I think Burgess will be good for them, he's got that force of character and will to maybe start some changes off there. He's not stupid, he'll know that they are rotten to the core and I'm sure he'll have guarantees in place about backing him when tough decisions need to be made.

I assume that so did DP...

Possibly. DP isn't Burgess however.

Burgess knows what it takes to be successful, DP has never really been a success. If Burgess implements even a quarter of what he learnt from Madge or Bennett, they'll have something light years ahead of what DP offered.

As a starter I think we'll see a team with better conditioning and far more committed. If not, then those players will be gone.

Our Chairman, Middleton, thinks Karl Fitzpatrick is doing a good job so he stays. It's his trainset he can do what he likes. In actual fact our sporting performance since his appointment have all gone one way - down. From a team that was regularly challenging the top 4 playing entertaining RL, winning LLS and Challenge Cups we have now become the laughing stock of the league.

DP did not have the tools in his nal to turn around the culture of mediocrity he came into or the skills to deal with the egos. He fell out with the players and in the end they stopped playing for him. When all you have in your toolkit is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

Burgess is nothing more than a high profile punt after Justin Holbrook turned us down. Of course whilst we wish Burgess well, he may throw the towel in with our shambles if things don't go right. He will be readily accepted back in Australia for an assistant role.

In truth we peaked about 2011/12 under Tony Smith. If we were ever going to win a GF it was then. Unmanaged, chaotic decline is what we are left with.

For the most part i agree i just get the feeling that Burgess will be off as soon as the going gets tough. Nothing to back that up in fairness but, for me, it seems like its just a footnote on his CV to help him get a better gig back in Aus

I do think Burgess will go well tbh. I don’t think it’ll be a really long term thing but he’s a motivator and I think he’ll get a tune out of them for a couple of years. The Holbrook appointment would’ve been amazing for both the short term and the longer term, so I can’t say I’m overly sad that didn’t come off.

I hope you are right. He should, at the very least, get us to have a competitive, aggressive pack. Currently our pack is "too nice" and easily dominated. We have absolute oxygen thieves like Dudson stealing a living with his 30 meters / 6 carries per game.

We are also unfit. Gassed after 60 mins.

Not to mention the mental fragility. If we go behind by 6 points our collective goes and the players collapse. There is not even an effective captain to rally the troops.

We have not beaten you or St Helens in 2 seasons. Not once.

One of our few top drawer players, Clark, has gone too. To be replaced by Dwyer. Dire times indeed.

Agreed, Holbrook would have had them as champions within 3 years IMO

We may as well surrender our title now
according to red vee.
Welsby > Field, Lomax > French*, Smith > Dodd**, Clark > Leeming, Mbye > Powell/ O’Neill.

He would. Our money bags owners should have offered him £millions to get the monkey off our back. No salary cap on coaches.

Begs the question - what was the strategy around the recruitment? We aimed for a tried, and tested, experienced, senior coach and came away with a rookie who currently does not possess the required coaching qualifications.


Only at Warrington.

King has completely turned it around whilst at Wigan. A huge success and massively exceeded expectations. Last year he looked sluggish, uninterested and ineffective. This year he has shown glimpses of some classic centre skill but his workrate and his contributions to yardage have been invaluable.

A huge shame that he has to leave as both him and Wigan would have been better off if he'd of stayed. Will be very interesting to see what version of Toby King Warrington will get - it will be very easy next year for King to feel disconnected as you know he would have preferred to stay.

I am sure he will go back and give his all.

He has a new coach to work under so I’m sure it will be a clean slate.

What I do get though reading between the lines in his interviews is his praise for Rads. I sure it is genuine, but I’m also confident it is a bit of a dig at Fitzpatrick who he is obviously going back to work with at Wire for the way he dealt with the rifts caused by Powell.

One thing he is now is so much fitter than at Wire. Looks a different lad on the pictures you see and it’s worked wonders. We can thank Wire for letting us having him for a year and helping us win a Grand Final and they can thank us for getting him fit.

Hold on a minute, what’s going on? I thought the monkey was your club crest

He was sluggish, uninterested and ineffective. Powell asked him to play in the reserves and he saw his . The rest is history. Perhaps you can see why a significant number of long standing Wire fans are a bit "meh" about his return. Now, if you were offering Wardle in exchange ....