George Williams No 6 (Stand-off) and Leon Hayes No 7 (Scrum-half), look our best combination

I find it baffling, worrying and totally counter productive that Powell has already shown his hand re: Ratchford and Dudson being in the starting 13.

So, where's the motivation for the likes of Dean and Bullock to have a huge off-season?

Places for round 1 starting 17 should be up for grabs from now until game day, based on what happens in between.

Possibly, big risk and big pressure on such a young lad though to put him in the most important position in the team with such responsibility.

Agree that the kid is young and very small, but the very best players emerge at his age and flourish.

We won`t know, if we don`t give it a go.

Powell has also reminded us recently that he plated Trueman from a very young age.

Powell takes credit for a lot of things. Shane he can't take responsibility for things that go tits up!

I think it's a bit much to put on his shoulders to be honest, Powell will need proven at the start of the year (which ratchford in the halves certainly isn't). I think we will be looking to sign a half. We need 2 centres and possibly a half.

Doubt if we have the Salary Cap left for next season to sign 3 more backs.

Maybe one more.

We need to trust our youth system and play the kids.

Saints, Wigan and Leeds do.

We are being linked with an NRL halfback and it's been stated we want wardle. 3 is probably far fetched though. I agree regarding the youth, promoting 8 kids to the first team for next season and giving most of them a game in recent weeks is a good sign. Powell stated in an interview very recently that the youngsters at Warrington are far too impatient. I would think they wouldn't be so impatient if the first team didn't look pretty awful and they weren't wanting to try to make a positive difference.

Hayes looks like a real prospect but what would that say to Riley Dean who also looks to have a professional future? I think it's a bit much to put on young shoulders really. They would sink or swim for sure but I wouldn't want either written off too soon.

Yes, I have read that we have been linked with Adam Clune, but then another poster on here said that he has already been signed-up by a NRL club? I haven`t been able to find a link to indicate that he has been snapped-up, so maybe he is still available?

We need an organising halfback, to complement Williams, Hayes is an organiser, but Dean isn`t.

Blah, blah, NRL half back, yackety yak.

Wigan (Harry Smith who had a lousy 2021 but was backed by the club and has been superb this year) and Saints (Dodds) aren't afraid to pitch youngsters into the melting pot - the caveat being they protect them, and encourage them when things go awry.

Back in the day when we didn't answer every problem with a cheque, so did we - Holden, Crompton, Briers etc

To be fair we wrote a cheque for 65k for Briers and I'm pretty sure we paid 10 grand for holden.

i wouldn't be against blooding hayes (funny how dean has been stepped over, tho as we say, he seems more of a 6 than a 7) but we'd need to protect in him defence, with a decent right 2nd row who can bloody tackle (aint currently happening) and a decent right centre, who can defend properly (aint currently happening)

Those are my worries.

The £65k that we paid St Helens for Briers was really part of the cash that Leeds had to pay for the Harris transfer to them.

Essentially we got Briers for nothing.