Dear Big Lads Mate,
Can you please visit the Wire forum more often.

Indeed it would, but if that along with scraping a playoff berth remains our season highlight/goal then we're no better than, say, 2004/5 alsorans.

I agree wholeheartedly with all the reasons you gave for pessimism, and, I also would dearly love to be wrong. I will watch casually, but I think I'm rapidly falling out of love with RL overall and since I only really care about Warrington then also falling out of love with them. I don't even enjoy the match day 'experience' anymore, it's stale and sanitised and there's more atmosphere on the moon.

I mean put it this way, even if we win our first 8 or 9 games this year, who would still be optimistic after last year?

As ever, I’m looking forward to the new season, do I expect to win anything? Not really, I’d quite like to be entertained and generally between seeing friends and watching RL I always am - one generally compensates the other!

Am I bothered we should be better? Absolutely, but I think I’ve outgrown that expectation that we need to be great. I love RL, be it youth rugby or super league. I hope IMG can create a story behind the season, I’ll be right behind it - as I am every year.

You do you, I'll do me. I reckon you will be swinging before me with Powell at he helm.

People are misinterpreting "zero hope for the season" as pessimism. Whilst not optimistic i grant you, I would say closer to realism. We didnt win the GF when we had a good team, now we have a pretty poor team with non functioning halfbacks and pack that is 2 quality forwards light.

Anyway for the happy optimists ill give you 15 to 1 odds on £100 bet on Warrington GF win. Put your money where your mouth is.

I can assure you that Wakey have had far worse, to be honest DP is the best signing we’ve had for a long time, only time will tell

W71. I love that. Will you do each way for a third of the odds.

Ha ha you wish. We have a track record of making finals only to blow it.

Nah it's winner takes all. GF all bust. Only optimists need apply.

Still, good news about the chocolate oranges!

Classic reference

Agree with this Alfi. I'm sure we get a bit more fun out of sport because of this attitude. I too am bothered about not being No1 ... but won't allow it to stop the enjoyment of the great game. I cannot see the point of one or two posters who have totally fallen out with Wire & RL ... why don't they just forget the game and do something else & see if they miss it?

“Optimist” in my case means hoping for a decent season. It doesn’t mean winning something. In fact anyone who supports a sports team expecting to win will at some point face crushing disappointment. I suspect the majority of supporters want to see their team play consistently well, accepts that defeats will happen but hope to win a title of some sort at some point.
You obviously feel that we “should” be winning titles and are therefore destined to be disappointed far more than you are fulfilled.

The game in general is in decline imo and the standard of rugby has dropped dramatically in the last five to ten years.
Lack of money is an obvious reason but for me every sides style of play has become predictable and plain boring.
The 'wrestle' drives me mad and takes away any flow an attacking side tries to build. Two or even three in with another arriving to take the legs away? How has this been allowes to dominate the game both here and down under.
I don't care if it's what they do in the NRL, it's ruined RL as an exciting gladitorial fantastic sport and replaced it with a boring stop/start defence first and penalty ridden version.
I haven't bought a membership this year and to be honest I'm a bit relieved.

I think we should have won at least one title in the 13 years since 2010, yes. I so no reason why not as Wigan, Saints and Leeds have multiple wins in that time frame. Wigan and Saints are pro RL clubs operating ~10 miles away from Warrington, operating to the same rules and with the same finances, playing the same game. So why not?

Don't forget we get all the messages from the club about "going places", "aiming to be the best" and "marquee signings" so you will excuse me if I am a little jaundiced at the perennial under achievement. We have become the laughing stock of the league with the alleged wealth we have and perma-failure to even compete latterly.

My expectation, based on the wealth of the club being no barrier, is that we should be competitive in all seasons, barring the odd "transitional years", make finals every couple of years, and win a GF and CC every now and then. Maybe a CC and GF per decade. Is that overly ambitious?

Personally speaking, I wish I could. Something to do with following the club since about 1977 and all the nostalgia keeps me bonded and a place in my heart. I think like the wife that stays with the bad husband hoping he will change his ways.

So if it's OK with you* I'll keep watching the odd game live, many games involving Wire on TV, and comment on here as I like and challenge others posts as I sit fit within the constraints of the AUP.

