Tell me how many problem players Nathan Brown had to deal with at Huddersfield in comparison to what Tony Smith faced when he arrived at Warrington ?

How many known cultures has Nathan Brown had to deal with in comparison to Tony Smith ?

Its far easier to coach when you can just concentrate on the rugby league, Nathan Brown has done a great job at Huddersfield, his signings heavily contributed to that and his judgement on youth.

Brian Noble apart it just shows how poor the majority of english coaches are when it takes the aussies and kiwis to come over here to bring success to our clubs, both McNamara and Agar have taken their teams backwards, John Sharp left Huddersfield stagnant and going nowhere, even Brian McDermott who i rate as one of our best english coaches has taken Quins backwards this year, we don`t need to comment on our last coach or assistant/coach.

Smith has fixed our problems, one left or was pushed, as you will. As for the rest, Briers says they've pretty much stopped drinking, and we've just won a cup, so clearly the squad vibe is good and proffesionalism vastly improved.

Our squad is good, we've made some quality signings, and have a good youth structure supporting what we have.

So I'll ask again, why can't we 'replicate' what Huddersfield have done in 2009, in 2010. You say it'll take three years, other folk seem to think it's impossible too, you're not alone, why ? Huddersfield have proved it totally possible.

I will tell you how they did it and how I am hoping we will replicate it. The squad as a whole buys into, understands and agrees with the work ethic and tactics/approach of the coach.

Exactly.

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I think it is worth pointing out that we have played for the last couple of years without a half decent scrum half, one of, if not the most important position on the pitch.

Whether Myler lives up to the hype or not, he should be better than what we have had at 7 for a good while, and that could make a massive difference IMO.

I for one am excited about next year, and agree with those who state that there is no reason why we can;t step up next year and do something very good in SL.

The fact is that the league is close enough that a slight improvement can see you rise four or five positions in the league table, and a good improvement can see you rise from the bottom to competing, as we have seen from Hudds and Catalans during the last 3 years.

As far as im concerned smith is one of those coaches who has more or less knocked the drinking culture on its head and im sure if anyone was to step out of line then they would probally be dealt with in the harshest manner.

makes you happy now seeing the club is being run in a more professional manner all is in place now modern stadium squad that is strong enough to easy make the playoffs next year with a good youth set up as well happy days at warrington as far as im concerned


The futures bright the futures warrington

I remember when we signed the likes of Matt King, Chris Hicks, Michael Monaghan and Adrian Morley people saying were now realistic title challengers and some were predicting a top 2 finish and a grand final appearance, granted a lot of the failure was down to how we were coached along with certain issues not being dealt with and addressed but as far as the league goes, even this year we have shown how inconsistent we still are with our performances and league position.

All i`m saying is that the other teams that finished above us will strengthen as well, our league form has even left Tony Smith bemused at times this year, the semi final performance against Wigan left him scratching his head as even Tony Smith wasn`t sure where that kind of performance came from given our league form and i think he said similar after the final.

Until we show more consistency in the league and get our level of performance a lot higher on a more regular basis then we would struggle to back up a big performance one after another as thats what it takes to do well in the grand final play offs, were capable of the big performances but we are not known for backing them up on a regular basis especially against the stronger sides.

Yes we can win one off games as we have proved that this year but how confident are you that we could do that in a play off series where you need to back up the same high intensity performance week after week ?

A lot will revolve around how well Richie Myler goes and how quickly the other signings can settle in and whether we can keep Lee Briers fit.

Yes so do I. But I don't think we can so easily emulate Saints or Leeds.

How come 'what Nathan Brown has achieved at Huddersfield' has become the benchmark so suddenly, there were people earlier on in the thread saying there's no reason we can't win Super League.

Harsh fact is Huddersfield will win nothing this season just like they will win nothing next season and the season after that. Tony Smiths Warrington should be smashing them before long just like in the Challenge Cup final they offered nothing to threaten us when it counted.

But can Warrington go to away grounds like Knowsley Road and Headingley and win, then back it up by consistently beating the lesser teams home and away...?

To be good enough to win SL we need to be finishing in the top two in the league, look at the league table now and you will see how far we are away from that.

For a while now I have thought that we as a few years behind Hull FC as a club. They moved into the KC a couple of years before we moved to our sexy stadium, They gained play off spot a few yeas before us (I think) and have won the challenge cup. They then reached the grand final.
There are a lot of parallels but that does not mean that will continue in us either getting to a grand final or going into freefall.
We have come far from the run of defeats we had at the back end of 2008 / early part of 2009. We have come far in the last 7 years but there is still a lot of work to do.

Looking at the table we would have to win an additional 7 games to get anywhere near Leeds and Saints. 5 games to get 3rd or 4th.
5 games is a big turn around but is achievable.

That is an observation of the past, not a reason why we cannot win SL in the future ergo next year. I said there was no reason "as of now".

If I may suggest your position maybe logically flawed. I suggest we can win SL and, by your counter, we can extend that you think it will be [iimpossible[/i for us to win SL next year which clearly is not true.

Finally, just for clarity, Warrington ended the 2002 season in 10th place.(after PC saved us)

PS - Anecodotally, didn't a certain Mr Clough take Derby County from 9th place in 71, to League champions in 72 for the first time in their 88 year history?

To be fair Sal, you did say something similar about Warrington for this season.

Apologies I must have erased the 2002 season from my mind.

However this isn't an argument about theoretical logic. If you want to be pedantic of course its not impossible for us to win Super League, just like its not impossible for Salford to win Super League.

Us finishing 10th in the league isn't an observation on the past, it's an observation on the present. We've added Myler, Atkins and Solomona to the squad, those look decent signings albeit with some question marks over all three. We're losing Rauhihi, possibly one or two others. So with the give or take of the squad changes this year I don't believe we have strengthened ourselves to a position where we are going to be the best, or the second best, team in SL next year, which is where we will need to be to win Super League.
We could win the Challenge Cup again, given another favourable draw, which would actually be a fantastic achievement, to defend that trophy. And I would hope we can make the playoffs and win at least one playoff game, make a bit of an impact. But I think we are still a bit off the pace when it comes to being strong enough to win the SL title - see Hull KR and Hudds this year, they've done well but they won't be lifting the trophy at Old Trafford.

I think you have to factor in that the youngsters will be a year older and wiser as well. Eventually they will be the key factor in getting us to a grand final.

So, who did Huddersfield bring in that magicly transformed them ? It was low key recruitment, Hodgson aside, in fact with the Carney affair, you could argue it was a period of instability that. They had the core ingrediants for rapid improvement there already, just as we have. They needed a coach to make this happen, we have the coach who can make this happen. They came a win away from finishing in the top two, which you reckon is the only way you can win it. So they went from 10th to 3rd, a cup final appearance & a win away from 2nd in 12 mths, so it's possible that any side can do it, especially a side that has spent the second half of a season putting the building blocks in place for the next one.

We've never been in a better position to seriously challenge to win SL.

To go on from JWP's observations, we are now also starting to get young players coming through for the first time in years. The Club is now in it's most healthy position all round since the Murphy era.