Alffi 7

Yes, Middleton far right, has invested heavily in to the club in recent years (£2m+) and I think Karl Fitzpatrick behind him?

I don't disagree, my assumption is that he is on a good contract though, and I think allowing him to leave will enable us better balance in the squad, especially if he is replaced with Wrench / Minikin with little drop off in performance.

As a Warrington fan I don’t disagree with anything he has said, but I don’t think he should be saying it publicly. It was something I didn’t like about him at Cas and frustrated he has brought it with him. Firstly I don’t think it sets a good example of a senior figure within the game criticising referees and as a coach he needs to be focused on controlling the things he and his players can control, zero excuses, we had enough in us to win the game regardless of referee decisions and that’s what he should be focusing on. He has similar form complaining about injuries, he and his squad can only control what they can control, ref calls and injuries (to a large extent) you can’t control, moaning about it in pre / post match interviews looks like you’re looking for excuses, rather than trying to breed a culture of overcoming problems being faced.

In terms of our attacking structure, we look better than we did under Price, however possesion and territory is proving difficult to win at the moment, Bullock and Mulhern missing out this week wont help that, I'm sure Wakey will fancy their chances down the middle. Looks like a perfect day for RL on Saturday though, so hopefully we can play fast and will see some good tries scored for C4.

I think there is plenty of individual quality in the spine, Ratchford, Widdop, Williams & Clark, what they have lacked under Price was an attacking structure - hopefully this is what Powell will bring. With an effective structure around the spine, I think the back row and centres have plenty of tries in them. The massive question mark for me is upfront, I don't think we would have coped with the physicality of either Saints or Catalan last night and I think we will similarly struggle vs Leeds.

I think Leeds will be too big for us to handle and after the Wigan game I'm not sure our attack is polished enough yet for the spine to perform. Leeds by ten but hopefully some signs from Wire that the processes Powell is putting in place have shown improvement vs the Wigan game

Sales at Warrington went past 5,000 just before Christmas with the club ‘on target’ to hit pre Covid levels. I think record membership levels were 8,000+ after 2009 & 2010 challenge cup successes and league leaders in 2011.

Ratchford Charnley King Mata’utia Ashton Widdop Williams Cooper Clark Philbin Holmes Currie Magoulias Mulhern Bullock Hughes Walker Doubts over who will play 13, but guessing Magoulias to start with Hughes off the bench. Still think we are too light up front, Philbin will need to find his form of a couple of years ago & Bullock needs to really step up from his Wigan form. Interesting to see how Powell gets them playing.

Wouldn’t surprise me to see Currie, Mulhern and Charnley rested. Lineham will come in for some match fitness ahead of the play offs (whether Price in tends to play him as first choice or not). I can’t see this being a Wire win. Cas by 12+ They have everything to play for, Price seems more interested in resting and rotating than building momentum.

Maybe Lee Briers and Brett Hodgson - although some of Hodgsons points from the NRL obviously…

Ellis Longstaff looks like he could be great.

Depends what side Price looks to put out missing a couple of props (Cooper & Philbin) both hookers and potentially Williams. Also wouldn’t surprise me to see other players rested to give Ashton, Austin and Wrench a run out ahead of the play offs, they haven’t had a huge amount of game time recently. I’m hoping our Salford hoodoo ended when Watson left…

I think Rovers only offered him a 12 month deal, maybe the additional security plus the chance to work with Powell agin?

That’s my hope, I haven’t seen enough from him to warrant a place in the starting 13, but could be useful for cover at wing / centre. Similar to the role we signed Jake Mamo to fill initially. Question marks over the wing position and prop (Hill staying or going) to resolve. Bullock allegedly on his way, hopefully as a replacement for Sita rather than Hill.

Couldn't agree more. We had a young girl (under 16 not sure exactly what age) reffing my lads U10's game last week. Parents shouting on from the sidelines disputing decisions and even an opposition coach trying to influence decisions from his touchline shouting. Ridiculous. (Opposition parents cheering when a ten year old drops the ball is another pet hate). I too had the same revelation of changing my aspect on refereeing performances some years ago, made the game a far more enjoyable one. My parents in law always have a good moan at the referee during / after a game and I've noticed my son start to make comments of his own. I've started talking to him about how difficult a job it is and how there would be no game without them, most of the time the complaints are wrong / unjustified anyway and I show him that when we watch the game back. We lead by our examples. It creates a vicious cycle of poorer quality referees when more and more people will stop doing it or never start in the first place. Changes are needed in so many aspects of the game, but Superleague coaches and players need to set that example. Of course there needs to be reviews of refereeing performances, and sometimes those performances will be poor - but that should be a behind closed door exercise. The likes of Daryl Powell & Adrian Lam highlighting certain decisions they believe to be incorrect (to pick on a couple I've noticed recently) isn't a good look and breeds a lack of respect to officials. Sky asking coaches what they thought about decisions to create a bit of controversy doesn't help either.

The only way I see 2x10's as beneficial is if we can secure greater investment from Sky to show SL2, or - ideally - from a new provider. 3/4 televised games a week, either 2xSL1 and 1xSL2 on Sky or if split broadcasters 'Package 1' 2xSL1 and 'Package 2' 1xSL1 & 1xSL2. Moving to 2x10 just to spread the existing TV deal makes little sense to me. I can live with 2x10 if its seen as the base case scenario, I can live with watching Warrington play Wigan & Saints 3 times (plus play off & cup), I'd rather that than see us play a team placed 14th who are struggling to meet the standard. We need to have a plan to grow that to 2x12 with the inclusion of a couple of French teams (on the back of a French tv deal) and bringing in teams from League 1 when they are ready, be that Sheffield, Wales, Coventry or ANO. That is my hope, and that resources & support are available to clubs with the potential to grow the game in areas such as Wales / Coventry / Sheffield / Cumbria. We need to be looking at Development Officers again for these regions, but as you suggest, that long term view isn't RL's strong point, that's where an independent commission comes in I guess.

Don't disagree that teams deliberately try to slow down play 1, but the offence being a penalty if it is on tackle 1 or 2 just adds further complexity to the game for casual fans. I'd remove the 6 again rule altogether, if an offence has been committed it should be a penalty.

Saints owe us one and I think Dodd and Welsby will cause more problems than Lomax & Fages. Saints by 10.

We weren't far off full strength, I think only Jason Clark was missing through injury, but he should be back for Monday according to Price. Austin & Charnley didn't play due to an 'in-house' issue, not sure what all that is about...

Agree with most of that, although I thought King went ok today, more threatening than he has for a while, his form definitely dropped after he signed his new deal. Hudds looked to pin us down a few times defensively, but we always seemed to find a hole behind the play the ball, Clark, Currie, Widdop and Ratchford all breaking clear from deep - more should have come from them, execution wasn't great last night but I guess there have been disruptions from games being cancelled.

We always seem to struggle against an Ian Watson coached side. Looking forward to travelling down, my first away game for a long time.

Has the game got too quick? So players are looking for any means necessary to slow down the play? How does the NRL manage it? I don’t really follow it, I know they have the 6 again, do they have similar issues with players slowing the game down?

Game cancelled, COVID in Catalan camp

We do need a replacement for Hill & Cooper…

At the moment Charnley and one of Ashton / Thewlis. But we have plenty of cap space available so would expect to see a new addition in the outside backs, possibly at prop too if Hill moves on.