THE new season marks the start of a two-year plan for us here at Warrington Wolves.

But it can not wait until next year, we have got to start doing the business on the park this year and we must improve on last season. In fact, we must drastically improve on last season.

This is not only important for the fans but for the whole club.

This Warrington team needs to gain some credibility. The only way to do this is to show supporters that we really are trying hard.

By doing this and by competing in every game we will be showing that we do value supporters buying season tickets and paying money at the turnstiles.

If we can show supporters that we mean it, I think the crowds will go up.

Only time will tell but I know we can do it. I also know talk is cheap. You can not just talk about it, you have got to go out there and do it and it all starts on Sunday with the Challenge Cup.

Although the close-season has been long it has been a pretty busy one for us so it feels as though it has flown.

We lost some players, new ones have come in and now we can not wait for the first ball to be kicked.

I have been to Wembley before with Castleford but we lost to St. Helens so I do not talk about that too much but I would like to go back there again.

It is tough though, trying to get through all the rounds. You need a fair amount of luck with the draw and you can not afford to look beyond your next game.

That is why you will not catch me coming out with any rash statements like 'this is our best chance of winning silverware this year' or 'We're aiming for top four in Super League'. I will not talk like that but I have set goals for the team which I speak about with the players in private.

We definitely want to see an improvement in our defence this season. We had the worst defence in the Super League competition last year and I have not had that before.

We want to move forward from last term and improve our position in the league when Super League comes around but saying any more than that is irrelevant at this point in time.

I am not going to deny that Nigel Vagana is a big loss to us this time around. He was Super League's top try scorer last year.

But at the end of the day I had to make some sacrifices for the benefit of the team on the whole and he was one of them.

I'm happy with the signings we've made.

I looked to Australia for our overseas players because I feel comfortable coaching Australians, I have coached them before and I think their skill level is slightly up on the players in New Zealand.

But the main thing has been I want players out on the pitch who are going to give me their best effort every time.

There has been a lot of talk about the signing of aggressive players. Well, that is the game. It is no good playing it like touch rugby.

It is a spartan game. It is all about the physical contact and that is the game we love.

I have always had teams that compete and have aggression. If you look back to the days I was at Castleford the players might not have all been big names but the pack was always strong and we always competed.

It was very difficult to team build during the close-season with their being no money to spend.

I do not think I can really be classed as the biggest wheeler-dealer of the close season though because the players have come to Warrington for a new challenge. We have given many the opportunity to come to Wilderspool to prove themselves.

I am happy with the way we have gone about things but the difficulty is that there are a lot of new players, about a dozen. And the thing is they have all been coached in different ways with different teams.

Now they have got to be able to adapt to my way of thinking. It will not happen as quickly as I would like but it is going to happen.

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