I've out lasted many vocal "ardent" supporters on this site though. Seen a lot come and go in my time . They all used to tell me what to do too.

[size=85*you do seem to have a bit of a record of commenting publically on what [iyou think other people should do[/i . It's a bit like the "mummy mummy I've seen something on the internet that I don't agree with" meme. [/size

I can tell you he was probably our worst in a long time and, for context, we signed Roy Asotasi, Gill Duson and Josh Drinkwater ...

I think you’re being a bit harsh. He wasn’t telling you what to do, he was asking a genuine question and I think a fair one. To use your analogy at some point the abused wife has to walk away.
I’m glad that it hasn’t reached that point for you!

Looks like we are both looking forward to the season starting, maybe for different reasons. Enjoy yourself and let's hope we both have much to be positive about.

Since I'm probably being lumped in the same category as you, I have to say you've encapsulated how I feel to the letter. I think I even used the wife analogy last season at one point!

I'm amped up for Thursday, i cannot wait for the season to start. Apart from a little bit of boxing scattered here and there i only watch Rugby League. So the off season feels masdive for me.
Although i agree i don't think it's as good as it used to be and the hard hitting tough men are definately in decline, i love the sport and i'm as excited as ever.
I'm expecting us to be competitive this year and a lot more consistant, with effort for the full 80 mins. If we can do that and push for at least 1 final this year, then it will be a massive improvement this year.

I’m not necessarily excited or expecting, but I am slightly hopeful. There are green shoots at the club. There was a time where we have no/very few players from a WA postcode, but with Philbin and Walker established, with Wrench, Hayes and Lindrop on an exciting trajectory, there’s something building.

We need these players to bump their way to the front of the queue and force the hand of the coach and ultimately force out those in front of them.

It’s no secret that it’s cheaper to keep than buy, so we need a bigger percentage of players coming from within and using the money WISELY to supplement the team, and I think we can get there soon. It won’t be this year, but we need to use this as a stepping stone to a long term success story.

I love to bash the wolfs as much as the next man but I dont get all this pessimism because you lost a friendly that no one bar the players know how seriously they took it.

Powell was never the man for the job and I said that when he was appointed and if I was a wolfs fan, which im not, I would definitely have burgess over Powell any day.

Now I know the current crop of Saints youngsters who have been promoted to the first team or who are on the verge of it, are generation talents but I am also lead to believe that the age group below that, Warrington have the generational talents. I dont know how true that is, but that is what I have been told by a number of people who are involved in the academy.

Read a piece yesterday from Burgess saying that his coaching future lies in Australia but he will give his all in the 2 year contract he has with us....seeing as how a lot of posters on here were happy to give Powell 1+ seasons to sort us out, does that mean we expect nothing this year, then an improvement next year?

Must admit, I think the appointment of Sam is a bold one, and a part of me wants to be cautiously optimistic about this season, but having watched the Wire since 1975 there's a part of me that still expects a season of mediocrity.

As for the game as a whole, it doesn't hold the appeal it used to for me I must admit. Last season I recorded & watched every NRL game on Sky, even the representative ones, but apart from Wire I don't remember watching more than a couple of Super League games.

But, I'm a Wire, I was brought up within hearing distance of Wilderspool and used to wonder what the roaring and cheering was about when I was a little lad and then I found out for myself. Win or lose, champions or relegation fodder, entertaining or frustrating............ "My name is Mr Snoodle, and I'm a Wire"

My worry about Super League is that we’ve gone down the NRL defence route, but don’t have the depth of attacking talent coming through (or we aren’t coaching it). That has left us with a product consisting of wrestling, hits and the odd long-distance try. Now we (understandably) have to get rid of the hits, we are left with just wrestling. That isn’t going to grow the game.

I’ll be watching Warrington as long as I’m here, but the sport will continue to decline and be left with ageing hard core purists and no future audience.

Even the NRL reserve leagues (see YouTube) are more exciting than a lot of super league games. If only they could dub on some atmosphere and crowd noise.

Agree with this on the whole, it’s technically quite good, if you enjoy the finer details, but for the general fan, or casual viewers, it is less exciting that the product of the 2000’s.

I watched some of the Six Nations over the weekend and the NRL influence is stamped all over that too. The gap between league and union is getting vanishingly small, to the point where even I could be talked into a merger.