Super League 2020 Preview - Warrington Wolves

What constitutes a successful season? There are only three trophies to play for at the start of any year, two if you’ve joined the growing band of philistines who don’t value the League Leaders Shield. If you win one of them then surely your season should be considered a successful one. It’s a debate that has raged among Warrington fans after they shocked Saints at Wembley to win the Challenge Cup but then frittered away their early season promise in the league. After qualifying for the semi-finals at the end of May Wire won only five of their remaining 13 Super league games before meekly succumbing to Castleford Tigers at the first playoff hurdle.

The 2019 Grand Final was the first major final that Warrington missed under Steve Price since his appointment ahead of the 2018 season. Whereas Wembley defeat to Catalans Dragons that year was followed by a push towards Old Trafford, the 2019 Wolves fell in a heap after winning at the national stadium. An injury to star man Blake Austin didn’t help, but Warrington looked like a team that had exhaled so much in relief at winning one of the biggies that they lost focus on what still remained.

Will they stay the course this year? Their plans have already been dealt a blow with the news that marquee signing Gareth Widdop will miss the first month of the season. The England and Great Britain international signed on a three-year deal from St George-Illawarra Dragons but has been laid low with an ankle problem. With Kevin Brown now in Salford it will likely fall upon Declan Patton to partner Austin in the halves when the season kicks off at Wigan on January 30. Stefan Ratchford is another option there but he has played most of his rugby at fullback in recent years. Riley Dean is a youngster with seemingly great potential but may have to bide his time.

In the good news-bad news files two centres ha e made their way out of the exit at Warrington during the off-season. Ryan Atkins returns to Wakefield from whence he came 10 years ago. That shouldn’t worry Wolves too much given the decline in his form over the last couple of seasons but the loss of Bryson Goodwin is an altogether different problem. Goodwin has moved to South Sydney Rabbitohs in the NRL after a two-year spell at Wire which brought 26 tries and 43 goals in 61 appearances. Hoping to fill the void is rugby league eccentric, man of the people and former Wigan centre Anthony Gelling. In the days leading up to the clash between the Wolves and the Warriors in Round 1 there has been a fair amount of bickering about whether or not Wigan attempted to re-sign their old boy, to the extent that a joint press conference scheduled to promote the game has been shelved. The two are not on friendly terms on the face of it, though that in itself could be a cunning ruse to ramp up interest in the fixture. Gelling will be a central figure in that, as will former Wigan winger Josh Charley who scored 17 tries for the Wolves last term.

A handful of changes have been made in the pack though Price will again lean on the formidable front three of Chris Hill, Mike Cooper and Daryl Clark, while in the back row the pairing of Ben Currie and Jack Hughes are as good as anyone in the competition. Lama Tasi is unsurprisingly deemed expendable in a team with title aspirations, while Ben Westwood has retired. Twenty-year-old prop Sammy Kabula arrives from Wigan after loan spells at Swinton, London and Dewsbury and there was a late addition to the forward ranks when former Penrith Panthers prop Leilani Latu arrived from from Justin Holbrook’s new club Gold Coast Titans. Latu has made over 50 NRL appearances but after managing just nine last term he will be keen to get his career back on track. Impact will come from the powerful Ben Murdoch-Masila while Jason Clark brings great experience after making 172 appearances across a 10-year stint at the Rabbitohs.

Warrington has the second best defensive record in Super League in 2019 in terms of points conceded. Only Saints could better that. At the attacking end of the field Wire scored more points than all but Saints and Salford. Only Leeds Rhinos came up with more offloads so Price looks to have found a good balance between a strong defence and an enterprising, potent attack. Widdop and Gelling in particular are signings who should enjoy playing in a team with those characteristics.

After the Round 1 trip to the DW Stadium Warrington host Saints in Round 2. It’s some start for Price’s side. No real time to ease themselves into the competition but optimists might suggest it offers an opportunity to put down a marker against two sides expected to be challenging for the title this year. Round 3 is a trip to Wakefield before new boys Toronto Wolfpack rock up to the Halliwell Jones Stadium in Round 4 on February 21. The first full month of the season ends with a visit to what should be a much improved Leeds Rhinos outfit in Round 5.

Widdop aside the recruitment has been fairly modest at Warrington in the winter. This might suggest that Price feels his side weren’t that far away from having a title winning squad last year. The key will be to stay the course. Make every effort to defend the Challenge Cup of course, but he’ll know that if they are fortunate enough to do so they cannot let it derail their quest for a first Super League title. The fans will self-deprecatingly sing ‘it’s always our year’ and sooner or later it really will be. I’m just not quite convinced that it will be 2020.