacking 1 key thing when it starts to go pear shaped - a leader on the pitch.

We desperately need someone with fire and passion in their veins who will stand in front of players and make them want to walk through walls for the privilege of wearing a Wire shirt. I think Danny Walker would be well worth a shout.....

Despite their classy monicker, Cas under Powell always had a few players who got under the opposition skin in one way or another - Watts, McShane, Millington, Massey and Gale weren't angels.

So how have we ended up with a mute pacifist as a captain, and a set of forwards impotently standing around whilst a scrum half struts round verbally bashing us?

It’s physics rather than psychology. We’re a forward pack of 15 stone carbon copies sadly. Who saw this coming?

We have no leader or effective captain. Hughes should be playing for Leigh as no doubt he will be next season.

We have no intimidating forwards.

We have no aggression.

There should be more than one leader on the pitch, making sure that a shift is put in, encouraging, dressing down and organising where and whenever it's required. Walker looks to have it in his DNA, but I don't see it in others. Something that DP needs to work on, and again brings to mind why on earth he appointed Hughes as captain.

Perhaps its a case of Daryl Powell saying "step forward who wants to be captain" & everybody else stepped back ,leaving the job to Jacko.

I have a little prediction competition with a few mates and picked Catalans to win. When asked why I said:

"I know, they're missing their 1, 8, 9, and 10 among a few others. But losing this one would be a very Warrington thing to do."

Whenever we're favourites against a motivated team we have a tendency to just think turning up will be enough. We'll then have a decent spell towards the end up but ultimately fall short.

While our lack of size is an issue this year, I think it goes back to the weak mentality the club has had for years. It's an issue Powell has to sort and not having an effective leader is a big part of the problem,

We can't be definitive simply because we don't hear the on and off field discussions, but I would certainly feel the major culprit is the lack of a forceful, vocal captain. If you look at the team after they concede a try you never see someone waving their arms, gesticulating, banging a fist into their palm, walking around the group and getting eye contact. That's the job of the leader / captain, regardless of how many senior / England players are in the team, somebody still needs to bully and cajole everyone to up their game. But we simply don't see that with the Wire team, instead a group of (apparently) disconsolate players gather near the sticks looking like a women's knitting circle rather than a group determined to up their work rate and hit back twice as hard.

Another possible culprit is attitude. Watching the warm up preparations of a Wigan v Wire academy game ( where you can get within 10 yards of the players ) you see a big difference in attitude. Wigan hit the tackling bags really hard, Wire look as though they are going through the motions and getting their body positions correct. All that can only come from attitude. Start with the right mindset and at high energy levels and you can take the initiative, demoralising the opposition. All too often we see Wire concede early tries followed by a 'spirited reply' which just falls short. Fans go home encouraged by the response believing the team can still win silverware, but the real issue of attitude remains unaddressed.

Those would be my two guesses; mental preparation prior to kick off and lack of a leader.

I took my missus to her first game of rugby on Friday and she knows nothing about it. But she made a few comments
One was, "the other team seem a lot more enthusiastic"
Another was "why do we take longer to get off the floor"
Basic rugby, that we can't even do properly because we think we've got enough 'talent' to win us games.

Strange you should say that ,i took my wife to a game at Wigan about 15 years ago & she said Wigan made the Wire look carp ,like a gang of amateurs even. Perhaps ,as Winslade says ,we should be developing a culture of improving confidence in taking on opponents in a dominant way & not being content with being gallant losers.

Wasn't Widdop the captain of St George Illawarra for 4 seasons?

Great post. Absolutely agree with this.

How is this culture continuing? It's been with us for a decade now.

CEO changed
Coach changed.
Coaching staff changed.
Players changed (bar a few)

Maybe it's the super fan messages on Facebook saying "hard luck Warrington, well played" when we get embarrassed at home that seep through to the players. Or the "very talented" smoke that get's blown up their s from all and sundry.

At least Powell is angered by it and not said "we can learn from it" for the hundredth time in a row. Proof will be if under performing players are dropped. I would start with Philbin. Some players need to be jolted out of their comfort zone.

I’d certainly back Walker for Captain. He’s always animated and never afraid to have a dig at the more senior squad members (see Cooper in round 1). It wouldn’t surprise me to see Powell give him the role at some point in the future. All depends on what happens with Clark I guess.

The culture must just get passed on from one generation to the next. Even in these down years, you sense that Wigan know that the only thing good enough for the club is winning silverware. We're (most fans/club staff) just happy to be a fairly decent team.

When a player comes to the club, they must sense that we don't have that elite mentality.

Every good team gets turned over now and again but it happens to us far too often and far too predictably.

Powell got his first real taste of it against Catalans but has also been on the other end of it as Castleford coach. Hopefully he can change it.

walker that got hooked after 15 minutes last week and didn't return?

Sorry, I wasn't referring to individual performances last week, I meant it more in the context of how we change going forward. I think Walker is the typical Powell player - not outstanding, but above average and prepared to let Powell mould him and would relish the leadership challenge. We've seen Powell do that with Gale and McShane to name a couple.

