I`m big enough to put my hands up and say i got it wrong with both Matt King and Chris Hicks, if your going to get it wrong you may as well do it in style





I never had any doubts about Matt King being a world class finisher and a threat from anywhere inside the 10 metre area due to his shear size and strength, its just i had doubts about his skills as a centre as he seemed to be more of a finisher than a creator from the games ive seen him play in the past. He`s certainly put that one to bed with some nice offloads and passes, we certainly have a lot of strength, size, power, creativity and pace on the left with King and Atkins.



Its nice to get it wrong with Chris Hicks as well, when your looking at NRL players its easy to get blinded by the likes of Billy Slater, Brett Stewart, Israel Folau, Greg Inglis and Manu Vatuvei just to name a few where you start to compare other players against the above names.



Its like Manly have Brett Stewart and Jamie Lyon so you tended to focus more on what their doing rather than appreciating what the other backs are doing around them, Chris Hicks is one of the best finishers ive seen at Warrington. His strength and power is deceptive, not only does he score a lot of tries which look almost impossible he also looks solid in defence and returns the ball with interest.



Right its over to you, their must have been quite a few players in the past that we signed that went on to be a success where you had doubts about them. I just thought it would make an interesting topic and to see who will admit to what

Nat Wood, proved me wrong anyway.

Solomona so far, I thought that he wouldn't be good enough as I never really rated him at Bradford, but he has proved me wrong so far...

Probably Chris Hicks....mainly because i'd never seen him play...

Henry Fa'fili And Brent Grose

I actually think it is down to the cut of your jib. There may be signings which leave you wondering what the coach sees in them, but I don't recall a signing where I have expected them to fall on their s.

Westwood

Unfortunately I have a blind belief that everybody we sign (Anderson years excepted) will turn out to be a world-beater. Unfortunately rather than signings turning out better than expected I have had more than anybody's share of disappointments.

NB



Mike Peters. Wondered why me made such a big deal over his signing, still am.

Westwood was the one ... why the are we signing someone who's a centre when we have a bucketfull of them.



King was used wrongly compared to how he was used in Aus ..Thankfully we put that right.

Out of the present squad I didn't expect Mathers, Hicks, Solomona or Higham to perform anything special when they signed.



From past players I would have to say Brent Grose, Nathan Wood, Danny Lima and Sid Domic would be in the same category.

I very much doubted the signing of Monaghan. We seemed to get into a habit of signing hookers as half backs. And now is proving that he is one of if not THE best hooker in the league.

Not a new signing but I openly criticised Chris Riley when he first appeared on the scene, and with that I may also have said he'd never make it in SL.

He's well and truly made me eat my words that boy.



Sid Domic was probably the last time I remember being underwhelmed by a signing only to have him come up trumps too.



Like Paul though, most of my thoughts have been the other way around.. Expecting a bentley continental gt and getting a D reg 1.1 Fiesta popular plus with rusty sils.

Matt Rodwell never had a bad game...

i wasn't overly impressed with the signing of atkins. myler was a good signing, a good young talent, and i could see why we were signing solomona, as he would give us something different, if we could keep him fit. never really rated him atkins at wakefield though, and didn't think he would be able to play inside king. those two look like a storming left hand side partnership at the moment, and i like the way they can interchange and swap between playing and wing. he always looks like hes going to make yards, and his off loading has been fine. good signing so far, but, having said that, i can't really think of anyone who has played this season who hasn't performed

Haha I guess your fishing, don't think that lad a single good game!



In relation to above, my first choice would be Graham Appo...

Westwood

But, Monaghan was a 7 in Aus for Manly same with Hicks. Both had excellent last seasons in Aus before they came to you.

Monaghan for me.

Great question Rob. Depends on your expectations really - due to ignorance, I expected nothing of Chris Hicks. He's been awesome. Due to their pedigree, I expected lots of Monaghan and King. Indifferent starts but Monaghan is one of my all time favourites. Turns out he's a good a bloke as he is a player which is saying something. I also have a massive Man-Crush on Matt King - he's great.



Michael Sullivan was a massive let down. Basically admitted he signed because of the ridiculous salary (I know they all do that but most of them have the good grace to lie about it) and was the worst half back since Beth Ditto played that ill fated season for widnes in 2005.

Not so much doubt, but Darren Burns was a million times better than I expected. Not just that, he was an insanely top bloke.



Nick Fozzard I thought had disaster written all over it, same for bringing back Mark Hilton. I guess looking back, we had nothing to lose really given the budget that we were operating at etc.



It sort of works both ways doesn't it, I thought Rauhihi was going to be immense, in reality he had one really decent season.

Took the words out of my mouth.

Trying to make some sense out of this post. From what i remember watching Monaghan played a hooking role at manly while orford was in the limelight..



And surely Hicks played as a winger & not a scrum half like you have suggested..?

Priceless.

At the time Warrington signed Monaghan he was excelling at scrum-half and was being championed by Phil Gould to be NSW's answer in that position for State of Origin.



It was after we signed him that Orford returned from injury and Monaghan moved to hooker to accommodate him.