It was a genuine question, not an invitation for yet another rant from you as to how most Wire fans are satisfied with mediocrity and how you are the one true believer. So try again, what was the last decision/signing that you were pleased with?

Having watched Warrington home and away for more than two thirds of those 65 years I think I have the perspective to put the last ten years into context. They represent the most sustained period of high performance and success in the history of the club.

I do wonder how long you have been watching Warrington? You don't see to be able to take a balance view on anything, last season you claimed the team were looking unbeatable and a joy to watch yet now a dozen or less games later the club is a car crash.

It would be good to have some balance and perspective - I'm sure you have a great passion for the club but please do realise that constant criticism is grating on others just as un-realistic hyperbole can be excruciating and awkward. Whilst Latu was a dreadful signing and subsequently an expensive error on a scale of cock-up signings it's barely a blip compared to say the signing of George Burgess.

I’ve been watching Warrington for just over 20 years.

Surely you’re second paragraph is a contradiction. Last season I said exactly those words because that’s what we were doing, we were winning lots of games, playing well and looked unbeatable and therefore praise was due however like every other season the form took a turn and our season faded out and we wimped out of the play offs.

I don’t think it’s constant criticism. There isn’t really a lot to be happy and postive about when it comes to our rugby team over the last couple of years is there? Have you been happy with the style of rugby? The recruitment? But I do believe criticism is warranted when people in privileged positions keep making the same mistakes. I know if I did that in my job I’d be fired.

The difference is though when you compare Wigan is they’ve won Grand Finals. I think fans would give lots more leeway if we had won a Grand Final or two in the past few years. I know I’d take a Latu or a Sita if it meant we won a GF.

I for one, was pretty happy when we beat Saints to win the Challenge Cup.

As was I but we can’t live off that game for ever. The ultimate aim has to be to win a Grand Final.

Yes we can, and I will until they can beat us in a final.
If I can endure always your year, they can endure my constant reminders whilst they have no memory recall.

Since 2009 we've been to 6 CC Finals, 4 SL GFs, and won 2 LLS - I'm just happy to see us competing at that level with a realistic chance of winning, and certainly wouldn't swap the perceived shortfalls (or what someone called "mediocrity"icon_wink.gif in the 2009-2020 period for, let's say, watching us from 1997-2008 all over again!

Three quarters of the league would snatch our hand off if we offered to switch places with them over the past 11 years or so.

Yep, we're just ahead of Hull in terms of success. Cas have not won a (real) trophy, nor have Salford. But for us, it is true that winning Challenge Cups is now not enough. We really do have to win the big one and I am sure we are doing everything we can to do so. I am not one for swapping the coach unless there is some chance of improvement. The squad is good enough, I think, but we just need everything to click in one or two matches and we'll do it. At last.

We went twenty years from 1989 to 2008 with just the Regal Trophy and Lancashire cup wins to enjoy. 1st rule of being a Wire is you have to be patient. Relatively speaking, these are good times, for all that we may wish for things to instantly change. Am I happy with some of the signings? Answer is an obvious no, as I would expect most, if not all, on here to also answer. All clubs get them wrong, for a variety of reasons, as signing a square peg is part and parcel of the game that will always happen. Some signings take time to fit in - Matt King and Michael Monaghan didn't hit the ground running in their first season, as examples. I believe that we'll be in a GF or two over the next decade, as the club looks to be financially able to compete in the top bracket of SL. The club aren't run badly, as the prime example of such is Bradford, we just haven't fulfilled our potential yet, in terms of a GF win.

Right up until we appointed Tony Smith in 2009 (what a bad step backwards that season looked like it was going to be and in league terms it was). I lived more in hope than expectation that I would ever get to go and watch Warrington at old Trafford, I thought we could get a lucky draw and make Wembley one day maybe. I would have snatched anyone's hand off at that point just to watch Warrington play at Old Trafford in the final rather than watch other teams there like I had done previously. The last 10 years for the most part have been beyond my wildest dreams as a wire fan growing up in the 90s.

Winning 4 Challenge Cups in 10 years is a level of success well ahead of anything I expected us to achieve going in to 2009 so I don't take that for granted, nor the fact that we made several other major finals and lost. There are no guarantees, but we have at least been up there competing.

I share the frustration of a lot of fans though that we have hit a plateau and been there for some time. The recruitment has not been good for some time, and when people say "with our squad we should be champions" they overrate our squad. There are a lot of players who are regulars in our first team that Saints, Wigan would not be interested in as starters. Since the break up of the last great team (Leeds), there has been a power vacuum in Super League and none of the squads - including Saints and Wigan - are really that great in a historical context. If the team of the early TS years had come together eight years or so later, it would have completely dominated the Super League of today, so it was unlucky timing that when it was at its peak Leeds still had all of their greats, and despite that Leeds team being seen as an ageing side, their core players were still playing after ours had gone.

After going through some dips themselves, Saints, Wigan (and now Leeds) have managed to rejuvenate themselves quite quickly to that top echelon, because no team is so strong anymore that climbing to the top is the formidable obstacle that it was when Cullen or TS took over. It does feel like an opportunity missed, and although I think Steve Price is fundamentally a decent coach who can put together a credible team, I don't get the sense that Price is the type of coach who will separate us from the pack at the top and I don't think our management and recruitment generally is good enough to separate us from the pack at the top.

So I think it's a cop out when people just want to take the approach of resting on our laurels, yes we won 4 Challenge Cups in the past 10 years, but three of those were with a set up much better than we have now. If we really want to take the jump we do need to make changes. But that means bringing in the right people, and if that means waiting a bit till the right person comes available I'm ok with that, rather than just playing lucky dip and bringing in someone who could take us backwards.

Context is needed though. Them teams haven't had half the squads we have had or spent half the cash we have.

As always Sally is bang on the money.

I don't think we actually missed out on anyone as in other people offered more money etc it's just nobody wanted to come over to play for us. An unknown prop knocked us back, Sammy Lisone Knocked us Back, Zane Tetevano Knocked us back as he didn't want to Bring his young family over here but a year later here he is at Leeds.......but money obviously talks. And i think there was another prop we were in for that didn't want to play for us either. Then low and behold the missing puzzle piece in Latu was signed so he was 4th or 5th choice......but more likely the only one who wanted to play for us because nobody else was interested in him at all.
I'm happy with Butler and Mulhern being added to our Squad and it's the first year i've felt good about our prop situation in quite awhile. It's just the lack of extra cover now as the backs ups now are basically Sita unless he trains the house down and Butler becomes the back up, Doro and J.Clark plays there from time to time and that's about it.