Last season Waney spelled his team and lost some very easy games. The result was blooded kids and the double.

Typical Warrington fans.

How many threads do we have to read along the lines of

"The future is bright the future is Wire"

"Next year we will be able to field a side where X players have come though our academy. I am proud"

So TS picks a side with 8 players from our Academy and we see what the true view of the fans is:

picking a bunch of Warrington lads is disrespecting the fans!!

Sorry Tony to keep this lot happy you better stick to signing Trent Kangaroo from the Bushtucker 6th grade league, at least the fans will think you are showing them more respect than picking some lad born within 20 miles of a Warrington postcode....

+1

Apart from the end of the world because we lost one in eleven last night we now have to suffer all those people who know more than Tony Smith.

Although it may be nice to win a bit of silverware to polish for 12 months is it really the be all & end all of the season ? I am happy to go along & watch my team & be entertained by the rugby on display from both teams. The more oooohs & aaaahs in a game can be just as satisfying as a comprehensive win. The skill on display is my fix.

i heard he played State of origin 10 years ago.. he MUST be a great player. Get him signed up i say.

You can often learn more abput your form when losing.

Personally I wouldnt have liked not to have lost a game before going into the SF.

Biggest issue will be the physical effects of being over in Catalans the week before.

Well our form is

WWWWWWWWWWL

When we beat Saints in May I wasn't reading too much in to that one win as us 'turning the corner', because even rubbish teams always get the odd lucky day, when Plange was coach we won away at Hull (who were good back then) and Leeds.

However over a run of 11 games we have won 10, lost 1, which is pretty good form and shows a corner was turned. So we can't read in to one defeat as another corner being turned or a dip.

In sport will always be luck on the upside or downside, injuries, ref decisions, form of individuals, bounce of the ball in a close game, in any one game luck will have a disproportionate influence but over a series of games luck is less influential so you can only really draw conclusions over a series of games. Early season we were rank average, because we were patchy over a large series of games. Now we are relentless winners, over a large series of games. So yesterday doesn't really change anything, if we go on to resume our winning form...

I always considered that Hull game we won under Plange as the game that saved Warrington from relegation.

we lost a game.. its no big deal.... The team simply didnt play well in key areas.

ours half backs were non existent and the forwards lacked aggression.

big mistakes in key areas at crucial moments in the game cost us dear.

this is basically a Karl Harrison press conference

im taking that as a compliment.

These threads are so similar year after year. We've been convincingly beaten, and thumped on some occasions, by struggling London Salford Widnes and Bradford sides in the last four years. Yet none of them have been to Wembley or Old Trafford, while we have been to five finals.

I don't think Tony Smith particularly minds losing to sides that won't overtake us in the table, resting players in these games and being fresh/ready/motivated to go again in bigger games ahead. The key is getting to the finals, at the end of all of these seasons I've not looked back and thought "if only we didn't lose by 50 at London"/"that bloody Widnes game, gutted!".

No but at the end of the season if we lose in the Grand Final, or in a playoff a game before the Grand Final (which will have been a vastly better season than most of us expected), there will be a lot of discussion on here about how TS has taken us as far as he can, falling at the final hurdle.

The pressure will start rising on the board to make the transition to Agar sooner than expected.

....and yet another season of "it's always your year!"