BANTER between players in any team early in the season is usually good with everyone being optimistic about the year ahead.

It is how people deal with the adversities and the challenges through a season that can change the banter in a dressing room.

The banter is good at the moment at Warrington and it will stand us in good stead when it is 'backs to the wall' because that will come at some stage.

Everyone hits the tough spots but I think we're pretty well equipped with the characters we have in the team and as a group we are pretty solid.

We see each other more than our families sometimes so it is handy for us all to get on.

Dean Busby stands out as one of the characters. He's actually a pretty quiet lad, not a huge joker but he is a good comedian. He can tell a good joke and he has been taken to heart by a few of the players. His sporting prowess is being questioned at the moment because we've yet to come across a sport he says he's not good at - but we're yet to see him be good at any other than rugby. So he's quickly picked up the nickname Sport Billy Busby.

At the moment he has been on the fringe of a first team place but his spirit has stayed good and strong and he still has a smile on his face, keeping all the lads laughing and joking when he gets in the mood.

Chris Rudd has been having a tough time with his Achilles injury but again he has been great around the lads and it just shows the kind of spirit there is at the club.

There's a funny story about Scott Wilson too. Scott doesn't eat 'dessert' melon, he has 'desert' melon because he can't read! Many of you will have read in the GUARDIAN previously that Scott loves reading books, which he does, but the problem is he just can't read the words. While we were out he said: "What kind of melon's this - a desert melon." I had to say to him: "It's got two S's, that's dessert melon!" He has had a bit of stick for this off the lads but again it just helps to prove that the banter is good.

On the pitch, it has been good so far. This week is a big week because cup competitions are special. It just adds that little bit more excitement but in general the league is more important.

If we get a result against Bradford on Sunday then we will be just one game away from the twin towers - the last final at Wembley for a while. And a lot of the lads have not experienced Wembley so it would be great to go. But that's two games ahead and we're just concentrating on Bradford.

Everyone's really looking forward to it and everyone's up for it but our four wins so far will count for nothing when the whistle blows on Sunday. But we are happy to go into the game with the four wins under our belts because it has built up the confidence in the lads and we can't wait for kick-off on Sunday.

The Halifax cup tie was the first real tester because it meant something at the end of it. We came through and then in the week leading up to the league game at Halifax people were coming up to the players and saying 'Great win', 'Well done, that was fantastic' and it suddenly went from a lot of people being surprised by the manner of our wins in the early games to there being a huge expectation that we should win at Halifax in the league. And in the space of seven days that was a big jump.

But Halifax away was a completely different game to the week previously. And I really would like to thank all the supporters who turned out to watch us in what can only be described as 'horrible conditions'. We had to be there because it is our job but the supporters were there for the love of their team and the sport. The weather was just awful and it had to be right up there in my top three coldest days ever.

And we apologise for just heading to the dressing room afterwards but a lot of us just wanted to get off the field it was that cold. A few players went straight into the showers fully kitted, boots on, trying to thaw their feet out of their boots. It is pretty hard pulling a boot off a foot that you can't feel but we were all doing it with a smile on our faces because it was an important win to kick-start our Super League season.

We're still confident we can improve and when we do, hopefully we'll be something of a force. It's hard to say what kind of a force. It's hard to make predictions because generally they'll come up and slap you in the face. We think we're getting there though.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.