Warrington Wolves • Which were the best Wire teams to watch?
There has been a fair bit of debate over the past few years about us having a boring style, so it got me thinking, what Wire teams of the past were the best to watch? Since I've been watching we haven't really had a team like the Saints entertainers of the Millward era, or TS early Leeds team, or Cas in 2017, which played a fast, open, attacking style. However, some Wire teams have been more watchable than others.
Here's a few quick thoughts from the top of my head to kick it off:
Brian Johnson era: Largely a workmanlike rather than adventurous side, although there was some creativity in there, especially when we had the 6/7/13 trio of Ellis/Mackey/Shelford. This became an exciting team to watch when Jonathan Davies was in it but other than that it was average: the relatively low number of tries scored by Des Drummond, when he still had electric pace, underscored this.
Dorahy era: We had Harris, who could split defences apart, and we had Henare on the wing, which would get the Fletcher Street and pondlife corner going, but other than that the team was a bit so-so. It was the start of summer rugby, so the game in general opened up then relative to what it had been before.
DVDV: Didn't have a particularly exciting style, but was good entertainment value (and popular with Sky) due to the personnel we had: Toa, Hunte, Langer and Briers. DVDV-era games tended to be end-to-end, often with us chasing the game (and generally losing) but we did score points and we could finish off plays then much better than we could now. There were more tries scored from distance, and more line breaks.
Anderson/Plange: The team lacked quality and pace, we were more focused on the excitement of being in a relegation battle than the quality of the rugby on offer which was just as well.
Cullen: From the point he came in he tried to have us playing a more expansive game and although we never gained consistency under Cullen we did try to spread the ball about. We had more creativity in the forwards under Cullen than we had under DVDV: Leikvoll, Wainwright, Swann, the Andersons were all good ball handlers. For a while we were Phil Clarke's favourite team to patronise for being the side that "on our day" could play as good rugby as anybody, including Saints. It was also under the Cullen era that we started to develop the ability to bomb teams through Briers, to Fa'afili, which at this point made us a more multi-dimensional attack.
Early TS: This was a good side which at its peak from 2011 to 2012 used to overwhelm most opponents and score a lot of points. The mismatch actually detracted from some of the excitement on the terraces as in a lot of league fixtures the result was a formality and we were just racking up tries, whilst thinking in the back of our minds, this is just a formality before the real stuff starts in the playoffs. In those days we had a formidable prop rotation and a very good hooker so we were a bit like Bradford a decade earlier in that we were playing teams who were backpedalling, being dominated at the playtheball and so ripe for picking off when gaps appeared and guys like Atkins and Myler would surge through them. The style critics here could possibly say that we became a bit clinical with the Briers strategic bombing campaign, especially in big games, it felt like a cheat code to just kick up to King/Hicks/Joel Monaghan, but it was very effective. Probably the peak in terms of 'style' was when Solomona was in the team and we had that dimension to our offloading game. A good team to watch, although I never felt it was as exciting as TS Leeds team of around 2005.
Later TS: From 2014 onwards lots of the components of that side described above were gone - the pack wasn't dominating, opponents weren't on the back foot, we didn't have Briers or Solomona. There was a brief spell where we were exciting when we had Sandow but otherwise this was the start of the time the fans started to get restless saying the style was boring. We won the league leaders shield in 2016 just like 2011, but other than the first couple of months when Sandow was in form, that was a far less memorable side.
Price: It has always been a more workmanlike side at best. In terms of style not much has improved since later TS. Its a bit like Brian Johnson's team but without the Ellis-Mackey-Shelford triangle and JD.
So which was the best Wire team to watch? At first guess, without hearing others views yet, I'd say probably its a toss up between the TS team of around 2011-12, and the Cullen team of 2005-07. Third place would be the Jonathan Davies team, and honourable 4th/5th place between the DVDV team with Langer and the later TS team with Sandow in form. What are your thoughts...
Here's a few quick thoughts from the top of my head to kick it off:
Brian Johnson era: Largely a workmanlike rather than adventurous side, although there was some creativity in there, especially when we had the 6/7/13 trio of Ellis/Mackey/Shelford. This became an exciting team to watch when Jonathan Davies was in it but other than that it was average: the relatively low number of tries scored by Des Drummond, when he still had electric pace, underscored this.
Dorahy era: We had Harris, who could split defences apart, and we had Henare on the wing, which would get the Fletcher Street and pondlife corner going, but other than that the team was a bit so-so. It was the start of summer rugby, so the game in general opened up then relative to what it had been before.
DVDV: Didn't have a particularly exciting style, but was good entertainment value (and popular with Sky) due to the personnel we had: Toa, Hunte, Langer and Briers. DVDV-era games tended to be end-to-end, often with us chasing the game (and generally losing) but we did score points and we could finish off plays then much better than we could now. There were more tries scored from distance, and more line breaks.
Anderson/Plange: The team lacked quality and pace, we were more focused on the excitement of being in a relegation battle than the quality of the rugby on offer which was just as well.
Cullen: From the point he came in he tried to have us playing a more expansive game and although we never gained consistency under Cullen we did try to spread the ball about. We had more creativity in the forwards under Cullen than we had under DVDV: Leikvoll, Wainwright, Swann, the Andersons were all good ball handlers. For a while we were Phil Clarke's favourite team to patronise for being the side that "on our day" could play as good rugby as anybody, including Saints. It was also under the Cullen era that we started to develop the ability to bomb teams through Briers, to Fa'afili, which at this point made us a more multi-dimensional attack.
Early TS: This was a good side which at its peak from 2011 to 2012 used to overwhelm most opponents and score a lot of points. The mismatch actually detracted from some of the excitement on the terraces as in a lot of league fixtures the result was a formality and we were just racking up tries, whilst thinking in the back of our minds, this is just a formality before the real stuff starts in the playoffs. In those days we had a formidable prop rotation and a very good hooker so we were a bit like Bradford a decade earlier in that we were playing teams who were backpedalling, being dominated at the playtheball and so ripe for picking off when gaps appeared and guys like Atkins and Myler would surge through them. The style critics here could possibly say that we became a bit clinical with the Briers strategic bombing campaign, especially in big games, it felt like a cheat code to just kick up to King/Hicks/Joel Monaghan, but it was very effective. Probably the peak in terms of 'style' was when Solomona was in the team and we had that dimension to our offloading game. A good team to watch, although I never felt it was as exciting as TS Leeds team of around 2005.
Later TS: From 2014 onwards lots of the components of that side described above were gone - the pack wasn't dominating, opponents weren't on the back foot, we didn't have Briers or Solomona. There was a brief spell where we were exciting when we had Sandow but otherwise this was the start of the time the fans started to get restless saying the style was boring. We won the league leaders shield in 2016 just like 2011, but other than the first couple of months when Sandow was in form, that was a far less memorable side.
Price: It has always been a more workmanlike side at best. In terms of style not much has improved since later TS. Its a bit like Brian Johnson's team but without the Ellis-Mackey-Shelford triangle and JD.
So which was the best Wire team to watch? At first guess, without hearing others views yet, I'd say probably its a toss up between the TS team of around 2011-12, and the Cullen team of 2005-07. Third place would be the Jonathan Davies team, and honourable 4th/5th place between the DVDV team with Langer and the later TS team with Sandow in form. What are your thoughts...
Statistics: Posted by sally cinnamon — Wed Dec 16, 2020 7:34 pm — Replies 1 — Views 107