We simply haven't and will find it very difficult to replace Brett Hodgson. He Gave Briers and the team so much in support direction and attacking options.

We have lost that plus offloading props in Carvell and Wood, throw in the loss of another organiser in mick monas and it doesn't take a genius to fathom out why we are lacking in attack.

Putting this at myler and obriens door is a bit short sighted in my opinion.

Lee Briers would have made no difference to that game yesterday he would most likely have feigned a limp at some time in the second half.

I agree it's frustrating and half of me can't wait for a 33 year old cooper cronk to come and play for us then the other half thinks we persevered with briers for so long what right do we have to cast off Obrien at such an early stage of his career.

And let's be honest it can't get worse than yesterday can it. So I think I'm a bit more chipper about things this morning.

The flying biscuit, once again the voice of reason and decency.

Partly the reason Briers was a good as he was in the later stages of his career is because he was playing consistently and trusted even when his form was below par and his attitude not quite right, casting GOB off I think is a massive mistake, he has flashes of brilliance, as time goes by given the opportunity to shine I think he could.

and partly because Briers had too, he was out the door when he was offered that olive branch by TS.

I'm pretty sure Briers would have made a difference! Whether that would have been enough to make a difference to the result is extremely unlikely.

im with rubber duckie on this one bridge and ratchford at hb..the sooner the better

The last two dragons teams we have played have taught us a lesson in winning games on the back of good kicking games.

Ratchford and Bridge can't kick unless they are kicking it off a cone.

I just cant see where we are going to get a kicking game from... either someone comes in from the under 19s (Patton).. or we go out and find someone.

without a decent open field kicker we have no field position.. We are going to see this side on the backfoot a hell of a lot over the coming season i think.

you stupid boy!

This might sound a bit radical but we have a management system in place which is supposed to iron out anything that is going wrong. The team has limped along since the beginning of last season without a positional field kicker so why haven't our stopgap kickers learned to improve their kicking games in all that time ? Do they practice field kicking with input from the coaches? Why do we not have variations on our so called game plans ,when we see so called lesser teams do a fine job on our defence? The team, from players right through to management, seem to be going backwards with each season.

For this to be actioned you need quality players and quality coaching and management staff, have we got both or either?

No, I doubt they ever practise. They just slob around at training, chatting to their mates.

No, we have none of them. No props as good as any in Super League. No reigning Man of Steel. No top try scorer from Super League last year. No successful coach who has won GFs, CCs and LLSs. No recently retired players on the coaching staff who everybody says we miss. None of those in place.

The epitome of the Warrington RLFans poster ladies and gentlemen.

We win our first two games, conceding 3 tries, and then narrowly lose to an NRL side. All is well. We get well beaten, by a good team, who've had 2 weeks off, and all of a sudden the sky is falling in. The reaction on this place if we lose to Hull KR next Sunday will be the equivalent of a cross between the Walking Dead and Loose Women.

I can't remember what round we got to in the play offs and CC last season but I think it was quite late on. I don't know how this season will pan out but can't we at least wait until we've settled down before we start with this crap?

I'll be honest, i'm not that d, don't get me wrong, there's things i can be slightly concerned about but just from Saturdays game, i'm not knee jerking.

Have we fans not learnt from 12 months ago about moaning too soon? we ended up 3 injuries by wigan house tactics away from making the grandfinal last year.

As for kicking, i think o'brien's kicking game is alright, there's certainly room for improvement, but there's some revisionist history going on looking back at briers' immaculate kicking game. Yes in recent years he got a level of consistency, but for a large part, a lot of people on the terraces used to get on his case, and on here for his inconsistency.

SAturdays game was a post cup final performance, after the lord mayors show, we were knackered, if we were REALLY that bad and catalans were THAT good, they would have put easy 60 points on us, like we did in 11 to teams.

I agree with FMC no knee jerking, it was Cats away after a massive game against St George, its out of the way lets move on to KR and hopefully bounce back with a good performance and this will be forgotten.

Could be worse, could have had KR at their place.....

wane's complaining about the reffing in the express today.

He was complaining about dirty tactics of going out to purposely harm his players and that is something he never coaches into his side.

What a humbling honest fair coach he is.

I've not watched the game yet but I will be doing for research purposes before the weekend but the kicking game has been off all year and it's a definite area for improvement.

If we get beat by KR on Sunday some fans will stage a sit in again..!

We have one prop as good as any in SL. Hopefully, Sims will become another.

We have the MoS, who is yet to hit his straps, frankly. Though not a surprise, there have only been a few games.

We have last year's top try scorer, who thus far has 1 to his name. Again, not a surprise, there have only been a few games.

A bit Pollyanna, there, but you are right, much is in place for a good season, and knee-jerking after a defeat to the Dragons is just daft. However, Wire really have to sort out the kicking, it's not up to scratch at the moment.

I heard that Wigan were playing in our style to give HKR some practice for their match against us.

I have no problem at all with O'Brien & Myler in the halves ,in fact we may have shipped less tries if Myler had been fit to play in France. Last season was a so called unexpected calamity with the loss of Briers leaving us with no field kicker. We are now in a new season & it appears that the problem hasn't been addressed sufficiently. It is a continuing problem that needs to be worked on with the present halfback combination & leave Bridge & Ratchford where they are to wreak havoc on opponents.

If you look at our squad there is no reason not to be optimistic about the season ahead. We have a starting line up (according to the squad numbers) of:

1 Russell
2 R Evans
3 Bridge
4 Atkins
5 Monaghan
6 Ratchford
7 Myler
8 Hill
9 Clark
10 Sims
11 Grix
12 Westwood
13 Harrison

The forward pack looks very impressive and that's before you add the likes of Higham, England, Curry, Laithwaite, Asotasi and Ben Evans as players to have on the bench. The back line is also very good with some excellent individuals who have proven records. Again, add to that with Penny (who has been exceptional) O'Brien (solid, flashes of brilliance, good goal kicker) and Wheeler (still a bit of an unknown but will prove a good signing in my opinion) and we can be very optimistic.

We will continue to improve as the season progresses, and a few hit and miss spells in the early stages of the season is nothing new, just look at the last few years. Our kicking game is definitely something that needs to improve though. I thought O'Brien's kicking in the Hull KR friendly was the best I've seen in a long time from anyone in the team, so let's hope he finds that form again soon.

COME ON WIRE