I love these anecdotes about players being seen out and about and what it means about the team.

It's one of the things from the good old days that seemed to disappear in our boring days of major finals.

I'm hoping that if we do go downhill a bit now, at least we might have some good stories on here. Maybe some fights in town or stories that some of the players have had a bust up. Some gossip about who is doing who's missus. Or one of the Aussie players is homesick, Myler is being tapped up by Ratchford to go to Salford or whatever, Chris Hill is going to Saracens, etc

.... You have to go on Facebook for that sort of tittle-tattle now - There's one guy on there who, after every poor performance, likes to entertain folks with tales of how he has indulged in various forms of social entertainment with the Warrington squad in the toilets of Stockton Heath pubs.... The great thing is the bloke posts all this on the official Warrington FB page under his real name - I guess he isn't quite upto speed on the libel laws? ....

Agree with this post completely!

I'm 100% on youth development but I think if we're all honest with ourselves, having known that we were losing the collective experience of Hodgson, Briers, Morley and even Carvell during pre-season, the alarm bell sounds probably echoed into as far as Asia from here.

We knew this season was coming, and as frustrating as it can be, I hope the fans don't throw the towel in. It's up to Tony Smith to seriously prove his ability as a coach, as it is being tested now more than it probably ever has.

Since his injury in 2010 he was half the player he used to be that saw him sign for big money from Canterbury in 2007 and then gain the NZ and Souths captaincy from 2008. He missed half the season and the 2010 WC and then got the same injury in 2012.

2004-2009 was his peak and he has severely dropped off from that now.

No reason, in this competition that he can't improve on where he's started off though. He isn't my biggest worry so far this season.