I'll have 8 pints of what Cat has been on. At best, Sibbit was average (just a good job he had Alfie Langer throwing him passes), and most of his tries could have been scored by an average BARLA level player (fall over tries with the line at his mercy, THAT St Helens game for instance). As a centre, he'd be lucky to be classed as poor. We needed our bumps feeling when we resigned him.

But hey-ho, we all have our opinions

No, as MKC said, Noone was a good player that never really kicked on.
I was just saying that Sally is entitled to his opinion.

To be honest, re Burns, he was always going to stand out, in what was the WORST Wire side I've known since 1979. I don't get the godlike status bestowed on him for keeping us up. It's a team game, and he was our best player in a 5h1te team. Mind you, my memories of that season are very vague, as I've tried to erase it from my memory.

Sibbit, just pooh

Burns was easily one of our best players - but that was in a poor side. Louis Anderson would have stood out too. I'm not as sure as others which is the better player. Probably about the same level, with Burns having more creative ability and Louis having more in terms of power. However I am quite certain both are several levels above Noone.

Read what i said. He was a very very good back row forward. Who killed it in the fol academy team round 99 from pretty much the opener against london in 00 he played in the back line for warrington. The only time he got anything like a run in the back row was at the end of 04. When he put some form on and people were questioning his release when we were also losing forshaw. Burns and guisset.

Genuine question Cat, where was he playing in '01 Melbourne came swooping . I seem to remember it was back row, but I could be wrong. As I said, imo, he was an average player as a second rower, and poor as a centre. Again...it's just MY opinion

centre. Back row ghat year for the early part was busby knott mccurrie guisset and nikau. Oh and mercer when he returned.

I stand corrected (said the man in the orthopedic shoes). That's when Melbourne came sniffing, after he was getting those (easy) tries. Old age is playing havoc on the mind.

Melbourne's talent scout must have been camped out in the Mississipi Showboat on the 60p a pint Thursdays and drink all you want for £17 Fridays, when they decided to go for Sibbit.

Noone was good and a lot of the time he was playing out in the centres, he was used as a utility man. His big chance was after Forshaw left in 2004 and Noone was made first choice loose forward for 2005, but then in a pre season game he got a serious eye injury. Having said that, in the back end of 2005 when we had Johns in the team I thought Noone was looking like he was really coming of age and I thought he would kick on in 2006. But for some reason Cullen seemed to lose confidence in Noone about this time.

In the early days you had people comparing him to Scully and all sorts, I never thought he would be as good as that, but I thought he could be a solid squad player, his defence was good and he had reasonably good hands as well, I still would have him at Warrington as a squad player.

But then you do have to ask the question, why did his SL career end age 25 and nobody else pick him up? He's been playing the last 5 seasons in National League. If Sibbit could stay in SL I would have expected Noone could as well because I thought Noone was better. But again with Sibbit I think he would have been worth keeping around as a squad player.

I always enjoy this retrospective reassessment of Wire fans. Back a few years ago we were all excited about what a great future we had because of guys like Sibbit, Noone, Hulse and Mark Gleeson, but we were asking why oh why do these lads never get a chance because the coaches just want pension hunting Aussies!

was Noone an England Academy Captain? I know that is not the be all and end all but I saw a lot of players with quite a lot of potential go through the books at Warrington and it is easy to say they were not good enough. If I remember correctly Noone ended up on the wing in a challenge cup semi final up against Brett Dallas. Cullen had an amazing knack of making fairly decent players look like utter rubbish ( see Andy Bracek after he was put at centre against Gidley) I am not saying that the players that we had back in the day could have been better than what we have now but if they were coached differently the gap between then an now may not look so wide.
As an example if 4 or 5 years ago players were coached to expect the offload as they do now on the shoulder of the likes of Solomona and Wood would Wedge have got as much stick. I am not comparing the two players just how the teams around them were coached.

Sal

I find it interesting that you cite Johns' appearances as being the catalyst for Noone's improvement, it was at that point I concluded that he wouldn't deliver on his early potential.

this ^ noone looked poor and ponderous running onto johns drop off passes, hence westwood being rushed back from injury for the hull play off game.

Very good point. I don't think any coach could have improved Paul Noone though.

Noone was a good servant but was average at best. He had his chance to kick on and he never did - not his fault because I don't think he was good enough. As has been noted above, if we was, he would have played at the top level for the last few years. Always gave his all though so fair play to him.

I agree with many things you say on here SC but can't here. Darren Burns was a real rock in a team who's collective ability was certainly invariable. I'll agree to an extent there. However, and with respect to Nooney (who i actually had a lot of time for), he is nowhere near the calibre of Louis Anderson I'm afraid.

Their respective career outcomes and individual paths are no fluke.

As for the team of 03', it was still possibly my most memorable year. I think for a long time we as a club were desperate to imrove but never seemed to manage it. And out of the abyss which was2002', I had to pinch myself when leaving wilderspool after that last game when realising we were going to compete in the playoffs at where else but the piedome...for the first time! The feeling was on a par with winning the CC last year for the second time. We'd finally laid to rest some dark times and it is still a period of rebuild which has ultimately contributed to where we are today. And besides some indifferent seasons like 07' and 08' (won't include 04 really as the fixture system was bad news for those smaller squads who achieved the year prior), we really are in an incredible position as a club a mere eight years on.....

Agreed. I also felt that if Noone couldn't shine off passes from Johns, he never would.