Yes we will cope, but "coping" and "competing for trophies" are different things.

It doesn't take much to lose ground in a couple of years when a number of quality players all leave at the same time.

Look at Bradford 2005 compared to Bradford 2008 for instance.
Or Hull 2006 compared to Hull 2009.
Or Saints 2008 compared to Saints now.
Wigan got to back to back finals under Mike Gregory in 2003 and 2004 then were fighting relegation in 2006.

I fear that whilst its easy to say now, relax we'll be fine, in a few years time we will be feeling like we have slipped off the pace not least as Tony Smith may decide that his natural cycle of coaching a club might come to an end with these players and its as good a time as any to move on to a new challenge.

We have had a crucial advantage in the last 5 to 6 years as we have had the best playmaker in Super League. We will notice the difference, if we are in a situation where we no longer have that position.

Looking around, there are some players that you might cherry pick and drop into the team, but will they be available to us ? Meanwhile the tide of Oz players continues to recede, exposing the threadbare nature of RL in the UK. For the first time ever, I can only think of one player in the Saints team that I would be happy to accept. If you add in the competition for players from the likes of Hull last year and perhaps Salford this year ( not to mention Oz) I would suggest that we will need to look to our own youth development for the bulk of our players in the future. I am sure we will still get the occasional Hill, and splash out on an expensive Myler, but there has not been many suggested purchases from this forum recently. If we wanted a big experienced prop to replace Morley, how many options are there ? More importantly, how many would be available ?


If this is the case, we do have something of a problem, which is an age gap. We have some emerging talent, but we don't know yet how good it will be. Even if the players make the grade (top 4 standard), Dwyer will not become Monas in 2014 and Ben Evans will not suddenly replace Morley. It took Myler a good few years to develop into the player he currently is. Evans has hopefully started down that path, but the likes of Currie, Dwyer, GOB have barely started. For me, I would like to cram our 30 something's into the DeLorean and wind back time by 3 yrs. I reckon that is something like the age gap we need to bridge, if we are to maintain a challenge for silverware over the next few years.

We last got in this situation in the mid 1990s when we had been a good side (albeit not as good now) and then lost Davies, Bateman and Mackey all at the same time. There were high hopes for the future back then because there were promising youngsters to take their spots like Penny, Roper and Duffy but none of them made it to the same level and Harris and Scully soon left for better things. 20 months was the time between only missing out on the championship due to points difference, and 80-0 at Saints.

We were broke then and aren't now. That's a big difference, plus the structure of the club is a zillion x better off nowadays so I don't fear any repeat of the 90s.

it is a cause for concern though and we will have a job on to replace Monaghan x2 Hodgson and Briers. That would be a tough enough ask without the NRL effectively closing it's doors to SL

End of 2013 will be very interesting IMO. We are likely to see Salford, Hull, us and probably Leeds and Wigan all scrambling for the best of the rest in the player market. Alot of money may be spent getting players you might not consider to be worth it. We laughed at Wigan paying for MattySmith, Scott Taylor and Blake Green but that's the market we all may need to get used to.

You are all missing a generation out in the middle. It isn't going to be currie who replaces Westwood it will be Grix then Currie will replace Grix. It won't be Evans to replace Morley, it will be Hill and Evans will fill Hill's vacant position. The point is we have players who can step up another level with out it being a huge jump. They will become our leaders. The kids will fill the vacant spots left.

Some great points raised on this thread. All the more reason why it is vital we invest as much as we can into youth development both at the club and within the town. Hopefully everyone will be aware of the Sport England RFL funding cuts which have made it very difficult for the Foundation to continue their excellent community development programmes across the borough. They are now seeking alternative funding streams including the assistance of the Supporters Trust. As a fan there are various ways we can all help but the very simplest way (that will give you direct benefits back too) is to join the Trust or referably SqB too. www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/new ... pite_cuts/ www.squadbuilder.co.uk/wwstwhat.asp www.squadbuilder.co.uk/sqbwhat.asp www.squadbuilder.co.uk/newsstory.asp?news_id=252 The more members we get, the more we can help the Foundation and the Club build on the excellent youth development work of the past few years. If you are a committed Wire fan - are you a Trust or SqB member? If not, why?

Some great points raised on this thread. All the more reason why it is vital we invest as much as we can into youth development both at the club and within the town. Hopefully everyone will be aware of the Sport England RFL funding cuts which have made it very difficult for the Foundation to continue their excellent community development programmes across the borough. They are now seeking alternative funding streams including the assistance of the Supporters Trust. As a fan there are various ways we can all help but the very simplest way (that will give you direct benefits back too) is to join the Trust or referably SqB too. www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/new ... pite_cuts/ www.squadbuilder.co.uk/wwstwhat.asp www.squadbuilder.co.uk/sqbwhat.asp www.squadbuilder.co.uk/newsstory.asp?news_id=252 The more members we get, the more we can help the Foundation and the Club build on the excellent youth development work of the past few years. If you are a committed Wire fan - are you a Trust or SqB member? If not, why?

Not Quite.

Lets assume, just for the sake of argument, that we have the identical squad in 2014 as this year. The only difference is that Morley decides to retire and current top dog Ben Evans returns. By your argument, Morley is 'replaced' by Hill (no problem) and Woody or Coops replaces Hill, whilst Evans starts to learn his trade with a modest number of starts. Much as I love Woody, he is not as good as Hill (England international), so we have lost some quality in the squad. And Evans is only just starting out, he is not going to become an experienced prop overnight. If you carry that argument across several positions where we have 'ageing rock stars' then the effect is magnified. So the point Sally is making is that yes, we may well have a good team, but not necessarily a silverware winning team.

My point is very similar. But I am looking where we can replace 'like with like'. Outside the club, quality seems to be falling (and Oz too expensive). The likes of Ben Evans need several years (like Myler) to mature, and even then, he may not be as good as Hill. So our youngsters are not sufficiently developed as yet to even know if they will be as good as our star players, let alone replace them. GOB has had the most SL exposure of our youngsters. If he replaces Briers next year, will we have the same quality team ? And Ratchford can not be in two places at once. If you use him at half, who will replace Bret ?

replacing the morleys, westwoods, monaghans will be done the same way they were originally recruited.

That's just shocking, are you seriously asking us to believe that players will change their club just for money ?

pah !

i agree... its a bit far fetched... but its worth a try

But just supposing, totally hypothetically of course because it's a ludicrous idea, but if we were to tap up a top star like Ryan Bailey. How much would he wan't ?

top players like that with loads of grand final winners rings are probably a bit out of our reach tbh.

some things money just cant buy.

I was just starting to get a bit excited there for a minute.


Now you have ruined it all.

His bail money?

in three years time we could easily line-up as follows:

1. Ratchford
2. Riley
3. Bridge
4. Atkins
5. Evans
6. Marshall
7. Myler
8. Hill
9. Clarke
10. Westwood
11. Currie
12. Grix
13. Harrison

14. Dwyer
15. Cooper
16. Laithwaite
17. Evans

For me that would be plenty good enough to win trophies.