Warrington Wolves head coach Sam Burgess has spoken on the ‘green shoots’ that his side can take from what was an otherwise ‘disappointing’ 2025 season.
Having taken charge of Warrington in 2024 with the Wolves being his first full-time head coaching gig, Burgess guided Wire to a Challenge Cup final and to the play-off semi-finals.
Warrington also boasted the best defence in Super League and looked to have turned a corner following the disappointment the year prior when they limped into the play-offs.
In 2025, they didn’t even trouble the play-offs as they placed eighth and sat seven points behind six, conceding twice as many points and scoring an average of almost ten points fewer per game.
They also suffered Challenge Cup heartbreak again, losing in the final minutes to Hull KR with that defeat being attributed to their collapse in the second half of the year.
However, in truth, they hadn’t been in great form before that defeat and Sam Burgess has now spoken on the club’s YouTube channel in a review of 2025, with a brief look ahead to 2026.
Warrington Wolves boss highlights ‘green shoots’ despite ‘disappointing’ year
In a video labelled as the ‘season debrief’, Burgess explained that both players and staff have been into the building to ‘get their heads around a few things’.
Continuing, he said: “Although there were some really disappointing aspects in terms of where we finished and the fact that some of our performances weren’t up to our standard, we’ve seen plenty of areas where as coaches we can prove and where our delivery needs to be a little bit better.
“Also we’ve seen some really good improvements within other aspects of our squad and programme. We saw a few green shoots with a lot of young players coming through.
“I think we used 39 players but a lot of those come through our youth system so whilst we’re not seeing the results yet, in time, it will put is in a much better position.”
Burgess is right that the biggest positive of what has been a woeful season is their youth development within the first team environment, but also on their own right.
Warrington Wolves won the academy Grand Final after going unbeaten all year, whilst they finished as runners-up in the reserve Grand Final, taking on Leeds in both games.
Players such as Ewan Irwin, Ben Hartill, Zach Gardner, and more have all earned first team minutes, something that will put Wire in better stead for 2026. Hull FC have proven how impactful young players can be and Warrington will be hoping it’s the same for them.
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