Briers wasn’t celebrating ‘against Wire’. He was celebrating a big win with his work friends and the first real indication they have got things together.

I'm on board with this because my critique of Wire for a number of years has been that we have a lot of good-but-not-great players who were overrated by much of our fan base and had sunk into a comfort zone. I like the fact that Powell is not part of the club insider culture and also has the self confidence of having been successful in different club environments before so I think he's the man to do it.

What makes me nervous is a) I wouldn't have started this by moving on Hill and Cooper and b) I haven't been impressed by the guys we are bringing in.

This is a good post and you have every right to be nervous as it's a serious overhaul.

As an 'outsider' from the daily machinations of the squad, (and the club generally, as I've no insider knowledge at all), Powell had to start somewhere. Whether there's some attitude issues that he thought he needed to fix or not with these two particular players, he's been given an opportunity to reset and rebalance, as we had quite a few OOC to deal with especially if he had any input on retention last year whilst still at Cas.

All things being equal I would have liked Hill and Cooper to be part of the plan (for a limited period) and we'd win the GF and these two amongst others bow out in a blaze of P&B Glory, history makers.But life's not like that he's the Boss, the buck literally stops with him and we definitely need a fix and releasing these guys buys Powell the biggest quickest opportunity to influence the make up of his team

Your post echoes my thoughts on the overhaul.

I am in full agreement with what Powell is doing and as you say the buck stops with him, and at the same time with all that he is doing he is massively putting his head on the block. From this point I’d say 2 seasons max to win the big one.

I think it would be right to question the ‘players’ that Powell is shipping out but from what (little) I know he seems to be getting rid of the right ‘people’.

Can they afford the duck

I think this ship will take longer to turn around and if we're backing Powell to do an overhaul and bring in his own people he has to be given time. This needs to be seen as a 4-5 year project. The danger is that the general goodwill which Powell has from the fans will dissipate next season if we struggle again especially as Powell himself has a tendency to moan about external factors and it will become a caricature that is used to beat him like TS "we trained well all week". If we jettison Powell too soon we'll just have another coach come in and have to rebuild again, except he'll have to wait till all Powell's signings come out of contract till he can make his mark on the squad.

I think we'll struggle to get a better coach than Powell, he has done well before despite not winning the Grand Final so far, so we have to go all in now. Take the rough with the smooth, like United did for all those early years under Alex Ferguson when it was two steps forward and one step back before they started winning. I'll be backing Powell when everyone is calling for his head next season.

Powell is doing the right things in my opinion, He's moving on overrated underperforming and high wage players, and players that aren't buying in to his systems and goals. Next year is a big change and i'm all for it, new players, new culture and a fresh squad.
I hope we hit the ground running but with it being a lot of new players i expect a little bedding in period of 3-4 games. Powell has my full support this year and next. But like has been said, next year is Powells squad so i will be expecting a much improved team.

Think this was the point I was trying to make, I still believe 2 seasons is enough to win the big show. I think the guys coming in for next season are the starting point of the new build which I then would hope we are massive contenders the following season

Yeah i agreed with all you said mate

I think we are a long way further than 2 seasons away from winning a Grand Final. We need far more quality bringing in across several positions.

My hope next year is that we can do what we did with Cullen in the final season in Wilderspool - restore some credibility and put a team out there that fights and plays up to their potential, even if they are still short on quality. Fight for a top 6 spot. Then reassess where we are but to start breaking into the top 2 or 3 teams we'll need some star quality recruits.

Heard that we have offered Josh Charnley to Wakefield.

Looks like he has played his last game for Wire, with no way back into the fold.

I do buy into this ‘long way off…2/3 or 4/5 seasons to get it right’ stuff. These are seasoned professionals and nobody forgets how to ride a bike.

DP has come to the club with the biggest clout in SL.
He already said himself he has the best spine in SL it not rugby.
He’s already got all his own outside backs with Peanut and Miinikin ( I know), you can argue Ashton and Wrench are his choice as he told he sees them as wingers and ousted Lineman and Charnley for them.
He has his own backrowers in the squad.
He has 4 of his own choice props in the squad.

This will arguably be a 90% DP team baring the injuries, and it shouldn’t be taking up to 5 years to get the 10% and get them playing in the ‘DP way.’ I expect that from game 1 in 2023…with no excuses.

This season we ought to be winning 90% of our games by August onwards, however I’m almost as sceptical of the coaching system as I am pack weight right now. I need to be won over.