Rubber is just a free spirit. He is years ahead of his time and of course, with all due respect, a complete nutter. But he's worth a read.

I read your original post.
I went and got a generous refill of my evening Harveys Bristol Cream
I reread it
It still makes no sense whatsoever

May I suggest you try another refill in a bigger glass?

For a bunch of head the balls and nutters you Wire fans certainly have a great sense of humour . Thanks for the continuing entertainment

I shall return with an ‘I told you so’ in a fortnights time.

It probably helps if you think of this place as an extension of The Royle Family. Most posters can be shoe horned into one character or another. We have a surfeit of Jims at the moment.

The Inglis signing was always going to be a risk, similar to Luther Burrell.

We knew he'd retired, and had gone through mental health challenges in recent years. There were never any guarantees that he was going to be physically fit, nor that he would be in the right place for it mentally. It would be completely reasonable for him to sign for us in good faith and come over looking forward to restarting his career and then find when he was over here that he wasn't in the right place for it, and either call time on his career altogether or say he is in the right place to restart his career but being the other side of the world from his family is the wrong thing so ask to be released to return to the NRL. If any of this happens, it would not be a surprise because this was factored into the downside risk that we took when we signed him....so we should do the right thing by him and facilitate a move if necessary. If at some point in the season, we hear "parted terms by mutual consent" I wouldn't hold it against him even if he then straight away signs for an NRL club.

The reason for this sort of signing, is the upside that it brings if it comes off, if he gets fit and settles. We saw this when we brought Langer out of retirement and he dominated SL and reached State of Origin level again whilst playing for us - Inglis is the same calibre player who could have a Langer type impact. That might be a 1 in 5 shot but it's worth taking shots if we want to separate ourselves from the others at the top. Les Boyd was also a gamble - given his disciplinary record in Aus, he could have come over and eye gouged or committed GBH on the field and been banned for life and everyone would have said, how stupid were Warrington not to know what they were getting. Again it was a gamble that we took which paid off. Sandow was a gamble that didn't pay off (other than about 6 weeks of stellar form), but we always knew how it could end with him.

Unfortunately the Inglis signing will bring out the worst in a certain unpleasant section of our fan base - the type that hassled Matt Rodwell in the car park in front of his family. It ticks all the boxes for Wire fan tabloid populism. Aged over 30 - check. Australian - check. Coming out of retirement - check. Has a physique that tends to the rounder side - check. Signed by an Aussie coach - check. Team losing - check. Popular young players in his position (King or Ashton) - check. It is literally the tabloid writers dream, its like one of those Daily Mail stories about family of refugees claiming £60k a year benefit leapfrogs injured British squaddie for a council house.

When Inglis starts playing for us, you will hear these phrases on this forum: "topping up his pension", "here for a holiday", "picked because he's Prices mate", "ten lads at Woolston Rovers are better", "pay his airfare home myself". Given the stuff he has dealt with in the past, if he starts getting Rodwelled by our supporters it won't be long before he leaves. Which those fans would like because it will justify their whole resentment towards him.

The problem then is, next time we want to sign a leading NRL player, they will ask Inglis what he thinks of Warrington and we'll go on the list of 'clubs to avoid'. Some of our more insular fans will say good no more Aussies give local lads a shot but that isn't going to help us win the Grand Final.

I'm not sure I'd class the frustrations of a few board members as similar to the Rodwell thing, which was an absolute disgrace. I just think the start to the season justifies the concerns that half the board have about Price and the lack of progress. I think there will always be a few who take their anger out on the players but I doubt anyone will be levelling criticism at a legend of the game who's been out for two years, and isn't even on a huge chunk of money. What they may do, is moan about our reliance on flashy signings of yesteryears' heroes that more often than not backfire. You'd find it hard to argue with that, so fair enough.

We should remember GI wasn't a Widdop, George Burgess or Barba type signing. He came here as a marketing ploy on a short contract on less money, which is supposed to get us a bit of publicity and hopefully at least a few glimpses of his past skills. Whether that was the right decision who knows, but it probably won't happen again with Powell in charge.

As for the fans' behaviour towards Rodwell's family, I'd like to think that era is over since we became a big club. If it was going to happen again we surely would have seen in in 2017? I don't remember anything at that time, other than the same message board criticism that's on here now, which is fair game.

It didn't happen in 2017 cos we got on top of it and announced smiths departure, just when it was on the cusp of boiling. a month later and it would have reared its head like it did with Cullen in 08.

The kings head bunch, and the south weststanders will turn on price good style if results keep falling in line with performances. That rowdy element is still there, bear in mind we've had various anti social instances over the last few years, a few flash points in the corner and at away games.

It's out there, weirdly, some people(including some on here) really take this stuff to heart, and take it personally.

First time I ever stopped reading you post after the first sentence.
All’s not lost, though. It’ll be quiet in work for me and I have a bag of OOD butter-kiss to take with me the missus won’t eat.

Fair enough. I don't get to many live games these days and when I do I sit in the posh parts.

yeah, pretty sure it was start of last year, they started tarping off the back part of the south west corner of the south stand, so stewards can stand behind some of the kids that were letting the smoke bombs off.