I don't think there's any immediate fix, but I'm interested to see how we develop over the season. Next week is a big test of our bouncebackability. If we can can come up with a good performance at Saints that shows what we're capable of doing when we click, then we at least have something to work on. We still lack penetration in the forwards so I'll be interested to see how we plan to take Saints on. I think Wane nailed it last week when he said Powell needs more than one pre-season to fix Warrington.

Also, let's not forget Wigan nearly slipped up in Toulouse, even with all that 'DNA'.

Logic would suggest it's the board of directors. They have been ever present through this period and are responsible for the hiring and firing of coaches. But, as we know, they don't sack under performing coaches very often or very quickly. They prefer to let results flat line and contracts run out. They say they want to be the best, but don't ensure it. Sure we make the occasional big signing, and I am sure they spend a lot of money, but they don't hold coaches feet to the fire.

From this Powell can think, quite reasonably, that he has got this job for at least 3 years.

But I bet Peet at Wigan won't think the same about his position and I bet Furner (ex Leeds) doesn't need any reminding of what poor results in 3 months can do to a 3 year contract.

It's a combination of many things

I've said many times before, WE'RE TOO NICE. As a club AND a fan base. We accept being OK, or good or sometimes very good. Never excellent, or dare I say it THE BEST. God, 3 weeks ago, we beat Leeds, and there's people on here felling sorry for Leeds..... "the better side lost"...... b0110cks to that attitude. 2 points to us, and #### Leeds. They wouldn't feel sorry for us. That's where a winning mentality is built. How many GFs have they won in the last 20odd years? Likewise Wigan and Saints. The trouble is "we know our place"

Captaincy.
Well that's a joke, too. Jack Hughes? Jack flipping Hughes. He shouldn't be anywhere near the Matchday 18, let alone leading the club. Saying that, none of our squad comes across as a "leader of men". A Shaun Edwards, a Kevin Sinfield or in football, a Vincent Kompany. Someone who players will run through proverbial brick walls for. Someone who leads from the front. Unfortunately, these men are rare, and it seems we got our current captain by Price playing "eeny meeny miny Mo", and the last person was Hughes. Powell has merely carried this on. The side is made up of talented individuals and squad players. Not a leader amongst them.
Again, I'll go back to the GF of 2013. We're 16-2 up when Monaghan gets injured. We stand around, whilst Tomkins cajoles his is entire team, whilst Monaghan is being tended to. I said to the person next to me... "Wigan will score here".... guess what, they did. From then on, we didn't score another point. Even with Morley as captain. Winning teams with a winning mentality do this regularly.

The sooner we get a ruthless streak, the better. Until then, we're feeding off scraps, and praying for Saints, Leeds and Wigan slip ups.

Excellent post, nail hit firmly and squarely on the head!

Not a lot Hughes can do as the captain if he ain’t playing. Ratchford and Widdop have been the captains bar a game.
People see what they want to see, like blaming Jace Clark for our defeat this weekend!…yes he probably was to blame, for not playing.

Sports psychology and the whole idea of a team, or an individual, of 'bottling' it is a very interesting subject.

Certainly our recent record, with the Tony Smith era GF defeats and our most recent poor displays in big games, seems to suggest that we do indeed have a mental barrier that seems difficult to overcome. While we don't have a god given right to win these games, the manner of the defeats always gives the impression that the players are almost contributing to their own problems with their lack of self belief.

It's obvious though that this isn't an issue that is just confined to us. If you look through the sporting world, there are many examples of sides and individuals who have found mental barriers hard to beat.

In football, you only have to look at Tottenham, a club so synonymous with bottling it, that observers now label anyone putting in a display of underachievement as 'Spursy'. Their years of falling short in the quest for honours has made them a figure of much ridicule.

Slightly further afield, there is PSG, a football side that, despite having one of the biggest budgets in the game, consistently manage to mess up in the most monumental ways. When you see the manner of their failures, like last night's with Madrid, then it's difficult to deny that their issues are now mental.

There's probably a very thick book that can be written on sporting bottlers, but any tale of bottling it can't be complete without the snooker legend that is Jimmy White, a man who will have 'nearly man' engraved on his tombstone - His defeats became increasingly painful to watch because it was so apparent that he was going through such a mental torment -How much of his failure at the very highest level came down to that lack of self belief that has dogged us and many others over the years?

So overall, I suppose, after my rambling, I'm trying to say that maybe it's going to take more than just new coaches to try and change our mindset? Maybe the ingrained stain of failure and the mocking of opposition fans does far more to our players than they, and we, would like to admit?.. When and how that can change, who knows, but it's maybe easier to accept knowing we are just another in a long line of failures?

They can bottle it many more times (which they will) and I’ll still love em. What I will never love is seeing Middleton hand Alexander de pfeffel Johnson a Wire kit with ‘Boris’ on the back. Lack of game time for Longstaff was getting me close to burning my season ticket….this may just see to it. For shame Middleton you grubby sod.