Just been watching the highlights of quite a few of our games from 2011 on YouTube.



Boy did we play wonderful Rugby League that year, every attack Lee & Brett created something, they were both sensational.



Also our goal line defence was ruthless & brutal, watch the game against Saints at Widnes early in the season Saints had about 4 sets on our line yet they never got through.



2011 was my very favourite season in over 30 years of watching the Wire.



My very favourite game by a country mile was the play off decider at Langtree Park in 2012. I know we got to 3 CC wins in recent years but even they could not surpass the Saints game.

Totally agree with both, the atmosphere at that Saints playoff game was sensational. As far 2011 we were immense, gutted we didn't lift the big one. Leeds away that year sticks out for me, absolutely battered them on their own patch. Monas controlled the ruck and Briers was red hot. Lovely stuff.

Ahhh the year that should have been, then Myler went and spoilt it by being a yard offside when charging down a Sinfield kick in the Grand Final decider.......

One of the most nerve wracking games I have ever been to, was in the Leeds end for some reason, absolutely gutted with that result!

That was the peak year of the Tony Smith generation Warrington.



We had enough potential to win the double that year: one bad half of rugby against Wigan in the CC and a game that could have gone either way against Leeds in the playoffs cost us but that's the one year since I've been watching us when I felt confident that we were the best team in SL.



The 2011 team was even a cut above 2012 and 2013 basically because of Michael Monaghan, I thought he was the best player in the league that year, he was unstoppable and gave us a level of direction and danger in the attacking end of the field that we haven't had from anyone else apart from Langer (in a much weaker team). Morley was also right at the top of his game then, a close contender for MoS. And we still had Matt King back then.



In 2012 and 2013 we were still strong but looking back you could start to see slight signs that the edge had gone. Michael Monaghan and Morley were not what they were and by 2013 even Briers wasn't quite the force of old.

+1

For me it was Briers setting himself up in perfect position to drop a goal then deciding to kick to the corner instead. Absolutely heartbreaking!



I travelled down from Hull first thing and got the train back the following morning, I couldn't bring myself to look left as the train passed Old Trafford. I remember then locking myself in my room as I walked through the door to the sound of w*nky Warrington. I had the attic room which was unbearably hot due to the weird late summer we had, yet I refused to leave until I was close to wetting myself!



Completely agree with Sal, I imagine many will always look back to injuries last October but 2011 really was the best opportunity this club will ever have.

Recently there's been criticism on here of TS for bad squad management letting Briers, Hodgson, Morley and Carvell all leave together when he should have been replacing them before.



But I don't think it would have been a very popular move if any of those four had been moved on at the end of 2011...it would have looked like us breaking up a team on the verge of greatness before we had to. As they were all likely big earners we couldn't replace them while they were still at the club with an established quality signing as they were taking up cap space.



Also if we had have done that what would the impact on the dressing room have been? They were all obviously senior and well respected players, so starting to push them out could have caused bad feeling amongst the camp where players would have thought why do that?



TS actually pulled a good rabbit out of a hat by going down to Leigh and getting Chris Hill to supplement that team because that meant that at least for one of the props we had a ready made replacement that had surpassed the existing props by the time they left....who would have ever thought that would happen? For me Chris Hill is the best signing a Warrington coach has made since Van de Velde signed Briers in 1997, it was absolute genius.



By keeping the core of that admittedly ageing group together at the end of 2011 it meant that we would never end up saying "what if" about the potential of that team. We got two more years out of them, won our third Challenge Cup and got to two Grand Finals. Without the freak bad luck to lose two backs at OT last year we would have been champions.



So IMO that was the right decision by TS for the club. Yes we can criticise it now and say we'd be in a better position if we had started the replacement earlier but I don't know if we would and we would definitely have risked the last two years success.

How can you say that with any certainty?

No Saints fans on yet saying how the standard of the competition was incredibly poor that year.....





or rogues saying we were just flat track bullies....

I saw a game on Friday night that was reminiscent of one from 2011.

But I bet they will be arguing that about Morley and Monaghan with the benefit of hindsight and were not saying back then "we should move out these Man of Steel contenders now". Also the response to Carvell's departure sums up how you can't have it both ways: lots of Wire fans were angry at Carvell being released (including me), but he is 33 this season. You're either for freshening up the squad and not hanging on to ageing players or you're not! This year he has had injury problems so given that Carvell seemed to want a 2 year deal, if we'd done the popular thing and renewed his contract then people would be saying now why did we keep Carvell for two years he is arguably not the player he was.



