The role former wigan star sees himself playing for Warrington Wolves

SAM Powell’s signing means Warrington Wolves are set to enter the 2024 season with three senior options at hooker.

And while the former Wigan Warriors captain has shown he is capable of playing elsewhere, he has made clear number nine is where he wants to be.

With Daryl Clark having left for St Helens, Danny Walker has stepped up to fill the shirt he has held since joining The Wire in 2015 while Brad Dwyer’s return to the club was long-rumoured throughout the year before being officially confirmed in October.

As such, Warrington’s move to secure Powell’s signing surprised many – so what will his role in the side be?

“We had a couple of phonecalls on what he thought I could bring, and he asked my opinion of things,” he said when asked what his conversations with head coach Sam Burgess on that subject entailed.

“I was just really excited to have the chance to work under Sam and with the quality players that Warrington have got.

“Obviously my preference would be to play at hooker but I just want to be on the field playing. I want to be on the field playing and working hard for my team-mates.

“Danny and Brad are quality players – probably a little bit different to me and how I play my game – but all three of us will be striving to get into the 17 so that’s one of my goals, making sure I’m in there.”

During his career with his hometown club, Powell established himself as one of Wigan’s on-field leaders and standard-drivers.

Those qualities were identified by Burgess as being key in his reasoning behind wanting to sign the 31-year-old, who says he wants to help at all levels of the club.

“I think that’s one of my roles and why I’ve been brought here,” he said.

“I’m obviously classed as an experienced player now and I’ve been lucky enough to win trophies so hopefully I can give my experience to lads, not necessarily lads that are playing first team, but the juniors coming up here and academy lads because we all know how important that is in rugby league.

“Myself and the leaders that are already at Warrington, we’ve got to steer the ship and make stuff better every day.”

Powell was under contract at the DW Stadium for 2024 but with Kruise Leeming coming in as a new signing following the emergence of youngster Brad O’Neill as first-choice hooker throughout last year, he acknowledged first-team chances would have been at more of a premium.

He still managed to make 23 appearances and help the Warriors claim the Super League title and the League Leaders’ Shield, but he knew his time at the club was up.

He was in the process of assessing his options when a call from Burgess made up his mind.

“I got injured halfway through last year and I had a lay-off of around eight weeks overall and I said at the time to my wife that I wouldn’t be making any decision until the season is done, even though I kind of knew I’d be leaving the club after Wigan had signed Kruise,” Powell said.

“My mindset was, I wasn’t fit at the time, I wanted to get back fit, I knew I could play a part in the team if I got back fit and I knew the team had a chance of winning a Grand Final and I didn’t want to give that up, so luckily enough that’s what I ended up doing.