What's the biggest mystery, is that of those seven players you name, the one you would have had out of the door first was Michael Monaghan, yet he was the only one actually given a fresh contract - He has been crocked for 2 years now, he wouldn't pass a standard medical, never mind one for a rigorous sport like RL.

The truth is, we gave a guy a new contract simply to keep his brother at the club - We should not have done this and if Joel didn't want to stay on his own, then he should have been shown the door too.

I don't think that releasing Morley and Carvell was particularly a mistake, but while Michael Monaghan is still at our club, while they are still playing the game for other clubs, shows massive misjudgement on Tony Smith's part.

Jesus Yed, what are you trying to cause here by starting threads like this?

I saw that Tony was getting quite a few comments on threads so I realised it would be a good topic.

My OP wasn't in any way reflecting my own opinion.

I'd like to know what TS has them doing in the week, because last night, the Wigan and Saints games they looked like they had drove home after the previous match and just met up before the next match.

This. A player of the calibre and importance of briers is almost irreplaceable especially at short notice. I think ratchford was signed as a replacement for either briers or Hodgson but I am not sure TS knew which yet and another season may/ may not have brought the answer.

I think carvell being released is a big error, I still don't understand that one.

All that said its difficult to understand how professional rugby league players could so spectacularly forget how to get the basics right it is surely not beyond any of our players to play basic rugby. I still think we will gel ang get better but 9 games in to the season without a good performance to show for it is as frustrating as it is baffling.

Come on wire sort it out.

On the recruitment issue TS is being criticised on the back of poor current form but I think a lot of our fans would have been on board with his general approach to building the team.

The succession planning for Briers was in hand a few years ago. We targeted bright young British halfback talent, Myler and Ratchford, got them over in time to have a few years to bed in the team before Briers left. Also brought G'OB through the ranks who we made sure had first team experience by sending him on loan when he was Briers' understudy. So when Briers did retire, we had three British talents ready and well prepared to take over. This might not be working, but the rationale for this made sense. How often before have we seen SL teams just say there is no British halfback talent so lets sign Bruce Didgeridoo from Wee Waa Dingos 3rd grade and let him take the place of a British player, so what TS did was thinking long term about the club and the British game.

Regarding the lack of established player signings in general, we have been quite bullish about our upcoming talent for a couple of years now. How often on here have there been threads "the future's bright the future's Wire" where people list a potential Wire 2017 side made up of the younger current first teamers plus various names from the Academy, and everybody agrees this looks a good side and how proud we are that by then we are likely to have a largely home grown first team. Ben Currie especially was highly rated on here as one of the best young talents since Scully, Glenn Riley is "a beast", Rhys Evans was in demand from RU and if he can stay fit is a superb prospect, Brad Dwyer is another with a big reputation on here. So it could be that the club thought it may have a golden generation coming through and held off on signing with a view to these coming through, in the same way Alex Ferguson didn't replace Kanchelskis, Hughes and Ince he just promoted Beckham, Scholes and Butt.

Remember also that for a while people have been saying we don't look enough at players in the lower leagues where there's a lot of talent. TS went down to Leigh and picked up Chris Hill and he has done the same with Anthony England which was a popular move when he signed. And Matty Russell also on the strength of a couple of games in the World Cup got the fans excited about possibly being one of the signings of the season.

Which is why before the season started there was a lot of optimism on here and people saying that we didn't need to worry about players leaving as we had players who would step up and lots of cover in all the positions, and a move towards a more home grown feel to the team which was seen as a positive direction. Of course now we have lost a few games, everyone is up in arms, but the rationale was something I'm sure a lot of the fans would have agreed with.

The one thing where I think TS/the club has made a mistake is that last season it renewed the contracts of a couple of players that were already showing signs of decline: Atkins and Riley. I am not knocking these guys that have been excellent for us and I usually stick up for them on here but I wonder if we were premature in extending them, especially Atkins till 2017: four more seasons including this.

I personally just think you're all a bit spoilt, and now you're throwing a wobbly because we're not where we want to be. Russell has been great so far, Asotasi has been average, England non existant, but on paper they were good additions, Tony can't force them into good performances, it has to come from them, rarely has an Aussie come over here and performed to their potential for us in their first year.

With losing Morley, Carvell, Hodgson, Briers, and others last year, I will be happy with us making the playoffs, in a year where things are shaky, and build properly next year and hopefully come back firing.

The lower teams stepping it up a gear hasn't helped either, they do not want to be going down at the end of the year and are going all out.

Sally ,some of your comments about happenings at the club mirroring points raised on here are a bit disturbing. I hope TS doesn't get coaching tips & pick his team from reading posts on here.

As has been stated before, the problem has been that even if the replacement of Briers, and the reduction in our overall age had been carefully considered and planned it wasn't implemented well.

Youngsters like Currie and Dwyer were brought into the team for games where the motive wasn;t to blood them but to rest senior players. They were farmed our to other clubs on loan with no apparent plan for assimilating them back into the squad.

Instead we went from being Dads Army to the Bash Street Kids overnight, and some of the youngsters are either out of their depth, out of their comfort zone or have been pushed into this position too soon.

I would like to say, however, that the youngsters are not and never have been the problem, and I don't think I've ever criticised them. The senior players are the issue, and Myler & Ratchford are part of that group. They have collectively and individually failed to lift, support, mentor and guide the new blood through a difficult transition.

You see Morrissey ,there is another potential problem....when these players are on loan at partner clubs are they being coached at that level by partner club staff or doing training at Warrington all week & being coached in our style & to our levels ?
I wonder in a way have we been unlucky with the way the reserve set up throughout the league was disrupted last season which then coincided with us losing so many key players & having a lack of seasoned pros.

Yes, I absolutely agree. With the best will I'd imagine that players out on loan or on dual-reg are having limited exposure with the staff and players at Warrington. No disrespect to the coaches at Bradford, Swinton, Wakefield etc. but do we really know that when someone goes on loan they are getting the ideal coaching, prep etc.? I'd suggest not.

Focussing on the youngsters is a red herring. We have a huge gap in age between the 'thirty somethings', teetering on the edge of retirement, and youngsters like Laithwaite, Dwyer and Evans x2. You are talking about a gap of 13-14 yrs. It's not even likely that these kids (even if they make the grade) are going to suddenly become seasoned veterans like Carvell, Monas, Morley. So to maintain continuity as a top 4 side, you don't look to this age group, you look at the group in the mid to late twenties, and hope the youngsters below continue to develop and gain that all-important experience.

Our big problem is the ( too large) group of 30+ players that are retiring now. We will be forced into the market to plug the gap.

You're seriously suggesting that full-time Warrington players who go on dual-registration with Swinton (today's players being O'Brien and Riley) don't continue to train full-time with Warrington?

Don't you realise Swinton are a part time team that trains in the evening using Warrington's facilities at Padgate?

Do you think the club says to O'Brien and Riley "you're at Swinton this weekend so don't bother coming into training this week during the day just come in Tuesday evening for fitness session and then Thursday evening to run through a few plays with Ian Watson and his Swinton lads".

Quite honestly most of the stuff that people post on here these days is unbelievable, it would seem that Rubber Duckie is dragging anybody else down to his level.

Not everyone...there one person who's posting I cannot stoop so low too.
Yours. Pathetic.
If you took a little time to even read the posts you discredit, you'll note none of them are from me.