Re: 2023 Squad : Sat Nov 05, 2022 11:48 pm  

Leikvolls_Profile wrote:

just my over reactive imagination, if it was Drinkwater, wgy is it not announced, perhaps its someone still playing in the world cup.
can we sign the George Williams that plays for England

That’s a No, we can’t fit that version under the cap, we have to make do with the one we got

Re: 2023 Squad : Mon Nov 07, 2022 10:56 am  

ratticusfinch wrote:

What a very unbalanced squad. Expect more of the same next season. Powell banking on sheer size + individual brilliance in the opposition 20 to get us home. Really poor centres and Harrison needs to improve a LOT.

Im also seeing (for the second season) hooker being a weak point for us.

Very pessimistic about next season but I am terrible with predictions so could be a good omen.

Think mid table would be a good result with this squad.

Anyway it will give the Powell-out lobby a good argument because they can demand that "second season we need to be top of the league after 3 games or he's out" etc. Pretty much any coach would struggle to make top 4 with this squad.

The grim future I can see is that we have a mediocre season, jettison Powell and end up with a downgrade at coach as no elite coaches are interested and so we just pick up someone who is lucky to have their shot in SL and the general downgrading of the club's on field infrastructure continues.

Re: 2023 Squad : Mon Nov 07, 2022 11:26 am  

sally cinnamon wrote:

Think mid table would be a good result with this squad.

Why is Top 4 not achievable? I mean we have no scrum half or centre, but assuming we fill those positions and Powell turns out the be the messiah after all.

PS : I have seen no posts on here saying "top of the league after 3 games or out". I've seen plenty say after 6 games we will know if there is progress.

Re: 2023 Squad : Mon Nov 07, 2022 1:18 pm  

I completely disagree that this is a mid-table team, this is a quality squad with a few weaker but still not weak positions. We'll easily be in the top 4 with this squad.

Re: 2023 Squad : Mon Nov 07, 2022 1:45 pm  

sally cinnamon wrote:

The grim future I can see is that we have a mediocre season, jettison Powell and end up with a downgrade at coach as no elite coaches are interested and so we just pick up someone who is lucky to have their shot in SL and the general downgrading of the club's on field infrastructure continues.

No elite coaches are available. Nor were they available when we were replacing Price. Nor will they be available at any point in the short to mid-term, unless we class an untried Aussie assistant as 'elite'. Price anyone? We're the second biggest club in terms of income after Leeds, and they just signed up an unwanted Aussie who coached Bradford in the lower leagues. I think he lost his job to John Kear?

Powell's record may look poor in his one year at Warrington, but his record over the last two decades blows any other potential candidates out of the water.

If Powell isn't the answer we'd better pray that we can miraculously unearth some gem from the NRL reserves comp. I'm not holding my breath, and I think our problems go far deeper than the coach's style. Hopefully we're fixing that.

Re: 2023 Squad : Mon Nov 07, 2022 4:28 pm  

That is exactly the problem. If we get rid of Powell we'll probably be in for guys like Rowley, Agar or Poching.

Re: 2023 Squad : Tue Nov 08, 2022 3:10 am  

I honestly cannot understand where all of this negativity is coming from with our team.

Let's start with Daryl Powell... Has he ever been considered a bad coach? No... Does one poor season at a new club make him a bad coach? No.
He talks a lot about accountability and self reflection, and lets face it, he's a smart man/coach. We believed that because we could offer more than Castleford, it would be an easy step up for Powell to start challenging for trophies straight away. I definitely expected a good season, but we always knew that a potential rebuild was taking place based on comments DP made about contracts and culture. In time, he will settle in like he did with Castleford, but he will have better players at his disposal.

Onto the forwards. I don't know why some people are still treating it as some sort of gimmick. Like that's all we're going to be good for. We have Dudson, Kasiano, Harrison, Vaughan, Mikaele and Bullock who will all be effective. This is what we wanted. We said the pack was too small last season and we were right. Now it has not only been corrected, but we have quite possibly the biggest pack in Super League.

With the backs, and starting with the spine which would be Dufty, Williams, Drinkwater (Ratchford/Dean/Hayes) and Clark, we'd have at worst a Top 5 spine in SL but I think it's at least Top 3 behind Wigan and then you can make an argument for Saints, Leeds, Huddersfield and Salford just on the spine. We know Drinkwater is a reliable player, we know Williams and Clark can light up SL, and we have Dufty at FB who looked dangerous even with an injury + fatigue from lack of game time in the NRL. He's also the fastest player in SL. With our centres, as much as I'm in agreement that it may be lacking, they're not so stupid that they don't know what lines to run and when to pass it off. Ratchford does sometimes slow the play down, as does Mata'utia, but Minikin is no slouch at full fitness and Wrench has the ability to be one of the best in SL when he's fully fit and more experienced. Players like Currie and Nicholson can thrive behind this forward pack as well.

