Are Warrington the team to beat?

Warrington have made a stunning start to the 2023 Super League season, winning their opening six matches. By comparison, they won just nine matches throughout the entire season in 2022.

Warrington Wolves' 2022 season was a disaster. Planning started early, with the announcement that Daryl Powell was to take over as head coach being made before the 2021 season had even begun. From the outside, it appeared that Warrington had targeted the man who they thought could lead them forward and were willing to wait for him.

It all started so well. Three wins from three to start 2022 and things were looking good. They quickly turned sour. In a season of so many lows, it's almost difficult to pick a stand out. Daryl Powell picked out an away loss at Hull KR in April, where they conceded four tries in the first 16 minutes as a particular low.

The turmoil which gripped Warrington was evident by the mid-season player turnover. Out of the door went Josh Charnley, Toby King, Mike Cooper and Billy Magoulias and in came Kyle Amor, Matty Nicholson, Thomas Mikaele and Matt Dufty.

It was left in no doubt that Daryl Powell thought that the squad that he had inherited was insufficient to meet the ambitions of the club. His public comments made no secret of that.

As Powell rebuilt, the results worsened and the atmosphere turned mutinous. The boos rang around the Halliwell Jones Stadium on a frequent basis. The fans called for Powell to be sacked and this left the Warrington board with a choice.

The Warrington board are not a sacking board. They've only had four head coaches since 2002. The fans wanted Steve Price out, he stayed until the end of his contract. Tony Smith was the head coach from 2009 to 2017, the longest reign any Super League coach has had at any club. Paul Cullen was the coach for six seasons. Only James Lowes has had short reign as Warrington's coach in the last 20 years.

The choice was clear. Sack or back. The easier choice would have been to sack. With the drumbeat of fan discontent, falling attendances and a continuing failure to see a return on investment, there must have been a temptation to change. To do what so many Super League clubs do and fall over themselves because an applicant has an Australian accent and has been an assistant coach in the NRL.

Warrington didn't do that. They stuck with Powell. Given Warrington's history of backing coaches, maybe that wasn't a surprise. There was a subtle change of tack with recruitment. The freedom he was given to release and sign players at his whim showed this was Powell's club now. Player power was not going to be a thing. The choice was fall in line or fall out. This coach is going nowhere.

Instead of the likes of signing an over-the-hill Greg Inglis and throwing marquee money at the likes of Gareth Widdop and Blake Austin, the club recruited prudently.

They signed Josh Drinkwater. I anticipate his salary is far lower than his predecessors. He's not a flashy player but offers a steady hand needed to allow the likes of George Williams to show his class. 

Drinkwater is an organiser with a good kicking game and has already guided Catalans to a Grand Final in his time in the UK. He's remarkably consistent and you know what you're going to get. He'll play well most weeks and not a spectacular performance once every couple of months, followed by weeks of dirge.

Warrington's pack was very weak in 2022. Now they have depth. Take the prop forward position for example. James Harrison, Paul Vaughan, Josh McGuire, Sam Kasiano, Joe Philbin, Tom Mikaele, Gil Dudson and Joe Bullock are all capable of playing in that position and doing so to a decent standard. And some of those players are competent or even natural in other positions.

It took time but Powell appears to have identified Warrington's weaknesses and arguably turned them into their biggest strengths. Warrington have a balance of experience; the likes of Paul Vaughan, undiscovered lower-league talent; such as James Harrison; and exciting young players; see Matty Nicholson.

Warrington have seen off all challenges so far and there have been some stern ones. Huddersfield lost one regular season home match last season and Warrington went there and won in the Giants' first home match. Hull KR is another tricky away game and they did the job. 

The pressure was on when Warrington faced last year's Grand Finalists Leeds on the opening day. With the spectre of 2022 still looming large, there may have been nerves but Warrington didn't show any.

April will be the real test though. In consecutive weeks, Warrington play Catalans, Wigan and St Helens, with two of those fixtures coming away from home. Despite Warrington's start to the season, St Helens and Wigan are still considered more likely to win the Grand Final by the bookmakers, even though both have stuttered in the first six weeks.

Whilst they represent the acid test, the results of those fixtures ultimately will have little bearing on the outcome of the season. After all, the first 27 rounds are a mere starting grid. 

What it might show us though is whether Warrington can compete at high-intensity over the period of a few weeks. The exact same challenge that faces each club when the play offs come around. Warrington have blitzed out of the starting blocks in 2023 and whilst it's probably too early to draw firm conclusions, this is a very different Warrington side compared to 2022.