I’m not necessarily excited or expecting, but I am slightly hopeful. There are green shoots at the club. There was a time where we have no/very few players from a WA postcode, but with Philbin and Walker established, with Wrench, Hayes and Lindrop on an exciting trajectory, there’s something building.

We need these players to bump their way to the front of the queue and force the hand of the coach and ultimately force out those in front of them.

It’s no secret that it’s cheaper to keep than buy, so we need a bigger percentage of players coming from within and using the money WISELY to supplement the team, and I think we can get there soon. It won’t be this year, but we need to use this as a stepping stone to a long term success story.

I love to bash the wolfs as much as the next man but I dont get all this pessimism because you lost a friendly that no one bar the players know how seriously they took it.

Powell was never the man for the job and I said that when he was appointed and if I was a wolfs fan, which im not, I would definitely have burgess over Powell any day.

Now I know the current crop of Saints youngsters who have been promoted to the first team or who are on the verge of it, are generation talents but I am also lead to believe that the age group below that, Warrington have the generational talents. I dont know how true that is, but that is what I have been told by a number of people who are involved in the academy.

Read a piece yesterday from Burgess saying that his coaching future lies in Australia but he will give his all in the 2 year contract he has with us....seeing as how a lot of posters on here were happy to give Powell 1+ seasons to sort us out, does that mean we expect nothing this year, then an improvement next year?

Must admit, I think the appointment of Sam is a bold one, and a part of me wants to be cautiously optimistic about this season, but having watched the Wire since 1975 there's a part of me that still expects a season of mediocrity.

As for the game as a whole, it doesn't hold the appeal it used to for me I must admit. Last season I recorded & watched every NRL game on Sky, even the representative ones, but apart from Wire I don't remember watching more than a couple of Super League games.

But, I'm a Wire, I was brought up within hearing distance of Wilderspool and used to wonder what the roaring and cheering was about when I was a little lad and then I found out for myself. Win or lose, champions or relegation fodder, entertaining or frustrating............ "My name is Mr Snoodle, and I'm a Wire"

My worry about Super League is that we’ve gone down the NRL defence route, but don’t have the depth of attacking talent coming through (or we aren’t coaching it). That has left us with a product consisting of wrestling, hits and the odd long-distance try. Now we (understandably) have to get rid of the hits, we are left with just wrestling. That isn’t going to grow the game.

I’ll be watching Warrington as long as I’m here, but the sport will continue to decline and be left with ageing hard core purists and no future audience.

Even the NRL reserve leagues (see YouTube) are more exciting than a lot of super league games. If only they could dub on some atmosphere and crowd noise.

Agree with this on the whole, it’s technically quite good, if you enjoy the finer details, but for the general fan, or casual viewers, it is less exciting that the product of the 2000’s.

I watched some of the Six Nations over the weekend and the NRL influence is stamped all over that too. The gap between league and union is getting vanishingly small, to the point where even I could be talked into a merger.