I think the real problem with the Carvell release was who we signed to replace him: Asotasi was a player not much younger and was signed to be a Carvell style experienced top prop but he has not been anywhere as good. And also Anthony England has not been another Chris Hill, if he had that would have taken some of the heat off the 'we kept Morley/Carvell too long' argument.



The other problem is the market for signings is generally thin these days, you can see that by the types of players the big clubs are signing. Possibly TS was looking around to see if he could get any quality signings for the future but saw a barren market and so just stuck with what he had which was a winning unit. TS and the board will have known that meant we would need more signings later down the line but if the market was bare at the moment then you may as well wait till then where it might be better.



And also back in 2011 there were high hopes for Rhys Evans/Ratchford to be the long term fullback after Hodgson, GO'B to be the replacement for Briers etc so bringing in new established players would have sent a signal "we don't have faith in youth".



Other clubs like Leeds, Saints and Wigan have got themselves deliberately in to situations where they've let a number of experienced players run till the end of their tether and then pushed young players in to replace them: with Leeds and Wigan its worked, with Saints in recent seasons its not worked as well so they are supplementing them with signings now. Our youth generation isn't as good as theirs sadly but TS has been fair to them by giving them a shot.

The same way that when we lost to Saints in 2004 or 2005 or so when they had a few injuries everyone said that if we couldn't beat Saints then we would never beat them.



The same way that had we lost to Hudds at Wembley in 2009 we would have never had a better chance to win a trophy.



The same way that when Man City got relegated in 2001 people were saying with all the money in the Champions League/Premiership now that City would never have a chance to compete at the top again because they were cut adrift.

Morley had been on a gentle decline for several years and it wouldn't take a genius to extrapolate what level of performance we were going to get in 2013. Monas, sad to say has been physically shot for quite a while as well. Briers for all his brilliance only played in short bursts last year and we would probably have needed to stick him in a Dalek to move him around the pitch this year. TS gambled on an ageing team... and lost.



So now we have to replace several players at once, even worse the first stab at doing it looks to have backfired. That probably means this years replacements will have to be added to the list for next year ; Waterhouse and Monaghen, with Benny, Joel and Wood not too far away either. And what about those on here that continually talk about buying in high quality Oz players ? Suddenly the easy fix has gone, and as the Aussie stars that have patched up our game retire / return home, we can see what the real quality of our game is in the UK. So replacements will have to be found at a time when it's too expensive to buy decent Oz players and the standard of UK players is pretty low. Plus Koukash hoovering up any spare talent. Plus the Aussies buying any half decent talent as well.

I agree with your post and I don't think my original post took a counter position in brief TS gambled and the Carvell injury situation might not have been seen as a gamble more misfortune a la Wood and yes we all hoped that England would be the new Hill.



My only problem with your post is that we have given the youngsters a fair chance I don't think that we have. sure Rhys paricularly has been injured and we shipped guys out to other clubs to get front line experience whether on DR or on Loan but with all the goings and limited comings we shouldn't be wondering whether our youngsters, (are they really still that young or is it a comparative) can cut the custard

If you replace an ageing player he should be replaced by like with like as far as ability is concerned...Are you suggesting England is like with like ? A plodder who can barely keep up with play....Carvell has the stamina *engine* and Wire could have got two more good seasons out of him.

If that was aimed at me then no, I would have kept Carvell as he has been great for us was a known quantity given the amount of disruption we faced as a team and in particular the loss of Morley, Cooper and McCarthy and the injury records of Grix Wood and Harrison. Perhaps that what Carvell and his agent was banking on when asking for his new deal?



In brief, I would have kept Carvell and probably taken a punt on England with Roy not being the boy for me

Don't believe what you see. England's role is to stay amongst the opposition line and pick off their passes and offloads. It's a lot harder than you think pretending to be fatigued. Roy for instance passes the ball quickly to his right whilst shouting "your turn", which isn't always very convincing. Having said that, going down on one knee in front of the coach and pleading to be subbed, quite be quite a moving experience.

Having stood in the West for the Catalan game I had a really good view of Roy's Roll (if you pardon the expression, do you think the bods at Coronation Street realise the double entedre?) Anyway his role was definately third high fiver after a try was scored. The ultimate athlete he generally gets in third and rarely misses...great timing.



No wonder he wanted to be subbed we scored too many tries all that jogging and slapping hard work

[iThat[/i was the year we were at our best and should have gone all the way to lift the SL trophy. [ithat[/i was our best chance. That sounds strange as the two years after that we got to the GF both times but we weren't as good a side in the two years after.



The left edge of Atkins-King-Anderson was fantastic that year and Monaghan was just in the last year of his prime and was superb.



There were just a couple of things Burrow did in that Elimination game that turned the game on it's head. And the brain fart by Myler at the death.