Congratulations to Sam Burgess on being a big name.

All this talk of a clear out sounds familiar. 


Remember at the end of the Steve Price era, we were fed up of underachieving and there was general consensus that we needed a clear out. The team with guys like Hill, Clark, Cooper, Charnley, Austin, Lineham has all been dismantled now.


Now which of those players have we managed to replace with an upgrade?


If you do a clear out and you bring in players of less quality than the guys who leave, you're going to have a weaker team. Whatever changes you have in the coaching staff or club CEO/directors, you can't get around that basic problem.


We're unlikely to be able to do another complete overhaul of the squad, the only solution is consistently good recruitment over 4-5 years to build the team, in the way that we did from around 2007-2012. 

Agree with this. Complete clear out is fraught with problems and never really a goer. Keep the good 'uns & improve recruitment is best plan ... if only it was so simple. 

I’ve just had an unfortunate experience of being forwarded the latest LinkedIn offerings from Mr Fitzpatrick. What an atrocious tool this man is - get that berk out of my club. 

Been saying it for years.

I thought when you appointed Burgess it was a massive risk and probably not the type of coach you needed similar to us at Leeds with the dross we had in the coaching department until Arthur came in.
He is the sort of coach you need at Warrington and won`t stand for any nonsense and says it as it is.
Burgess has however shown in glimpses that he can get the best out of a team.
The worry is that is not consistent and is prepared to play the big I am which will soon lose it`s sparkle once the journos get stuck in to him.
He also gives me the impression he wants to be one of the lads and is living off his past life as a player who others look up to.
That`s not what you want at your Club you need the hard nosed coach who will kick ass imo.
Sorry if I`m sounding like I know your club but I do think you are very similar to us in a lot of ways and we have been through the pain for a very long time.

IMO Sam's honeymoon period is clearly over.
His interviews are very prickly and he certainly doesn't like or even handle the pundits questions very well at all.
He clearly takes these after match interviews as though the whole world is against him and that all of the questions are loade to provoke a response.
IMO Sam needs to go at the end of this season,as he has clearly taken us as far as his coaching talents will allow.


That old adage that great players don't always make great coaches is clearly true at this moment in time.
IMO Sam would be a great assistant coach for the foreseeable future

I watched the game and we were dire in the second half. I can't even be bothered to write anything. I even think that if we had won at Wembley, we would have still got beaten in the same manner against Leeds. it wouldn't have made any difference. Because that is Wire all over. Just look at the way Hull KR played after last week. Absolutely put away Catalans. Never took their foot off the gas once. I'm concerned that we will lose against Cas, Hudds & Hull on current form but the next 5 fixtures aren't too bad. We could easily walk away with 5 wins if we wanted to. 

I agree, Smiffy. I don't like this "clear out" mentality,.you can't just shove 13-17 blokes together and expect them to win. There's a few dead woods in this squad that need moving but a mass overhaul will just make us an unattractive prospect to players. Russell's signing is an example of a baffling recruitment strategy that is hurting us. A 29 year old who played 4 NRL games (or something like that).

We also need creativity at 3&4, I love the guy but if you're defending Rod you know he's not going to pass it, just so easy to read.


Walker missing is hurting us more than we know, thank Christ he didn't go to Aus. 

We are missing Walker massively. There’s no threat at the ruck, Leeds knew that and just look at the pressure Sneyd was put under trying to kick. With Walker there, there’s a threat that he could kick, or even just have a run at them. Powell isn’t working in this role, maybe in a stalemate like Wembley we get the reward of grit and determination, but we need some deception and creativity there even if just thin hold the slide defence briefly. 


Couple that with some poor efforts bringing the ball away from our line and we’re snookered really. I bet Hall and Lumb ran for 100 meters at the weekend each, with Handley and Newman not far off that. But compared with Tai and Wrench I bet you could put them together and they still make less meters than Newman. 


It just perpetuates. You turn to the middle forwards for carries, who then lose the intensity on kick chase and early set defence. You could see Leeds roll through because we couldn’t kick well, couldn’t be aggressive through the early set defence and couldn’t put pressure on their kick. That said, if you take out Tai, there’s nothing behind. Without Ashton and Lindrop, we’re stuck with what we have really, but Tai needs a rocket up him. He should be leading that back line, but he’s a passenger with the ball. Wrench may be lightweight but is twice as effective, even with the tough carries, plus he has that pace that could just change a game. 


Disappointing game, but nothing changes. Need to win this week and hope Dufty and Walker come through the pipeline soon enough.

Thinking about squad overhauls what was the Hull KR side that finished 8th in 2022 under Tony Smith/Danny McGuire?

It would have been something like:


Lachlan Coote
Ryan Hall
Shaun Kenny-Dowall
Sam Wood
Ethan Ryan
Mikey Lewis
Jordan Abdull/Rowan Milnes
George King
Matt Parcell
Albert Vete
Kane Linnett
Dean Hadley
Elliot Minchella


Korbin Sims
Matthew Stornton
Frankie Halton
Jez Litten


This was around the time Darryl Powell was conducting the well publicised great purge of the Wire squad. Willie Peters came in and three years later their squad is massively different. But they've upgraded across the board.