I think Sibbitt had a massive reputation because he was tearing it up in academy games. He used to stand out like a Sonny Bill or a Sam Burgess and used to power through the centres. That’s why so much was expected of him. Melbourne had probably been alerted to him and studied the tapes of those academy games and thought they could develop him into a star. Unfortunately he just never really stood out at senior level, which I suppose you could partly put down the fact that we were pretty rubbish even with Langer doing his best to pull the strings.

Luis Johnson could be put in the same bracket I suppose - he looked a monster at academy level.

I've defended against this weird retrospective dislike of sibbit on here before, and I promised I'd stay away this time.

However, as you've rightly put, 1999 and 2000 season sibbit was a killer in the academy levels.

But when he got into the first team, daryl had him filling in at centre, which made no sense (if you recall during the disastrous 2001 season, we signed Kidwelly at centre who went awol with a mystery injury).

He then went to Melbourne for a year, and came back to a different coach, but likewise Cullen ended up playing him at centre for most of the year and even with his knee hanging off and taped up to .

He only really got a chance playing back row for us, in fits and starts in 2004, by which time he was getting garbage minutes around a backroom that was Darren burns and Mike forshaw, with a smattering of Paul noone.

Andy Currier.
If he’d have gone on to play netball, he’d have played better than he did at Wire.

Centenary season, Higham and Johnson brought in 2 players that wire fans didn't want and had a previous dislike to, in currier and Mark Jones.

That was never gonna end well

Louis Johnson never looked like "a monster" at Academy level with Warrington. He was completely underwhelming for our academy.

I would say his best performance for Warrington whilst an academy player was his first team debut at Wigan.

Did you HAVE to mention him?

We had Bateman at the time and then the club offered him a derisory deal (about£20k/yr) because he was 'older'. Talk about being stupid.
Then the Aussies came in and gave him £70k per year and Warrington then decided they wanted him but it was too late by then.
So we ended up with Currier - who I thought was alright at Widnes - but wish he'd stayed there.

The sheer stupidity of the club - beyond words.
Not one of Brian Johnson's best moments. (Although I dont know what real say he had as opposed to Higham).

Probably Karl Fitzpatrick's fault.

I’ve not looked it up, but with either signed Currier from Featherstone or I watched him play shat for us up there.
Back in the day when I’d followed wire everywhere. I remember thinking to myself, instead of spending £50-60k on Currier, why not just have gave that to Bateman in his contract.?!
Hellooooooo!!!

Brian Johnson was utterly dismissive towards Bateman when he arrived, if you read Bateman's autobiography. Makes you wonder if Johnson ever rated or wanted him.

There is a bizarre story of where Bateman came to talk to Johnno, who was surrounded by fans who he was signing autographs for, and he just handed Bateman a piece of paper and said "here's the offer, take it or leave it". Bateman took it and then regretted it soon after.

Allan Bateman was my favourite player growing up, it's bizarre how underrated and shoddily treated he was.

Currier looked decent for Widnes, but who wouldn't in the team he was in? A pack that included Sorenson, Koloto; Davies, Tony Myler, Bobbie Goulding as playmakers at various times in front of him... Offiah on the wing. Alan Tait then Stuart Spruce - two of the best full-backs I've seen in the game - covering people's mistakes.

Darren Wright always struck me as the better of Widnes' two centres.

Allan is still a Wire though. Sat along side him on a coach, on some trip we were on. Can’t remember what it was now.

If he is, it will be because of the fans, not the club hierarchy at the time.

Although never a massive fan, Danny Nutley ended up getting in the Super League Dream Team and playing Origin after he left us. I was just going through the Heritage numbers list and there are plenty of examples of players getting worse after joining us, Charnley for example.

I think you are being unduly harsh on Charnley, he was great for us when he first arrived. Something happened to him and/or our tactics changed significantly and that has resulted in his effectiveness falling off a cliff. There are many examples of players who stunk the place out from day 1, Charnley is not one of those.