Love the guy.



We owe him a debt of gratitude for investing his money into a club we all love.



Moaners and detractors can bore off elsewhere.

The Warrington Rugby club co is owned by the Sports Holdings company right? Of which Moran is a Director (and major shareholder) of. I would assume any other person of significant control would be Middleton? As far as I know he’s put in at least £2m in to the club over the years - that was before covid I think.

He has been an absolutely fantastic owner and we all owe him a huge amount of gratitude. Others have already given all the main tributes I'd want to say.



When we moved into the new stadium Simon Moran drove the club forwards and helped completely transform our mentality. I remember being in the queues at the club shop for Andrew Johns merchandise when we brought him in, in summer 2005 and thinking the club was completely unrecognisable from where we were 3 years earlier battling to avoid relegation at Wilderspool with a championship level squad. We had internationals like Gleeson, Fa'afili and Swann already, then we brought in Andrew Johns. Then over the next few years we were adding guys like Morley, King, the Monaghans, the Andersons, Hicks, Hodgson, Solomona, Waterhouse. Suddenly Warrington were a big name in the world of rugby league who top players wanted to play for.



How much of that was due not only to Simon Moran's investment but also his contacts and ability to sell the club and vision and get superstar players to sign for us. I guess that is what being a promoter is about. I also think Paul Cullen was a good foil for Simon Moran in that era - he had the charisma and media presence to be the front man for the club's ambitions while Simon Moran kept a low profile behind the scenes.



You can split the last 20 years into two halves. Whereas 2003-13 was an exciting ride with a sense of the club going places, 2013-23 has been largely frustrating with a sense that we have underachieved. I think there have been some bad decisions over that time and some things have been allowed to drift. But we should also remember that the wider environment has been very different. The higher NRL salary cap has made it harder for British clubs to bring over the real top players so guys like Morley and King aren't available any more. Unfortunately we've ended up overpaying for some mediocre players because that's all that has been available.



Also the last few years have brought other challenges which Simon Moran will have had to deal with, away from the club. Brexit has made it harder to attract acts from Europe due to the complicated additional bureaucracy for artists doing gigs in the UK. Covid and the restrictions on live events basically put everything on hold for the best part of 2 years. It's been a difficult time to be an events promoter.



So whilst we have all been a bit disappointed in recent years and that contributes to the occasional frustration that gets voiced on here against people at the top of the club including Simon Moran, we have to accept that the wider environment hasn't been the same as it was in say 2004-10 when he was landing big signing after big signing.

I know these bitter remainers try to blame Brexit for many things, blaming it for Wire being sh!+e might be pushing it a little too far....

H ha that's a new one, blaming Brexit on our inability to win the big one. It gets blamed for everything else, so why not.

I will be eternally grateful for Simon Morans involvement over the last 20 years or so.

The only problem I have is that in order to provide the necessary funds he then had to persuade Take That to reform so with every silver lining there is a cloud.



On a serious note I dread to think where we would be without him. You cannot even really call the money he has pumped in as an investment as I suspect that he knows that he will not get a financial return on that cash.



I just hope that one day we see him on the pitch at Old Trafford after a grand final celebrating.

For what he has done he deserves at least one of those moments.

I know Abe said at the start that Simon Moran bought controlling shares in 2003 but since he was on the board from 1999 the other point to remember is what happened in 2002 when we were faced with relegation and somebody on the board put up money to bring in Nat Wood and Ben Westwood from our relegation rivals Wakefield.



That investment was massively significant. We might well have gone down without Nat Wood in 2002 and he also helped take us to being a playoff team in two of the next three years, when we hadn't made any of the previous SL playoffs. Westwood became a club legend.



So, whoever put their hands in their pockets to pay for Westwood and Wood in 2002, thank you!



I also seem to remember at the time that Westwood wasn't the first choice, our main target was Neil Turley who was still in the Championship with Leigh but was scoring bags of tries. He overplayed his hand in negotiations and we switched to Westwood. That turned out to be a big blessing for us...

Bought moran a drink in walkabout after the Wembley win in 2009 and he never got me one back. I've had a grudge against him ever since!!! Horrible bloke!

Simon Moran, I thank you.



It was a long time between the Regal Trophy win in 1981 to the Challenge Cup win in 2009.

I know it was Moran that funded those moves. His intention was always to take control of the club once the future of the new stadium assured our financial stability.



They were important signings as you say, to secure our SL status ahead of the stadium move.

We have him to thank (Middleton, too) for their much needed investments, we have them to blame for their poor coach appointments, too (bar Smith, who stayed too long).



The key [iwhat might have been[/i was the poaching of Peter Deakin by Sale RU. He transformed the club from going through the motions, to helping to get (with DVDV) the likes of of Langer, Gee, Nikau, Nutley, McCurrie, and for his short stay, Blakeley. We LOOKED like we could compete (on paper, at least) with the big boys. He brought the Bradford "razzamataz" with him. Couple that with Moran's money.....



As Marlon Brando once said



"Coulda been a contender

Coulda been somebody"



Fate, and professional rugby union, is a bugger

I think the biggest jolt RL ever received was when Union went professional. The end of our happy hunting grounds.