I'm hoping Butler comes to the fore next season. He was excellent at London and I thought he'd be a new Hill but just didn't seem to get going. Hopefully Powell can get the best out of him again. That will be like a new signing if so. I think Harrison is the Hill replacement signing - which is a shame he's got a bad injury before even joining us.

Going back to the OT - I like this signing - we've tended to do better when signing younger Aussies looking for a chance - Mackey, Domic etc all came over with little fanfare and did the business for us. Also the likes of Bob Jackson were unheralded at the time.

Agree with you Easy. I have certainly not clapped much over the last 3 or 4 years and am looking forward to next season. Who knows we might see some 'moves' and some dummy runners.....

I appreciate that Tony Smith had more success prior to coming to Warrington but he has a similar record of improving players in a team that was largely under performing. We should not forget that before Smith arrived Monaghan had been signed as a scrum half and both Monaghan and King were regularly offered free Quantas flights back to Aus by large proprtions of the wire faithful. Briers and Bridge although very talented were probably not performing to their potential.
Smith came in and mainly moved Monaghan to 9 and became one of the best bookers we have ever had. Briers and Bridge were given more focus. Over 18 months the team looked like they liked defending and had a licence to play with freedom in attack as long as they could back that up in defence. I think there were probably people saying that Monaghan was a waste of cap space and a quota spot. Within 2 years Monaghan, King, Briers, Bridge, Harrison and Grix had all improved or were playing to their potential..
I see parallels between Powell and Smith. Smith was not a structure driven Aussie coach. I am hopeful (rather than expecting) a big improvemt over the next 2 years in players collectively working for each other. I think one of the reasons that we have not managed to fully utilise Darryl Clark's talent is that under Price players have been told to set up a set of six so that they end the set in an certain position on the field. So when Clark is looking at markers not set and he is jumping uut of DH the rest of our players are looking the other way setting up for a structured set of plays that is all pre determined so therefore nobody is pushing up in support.
I think Powell strength is getting the team to work together, to all buy in to the same aims and goals. Even though this is a small indicator you look at the Cas team when they hold a player up over their own try line. That is a clever play but it takes communication, co-ordination and for all involved to know what they have to do and to buy into it. You only need one defender to drop off that tackle and it is a try so to execute it all the players have to believe it is the right thing to do. It is that sort of collective belief / buy in that sometimes looked like it has been missing for a while.
I maybe over thinking it but if nothing else it should be different than the last 4 years..

If I want misery I’ll watch the news. It is in my blood to be optimistic about my team. It isn’t rational, but then supporting a team isn’t really rational otherwise everyone would support the team that happens to be winning.
I will continue to be optimistic until victory is out of sight and then I’ll be disappointed for a short while and then move on. It seems a better place to be than permanently unhappy.

In reply I did caveat with saying I am optimistic we will be on the path to a brighter future, not that we would win anything. Price was a four year train wreck and it was painful to watch, the rugby was abysmal and the constant diatribe of "what footy team he has" and "easy to fix" just showed me he was lost. Smith for all his achievements and talents, didn't deliver the big prize, we were also dire in his final years. He was no messiah. Powell is a bit of an unknown but has enthused me more in one public appearance and one interview than Price did in four years of mumbling post match.

I completely agree about the multitude of weaknesses organisational, aspirational and playing squad as they are as obvious as they are out of our control. I cannot do anything about them or change them. Our problems are exacerbated by our relative weakness of development of young top quality players and the fact we have to pay over the odds to get top players to play for us (Saints/Wigan/Leeds will always be bigger draws whilst they have the stronger brand and history).

I need to accept Warrington RLFC for what it is and try to have some enjoyment or give up on RL.

Your post's claims would carry more weight if only for the fact that the whole league is a lot weaker than when Tony Smith took over in 2009. So yes, those players you name are better than the current squad, but the current squad is still a decent one in the context of the modern game.

If (and its a big if) Powell can get an extra 10% from each individual and also instill some belief (which I truly believe was lacking under Price), then there is no reason that this squad can't properly challenge for trophies.

Overall, while we may not be any great shakes, the league itself is a very weak one.