Always their year: Sam Burgess’ newest ‘new dawn’ at Warrington Wolves

A qualifying semi-final loss to Leeds Rhinos in the end-of-season play-offs meant devastation for Wire fans who had believed that 2011 would finally be the year in which their side would win the domestic rugby league championship for the first time since 1955.

Twelve months on they dreamed once more when their side won another Challenge Cup and made it to a first Grand Final, but Leeds were again their downfall at Old Trafford. And when Wigan Warriors beat them 30-16 in the 2013 showpiece, their seasons were quickly becoming “just like the last one”.

Since then, there have been two more Grand Final defeats despite a further League Leaders’ Shield and a fourth Wembley win of the summer era. Amid the jibes that have come with being British rugby league’s ‘nearly men’, Wolves supporters have reappropriated the “always your year” chants of goading opposition fans.

“It’s always our year”, sings the South Stand faithful at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, reflecting that they can now actually be talked up in a way that they weren’t for decades before. The 1991 Regal Trophy was their last honour before 2009, and their serious consideration among the runners and riders for titles over the last decade and a half is not taken lightly in WA2.

Sam Burgess is the latest man tasked with taking Warrington over that ultimate hurdle. The former England superstar enters the world of head coaching with the one club who always seem to have something to prove.

Tony Smith twice took them to the top of the league but couldn’t get the job done, then Steve Price came in and achieved regular top-four finishes, yet they were always left wanting come play-off time. Daryl Powell was expected to lift them to a new level having taken Castleford Tigers oh so close to the ultimate glory in 2017, but his debut season in ’22 was a disaster and a magnificent start to the following campaign gave way to a horrific run which saw the coach fired by Round 20. Eight straight wins had been followed by 10 defeats in 13.

So enter Slammin’ Sam to the echoes of the familiar strain which suggests the 2024 Betfred Super League season will see Warrington perform exactly as in ’23, ’22 and all the rest of them before now. What will make Super League XXIX different to the other 28?

Well, the Wolves brought in one of the biggest names in either code of rugby over the last couple of decades. Sure, his 2015 Rugby Union World Cup exploits earned him a certain type of reputation in the 15-player game but there has never been any question about his impact on the rugby league field.

And since retiring through injury he has made waves in Australian Group 2 rugby league coaching Orara Valley Axemen and was last year performing as Jason Demetriou’s number two at South Sydney Rabbitohs, with whom he won the 2014 NRL Premiership in a nine-year first grade career in Australia.

Burgess coming over to the Wolves is a big deal but also a big risk. Imagine John Terry being handed the Tottenham Hotspur manager’s job. He brings the pull and the cachet but offers no solid experience as a first-grade coach.

The attraction of Burgess as a figure has been proven in the captures of NRL stars Lachlan Fitzgibbon from Newcastle Knights and St George Illawarra’s Zane Musgrove, with the latter admitting to Betfred that working with Burgess was the big allure when deciding to join the Wolves.

“I didn’t know a lot about the club, but catching up with Sammy over in Australia he gave me an insight of the club and I’ve heard a lot of positive things,” explains the 27-year-old prop forward, who is a former team-mate of Burgess’ at the Rabbitohs.

“He’s still the same Sammy, he hasn’t changed. But he’s always going to be himself in the type of bloke he is, the leader that he is. He just wants the best for everyone, he knows where he could take us to and it’s just about everyone buying in. I don’t expect too much change in Sammy, we know what he’s about and everyone respects him.”

And Fitzgibbon is bought in to Burgess’ vision too, to the extent that he tells Betfred it’s on the players to justify the Warrington board’s faith in the 24-cap former England star.

“Sam’s an inspirational leader who everyone believes in and trusts and everyone wants to follow, he did that as a footy player and he’s doing that now as a coach,” says Fitzgibbon. “It’s up to us boys in the squad to make sure his time over here is successful.

“Sam’s been really good this past month, he’s instilled some really good things that going forward will hold us in good stead over the back end of the year.”

To the neutral, Warrington’s progress will be the big storyline to follow in 2024. Burgess’ appointment could turn out to be a stroke of genius, the wild-card move which ends their 69-year title duck. But equally it could go up in flames by Easter.

Can a squad boasting the likes of Paul Vaughan, George Williams, Josh Drinkwater and Matt Dufty finally fulfil its potential thanks to the experience and leadership of arguably the biggest name in English rugby league since the days of Martin Offiah and Andy Farrell? Is Burgess the unlikely elixir or the latest proof that whatever project Warrington buy into they will always fall short?

Whether it is finally their year or just like the last one, you will not be able to take your eyes off the Wolves in 2024.