We have a "Top 2, not 2" forward pack, and a minimum Top 5 spine, with a good coach that prides himself on being self-critical. And of course I admit, it could all fall apart again, which is even the case with Saints if Wellens is so poor, but on paper we are actually in a great position and there's a lot to be excited about.

Re: 2023 Squad : Tue Nov 08, 2022 8:16 am  

KineticRR wrote:

I honestly cannot understand where all of this negativity is coming from with our team.

Let's start with Daryl Powell... Has he ever been considered a bad coach? No... Does one poor season at a new club make him a bad coach? No.
He talks a lot about accountability and self reflection, and lets face it, he's a smart man/coach. We believed that because we could offer more than Castleford, it would be an easy step up for Powell to start challenging for trophies straight away. I definitely expected a good season, but we always knew that a potential rebuild was taking place based on comments DP made about contracts and culture. In time, he will settle in like he did with Castleford, but he will have better players at his disposal.

Onto the forwards. I don't know why some people are still treating it as some sort of gimmick. Like that's all we're going to be good for. We have Dudson, Kasiano, Harrison, Vaughan, Mikaele and Bullock who will all be effective. This is what we wanted. We said the pack was too small last season and we were right. Now it has not only been corrected, but we have quite possibly the biggest pack in Super League.

With the backs, and starting with the spine which would be Dufty, Williams, Drinkwater (Ratchford/Dean/Hayes) and Clark, we'd have at worst a Top 5 spine in SL but I think it's at least Top 3 behind Wigan and then you can make an argument for Saints, Leeds, Huddersfield and Salford just on the spine. We know Drinkwater is a reliable player, we know Williams and Clark can light up SL, and we have Dufty at FB who looked dangerous even with an injury + fatigue from lack of game time in the NRL. He's also the fastest player in SL. With our centres, as much as I'm in agreement that it may be lacking, they're not so stupid that they don't know what lines to run and when to pass it off. Ratchford does sometimes slow the play down, as does Mata'utia, but Minikin is no slouch at full fitness and Wrench has the ability to be one of the best in SL when he's fully fit and more experienced. Players like Currie and Nicholson can thrive behind this forward pack as well.

We have a "Top 2, not 2" forward pack, and a minimum Top 5 spine, with a good coach that prides himself on being self-critical. And of course I admit, it could all fall apart again, which is even the case with Saints if Wellens is so poor, but on paper we are actually in a great position and there's a lot to be excited about.

There's a lot to like in this post. There is also Josh Maguire to add into the forwards (or have i missed something). A couple of things DP has to deal with and build within the squad is unity and belief.

Re: 2023 Squad : Tue Nov 08, 2022 8:46 am  

Snaggletooth wrote:

There's a lot to like in this post. There is also Josh Maguire to add into the forwards (or have i missed something). A couple of things DP has to deal with and build within the squad is unity and belief.

He's still coming. I just forget to mention that aspect of the new additions.

Vaughan seems like the kind of player to lead by example on the pitch. The BBQ incident back in Australia may have tainted his ability to speak with authority when it comes to being a leader, but he always plays like one. As much as a don't actually like Maguire as a player (for anyone wondering why I say that, I think he is actually useless, pardon my negativity) he doesn't add much, and seems to give away a lot of penalties, I'll take that for now as long as he has a no nonsense attitude and gets the team focused on the task at all times. If he's solid defensively then I'm fine with just that.

Thewlis comes across as a passionate leader to me as well. Not many people would have heard this but during a home game last season, we had a goal line drop out, Thewlis shouted "fight for the badge on the shirt, wire" which was unexpected from such a young lad, but not so unexpected if you consider that he's also a wire fan too.

The more I think about the depth in the forwards, and the potential for improvement from the backs/spine, the more I get excited about the season.

Re: 2023 Squad : Tue Nov 08, 2022 12:23 pm  

Is the “Powell-out brigade” those wanting the coach to do what he was brought in to do? He was brought in to make an underperforming team perform. Been backed to the hilt to do that, with a hand picked squad, so why should it be accepted to do worse than before his appointment?

If we’re to believe that the squad was littered with lager swilling T-shirt salesmen then was Price the messiah? If he could get a 3rd place finish and a cup run out of them, but without the bad apples we can now only hope for mid table, how can that be good enough?

I’m not “Powell out”, I want a strong club and a strong team that competes and connects with the fans. But we can’t accept another year like last year of petty squabbles and fire sales compounding pathetic performances. It’s time to see the results of that painful turnover, so crack on and get the job done.