Rauhihi was a different calibre to those three. He wasn't what we hoped - he'd been rivalling Morley for best prop in the NRL before he joined us, and he was past his best. But he did seem to try to do the best with his declining skillset, and he came back from injuries and a lot of stick from the fans to be a decent prop.

Rauhihi was more like Nikau or Kurt Gidley.

I never got the dislike for Rauhihi, in fact I think he was quite good for us, all things considered. Unfortunately, another example of us not doing our homework. A mate of mine's wife was at the club when we signed Rauhihi, and her exact quote was "it's easier to tell you what's right with him, rather than his injuries. If I did that, I'd be here all day". We signed a bloke who's body was at breaking point. I'm amazed that he lasted 3 season's.

He should've been Christened [iPoorly Paul[/i

Agreed. Didn't live up to expectations but I don't think he was terrible.

One of the things Rauhihi does now is runs classes in a gym. Looks in better condition than when he played for us, and that’s at 47.

If we get another prop who we actually play...
I don’t who plays hb, so long as Ratchford gets his hands on the ball. We’ve won a cup with Patton and Hughes...because they played behind a team who were big, as was the bench.

It’s not rocket science. Packs wins games.

Nail on the head, and little seems to have changed for 15 or so years. He seemed another BMM, who looked great playing for the clubs they left to then join us.
We need to recruit players who are able to, and have the desire to maintain their personal standards when wearing our colours, and also stop taking a punt on players who haven't made it in the NRL in some wild belief that they'll tear up SL. We wont always get it right, but we need more in that column than the getting it wrong one.

You could also say that after signing Rauhihi and being disappointed with what we got, the decision to sign Morley was ill-advised, especially giving him a hefty four year contract.

There was a reason why other clubs didn't want to offer Morley the security of a four year deal that we did - he was 29, had injury record and also had a bad disciplinary record and was coming off a lengthy ban.

Now nobody brings that up as a bad decision by the Warrington board, because of how Morley played for us, he even got another contract after those four years were up. But if we're honest, the sort of decision-making that brought Morley here, is the decision-making that brought us Langer and Rauhihi and Asotasi and Widdop and now Inglis.

Each one of these is a gamble and the way the original decision will be viewed depends entirely on how the player performs, although the rationale is the same.

Lots of Wire fans, including me, are probably pessimistic about Inglis at this point, because of what has happened with recent signings, but the closest analogy to bringing a great player out of (possibly premature) retirement, is Langer in 2000, who went on to play SoO level again. If Inglis does what Langer did it will be seen as a masterstroke that paid off.

That is true, the Langer signing could have gone either way but his performances here were sensational, though I think the guy was ultra professional and wasn't going to tarnish his reputation by coasting through a final payday.

Sadly, despite his brilliance we won nothing. Same with Jiffy. Inglis might be amazing, indifferent or a somewhere in-between but his signing alone won't propel us to GF glory, we need more than Hollywood signings we need a rethink and a change in direction.

Jiffy took us to within a whisker of the title, and that was against a Wigan side that was well ahead of us in every other area.
When Langer was here, our team was largely crap, we had two good halves and some pace in the outside backs but that was it.

Put either of those players in the Wire team in 2021 and I would fancy us to be strong contenders, because the teams at the top are not so far ahead these days, and they lack that calibre of inspirational player themselves. There's a lot more scope for a player having a genuinely great MoS style season, being a difference maker who could take us to a Grand Final.

That sort of signing is not going to give us long term success but I'd take a Grand Final win if we can get one, I wouldn't rule out the possibility (maybe 10 to 15 per cent), that Inglis comes over here and is a player in a different league to the rest of the competition.

On Langer specifically, I think if Steve Price had that type of player he could win the title with him. Price can make a team be tough and compete and battle hard in defence, we've just lacked imagination and the ability to break defences when we are in the opposition half. Langer had multiple ways to break a defence and even in our crap side of 2000 he had us scoring a shedload of tries.

Widdop to Wests Tigers is a done deal I believe.

Makes sense since Hull have signed Reynolds from there, also I see the Giants have signed a young half from Canterbury. Does that mean Sezar may be available.

No he's been signed to partner Sezer, Huddersfield won't let him go :'l

Tigers have said Widdop isn't even on their radar, and i believe that as Adam Douhei will nore than likely partner Brooks next year and will look to develop him. From the looks of it unless we pay his contrct off i think Widdop will be here next year.