Crikey, fair play to Powell this is some clear out!

I head he is coming on here soon and clearing a few out starting with the Duck

Does that leave the duck free to permanently join the wigan board? Or redvee?

What this means is that next season this really will be Powell’s team..unless we start losing in which case it will be KF’s team.

No point ripping a plaster off slowly I suppose. To be fair I feel we do actually need this reset, we have some great young talent to build in to the side for the future as well.

Too much to hope for sadly…..

rubber duckie wroteCooper is not being offered a contract at this point in time, nor is it likely.

Powell was also happy to let Cooper go now, but senior club officials stepped in, to prevent it.

This is an interesting time for us. I can’t remember a period where there has been a potential clear out of fan’s favourites especially some who clearly have not reached the end of their playing career. Hill and Cooper particularly (I’m using “clear out” but include in that not looking to retain). There is a sense of loss for some fans who have invested emotionally in giving these players support, and who feel the players have given a lot to the club.
We saw with Lee Briers how strange it is to see him celebrating with Wigan against us.
It seems that the “club” felt a re set was required and gave Powell the brief to re fashion the team and no one was deemed sacrosanct.
In a way it is what many on here have been calling for get rid of the “jobs for the boys” culture and start afresh.
So ‘23 looks like “revolution not evolution”. Interesting times ahead. I feel (slightly) more optimistic after the Catalans and Saints matches (and fully expect us to win the GF this season).
POWELLY IN!

PS i don’t include losing Scully and Harris as at that time we were a financial basket case and survival was at stake!

Briers wasn’t celebrating ‘against Wire’. He was celebrating a big win with his work friends and the first real indication they have got things together.

I'm on board with this because my critique of Wire for a number of years has been that we have a lot of good-but-not-great players who were overrated by much of our fan base and had sunk into a comfort zone. I like the fact that Powell is not part of the club insider culture and also has the self confidence of having been successful in different club environments before so I think he's the man to do it.

What makes me nervous is a) I wouldn't have started this by moving on Hill and Cooper and b) I haven't been impressed by the guys we are bringing in.

This is a good post and you have every right to be nervous as it's a serious overhaul.

As an 'outsider' from the daily machinations of the squad, (and the club generally, as I've no insider knowledge at all), Powell had to start somewhere. Whether there's some attitude issues that he thought he needed to fix or not with these two particular players, he's been given an opportunity to reset and rebalance, as we had quite a few OOC to deal with especially if he had any input on retention last year whilst still at Cas.

All things being equal I would have liked Hill and Cooper to be part of the plan (for a limited period) and we'd win the GF and these two amongst others bow out in a blaze of P&B Glory, history makers.But life's not like that he's the Boss, the buck literally stops with him and we definitely need a fix and releasing these guys buys Powell the biggest quickest opportunity to influence the make up of his team

Your post echoes my thoughts on the overhaul.

I am in full agreement with what Powell is doing and as you say the buck stops with him, and at the same time with all that he is doing he is massively putting his head on the block. From this point I’d say 2 seasons max to win the big one.

I think it would be right to question the ‘players’ that Powell is shipping out but from what (little) I know he seems to be getting rid of the right ‘people’.

Can they afford the duck

I think this ship will take longer to turn around and if we're backing Powell to do an overhaul and bring in his own people he has to be given time. This needs to be seen as a 4-5 year project. The danger is that the general goodwill which Powell has from the fans will dissipate next season if we struggle again especially as Powell himself has a tendency to moan about external factors and it will become a caricature that is used to beat him like TS "we trained well all week". If we jettison Powell too soon we'll just have another coach come in and have to rebuild again, except he'll have to wait till all Powell's signings come out of contract till he can make his mark on the squad.

I think we'll struggle to get a better coach than Powell, he has done well before despite not winning the Grand Final so far, so we have to go all in now. Take the rough with the smooth, like United did for all those early years under Alex Ferguson when it was two steps forward and one step back before they started winning. I'll be backing Powell when everyone is calling for his head next season.

Powell doesn't get carte blanche support from me just because he's new or he's transitioning the team. I do think he's got to be given time to get his system in place, however, if he loses the new dressing room that he's built and the commitment and performances of the team take a serious dive, he isn't free of scrutiny. He's identifying weaknesses and is making unpopular decisions which is part of strong management. (Mamo out, Cooper seemingly out, Hill out etc)

I was (and still am) a huge Tony Smith fan, but his last season with us was pretty gut wrenching, the effort wasn't there from the players, there was something rotten at the club that he ultimately had responsibility for. Most of us on here look back at the early Smith years with fondness and glee, despite the fact we didn't win a GF and I think, in part, it's because there was heart amongst the players. It could've also been that we were tosh for so many years prior.

Price didn't win a GF, won a CC and people wont look back fondly on him.

Powell is doing the right things in my opinion, He's moving on overrated underperforming and high wage players, and players that aren't buying in to his systems and goals. Next year is a big change and i'm all for it, new players, new culture and a fresh squad.
I hope we hit the ground running but with it being a lot of new players i expect a little bedding in period of 3-4 games. Powell has my full support this year and next. But like has been said, next year is Powells squad so i will be expecting a much improved team.

Think this was the point I was trying to make, I still believe 2 seasons is enough to win the big show. I think the guys coming in for next season are the starting point of the new build which I then would hope we are massive contenders the following season

Yeah i agreed with all you said mate

I think we are a long way further than 2 seasons away from winning a Grand Final. We need far more quality bringing in across several positions.

My hope next year is that we can do what we did with Cullen in the final season in Wilderspool - restore some credibility and put a team out there that fights and plays up to their potential, even if they are still short on quality. Fight for a top 6 spot. Then reassess where we are but to start breaking into the top 2 or 3 teams we'll need some star quality recruits.

Heard that we have offered Josh Charnley to Wakefield.

Looks like he has played his last game for Wire, with no way back into the fold.

I do buy into this ‘long way off…2/3 or 4/5 seasons to get it right’ stuff. These are seasoned professionals and nobody forgets how to ride a bike.

DP has come to the club with the biggest clout in SL.
He already said himself he has the best spine in SL it not rugby.
He’s already got all his own outside backs with Peanut and Miinikin ( I know), you can argue Ashton and Wrench are his choice as he told he sees them as wingers and ousted Lineman and Charnley for them.
He has his own backrowers in the squad.
He has 4 of his own choice props in the squad.

This will arguably be a 90% DP team baring the injuries, and it shouldn’t be taking up to 5 years to get the 10% and get them playing in the ‘DP way.’ I expect that from game 1 in 2023…with no excuses.

This season we ought to be winning 90% of our games by August onwards, however I’m almost as sceptical of the coaching system as I am pack weight right now. I need to be won over.

I agree with Duckie no team, given the current state of super league, is 4/5 seasons away. We could quite conceivably even win it this season. 4/5 seasons away from building a repetitive winning culture maybe.