This. We've suffered watching Russell fail to deal with any attacking kick and make blunder after blunder. as well as watch Hughes playing with feet for hands yet the pair of them undroppable in smiths eyes. Yet penny can make one mistake and he's never to be seen again.

He was treated poorly by Smith and all because Kev challenged him on something during a review so Smith dropped him.

Penny was certainly fast and scored some electric tries, but when he fell out of favour he was sent out to first Widnes, and then London. Presumably for a bit of breathing space. Several clubs could have come in for him at that point, and eventually Wakefield took him for a season in 2011. After that though he drifted down a division to lowly Swinton for two years. If we are going to argue that he was a top class winger and that we missed out, then you would have to ask why other SL clubs also spurned the opportunity during those 3-4 years when he was available.

Back to our wingers for 2018 and I would certainly hope that we will not have Russell on the wing. With an improved pack and the comment when Sims departed that "we were going to go in a different direction", I would hope we are finally going to see the pack responsible for getting us back up field rather than, Russels' scooting. (Nothing wrong with a good scoot now and again btw, just so long as it's not our prime weapon). If that is the case, Russel would be redundant as far as I am concerned. I don't know how fast Sitaleki Akauola is, but perhaps he could play for us on the wing ? He certainly looked impressive taking a try on his video clip and I would imagine his defending will be typically Tongan, with his opposite number getting thrown into the front row of the stands rather than simply tackled around the legs. Either way, we desperately need a quality winger from somewhere.

Defensively excellent? Is that tongue in cheek?

With each new addition I convince myself further, what were we thinkin about keeping TS so long?
I'm even beginning to think that following 2011 peak of much of Cullen's team that he is simply another Millward.

It's like TS had no idea of menace, of balance, of player worth, team success over play development and being in touch with fans.

I have a sence of feeling that 2018 could show us that TS was one of the worst coaches we have ever had... I selfishly hope so!

Tony Smith is/was a great coach, no doubting that. He took a collection of quality individuals and turned them into a trophy-winning team.

The problem is, like almost every coach's era, it has to come to an end. Things became stale, the recruitment wasn't necessarily that great, and the mental monkey of not being able to make that last hurdle of the GF would be hanging over us. Things had to change and they have. Smith brought us one of the greatest Warrington eras, but that doesn't mean he could continue to do so...

Price may or may not achieve a trophy win with Warrington but it doesn't change the fact we needed a fresh start.

That's for Sally to decide...