Would like to have retained Mitch Brown, safer in defence than Ratchford when he played at Full back.

No real surprises in the list though.

If we include overseas signings then a few more "ones that got away" come in scope: Nigel Vagana, Danny Nutley and David Kidwell all went on to have successful careers in the NRL after leaving us. We let Sid Domic go too early and he had successful spells with Wakefield and Hull and would have enhanced our team had we kept him.

Another less big name was Michael Eagar who DVDV brought over with Nutley and was pretty good for us in a poor team but left after a year to go to Cas. In the next few years when we had a defensively flaky three-quarter line I often thought he would have given us a bit of solidity had he stayed.

David Kidwell never set Wilderspool alight, and I found it annoying that we didn't see anything like his NRL performance level in the P&B. Agree that we let Sid Domic go when he did was too early, if I remember it was over quota spots, and I cannot for the life of me remember who stayed? Phil Blake was just awesome in his short spell with us and was definitely a player I would have loved to have seen extend his stay. Eager was a handy centre, but I can't recall being that bothered when he moved on. Perhaps I underestimated his contribution.

Wasn’t it Appo or Domic? Seems an obvious choice in retrospect that Domic should have stayed, but hadn’t Appo just made the Dream Team the previous year?

imo
The likes of Vagana, Nutley and Kidwell were ones that the NRL "let get away", hence they went back, a bit like Barba, now.

I loved Blake, but, come on, he was never going to stay here (or even Wigan, he went there, too), in favour of being an NRL star, even though(iirc) he didn't get an International cap.

Domic, and to a certain extent, Eagar were ones that did get away. To be fair to us, there was a lot of signings that heralded a stellar club career over here, but never materialised. Simon Gillies, anyone?

I'm afraid Appo was a one season wonder. I was speaking to someone when Appo was on our books, and apparently he'd made a career of a great run of matches, arrange a new contract, do nowt, move on. Rinse and repeat.

Can someone put up the list of honours domic and eager won after leaving us to go on to greater things?

Yes we chose Appo over Domic which at the time made sense due to his form in the second half of 2003 but in hindsight was a bad choice as the attitude/professionalism of the two players was very different.

Gillies was an interesting one. He was only 29 when he came but he retired after one season with us. I thought he was a good player for us but he sometimes comes up in those threads of "worst ever imports". Maybe he was overhyped when we signed him, he was basically an old school tough workhorse Aussie who DVDV brought in to provide some leadership and grit to a soft team, but maybe people were expecting a barnstorming running/offloading second rower, which he wasn't. Possibly he also suffered from association with Scott Wilson who had been with him at the Bulldogs and they signed together, and there was general frustration with Aussie signings at the time.

He's not really 'one that got away' as he never signed for anyone else, but he's one that seems to have an unfairly low rating amongst Warrington fans.

Gillies certainly wasn't the worst import and was far better than Danny Lima, Craig Teitzel, Adam Doyle and Roy Asotasi to name but four. Blocker Roach couldn't be bothered most of the time, too.
Yes Lefty, the debate is stretching the premise a bit (ok, a lot), but what we would give to see the likes of Phil Blake in P&B once more.

Never thought your argument means much. You don't have to be dripping in medals to be a decent player.

And then there's Ryan Bailey on the other side of the coin.

A fifty odd year old Phil Blake of today would probably shape up better than this bunch!!

No honours in the way you mean, but Sid Domic was in the Dream Team at Wakefield, which you'd think means he was outstanding considering how unfashionable Wakefield are as a club.
Eager made a couple of Semi Finals with Cas. It was a good era for them. I'm pretty sure Cas were above Warrington in all that period, so I'd say Eager did alright.

both eager and domic ended up at hull, weirdly.

Back on topic
I wouldnt have kept any of the seven. All good decisions.

You speakamalanguage, MPN
Sadly, at the time, it was really only big time Kiwis that would come over here, permanently (Tamati, West, Bell etc). Aussies just did September to February, and went back home.
To anyone on here under the age of 35, you really missed out on a absolute joy to watch. The only player currently comparable to Blake, would possibly be an in form Barba. He had a better kicking game than Diego Maradonna. His try v Widnes on his debut (LCCSF) was a thing of beauty. A packed Wilderspool, that night.

(iirc) there are a couple of YouTube clips of him.

Sorry fellas, there's something in my eye (sniff)