IF there was one Super League side that underachieved in 2022 it was the Warrington Wolves.
Great things were expected of the Cheshire club under head coach Daryl Powell following his nine years at Castleford Tigers, but things didn’t exactly go to plan.
The Wolves ended up finishing second bottom of the Super League table, but 2023 is a new season and Powell is eager to look forward rather than back.
“I don’t think it matters too much because we’re in 2023 and 2022 just gave us some valuable lessons for me as a coach and us as a club,” Powell told League Express.
“It gives us an opportunity. The main thing is no one can change the past it’s what you do in the future.
“2023 is a massive opportunity. We’ve recruited well, we’ve got a strong group of players with some quality young players coming through.
“We’ve had one game so far and I think we looked great and strong. We made some errors first-half but we were tough defensively.
“We built a game for ourselves in the second-half and we’ve got a big pack of forwards. We’ve got to deliver and we know are going to get challenged, but we’re ready to go, we’ve had an awesome pre-season. It’s all about what we can do this year.”
When asked if he is feeling the pressure ahead of the new season, Powell replied: “No, it’s a new season, you’ve got to go and play and free up our heads. Pressure is for all you guys to talk about.
“You can talk as much as you want about it but none of that’s going to matter, we’ve got to go on the field and show what we are about.
“I’ve had some tough years but it was difficult. Life is all about learning, what do you do in tough scenarios, how good do you become? It’s proving all those lessons have been heeded.”
Will those lessons be learnt for when the Leeds Rhinos come to the Halliwell Jones Stadium next Thursday? We will find out.
