Assessing Daryl Clark’s future

The future of Daryl Clark is one of the main talking points in rugby league at the moment.

The Warrington Wolves hooker has been one of the best hookers in Super League for some time.

He emerged as one of the league’s top number nines back in 2014 when he won the Man of Steel and earned a big move to Warrington Wolves.

Clark is now into his ninth season at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, a period which has yielded three Challenge Cup Final appearances, two Grand Final appearances and a League Leaders’ Shield in 2016.

Clark also claimed the Lance Todd trophy in 2019 as the Wolves shocked St Helens at Wembley in the Challenge Cup Final.

Unsurprisingly, Clark has also earned England caps during his career and is still one of the top hookers in Super League and despite being 30 he has a lot of good years in him but will they be spent at Warrington?

The former Man of Steel is in the final year of his contract and unlike George Williams and co, has not been tied down to a new deal yet by the Wire.

Meanwhile, there is one rumour that just will not go away and that is the reports that he could be headed to St Helens.

This season is set to be James Roby’s last. Roby was supposed to retire in 2022 hence the reports of St Helens’ interest in then Leeds Rhinos hooker and now Hull FC man Brad Dwyer but this never materialised as Roby chose to play on for another year.

In many ways Clark is the ideal number nine to replace Roby with lots of similarities between the two and he would also replace Roby’s experience somewhat as well as Roby’s physicality and the speed he once had abundance of.

According to the St Helens star the move is “increasingly likely” and the news last night only added to that.

This is because Warrington Wolves tied down Danny Walker till 2026. Walker seems to be emerging at Warrington’s number nine and is very much the future of the club in that area and Clark is not the kind of player to play second fiddle which means this could suit everyone involved.

So all told the move is likely and makes sense for Clark, for Walker, for Warrington and for St Helens.

Now we have to see if it happens with all those involved tight lipped.