Daryl Powell departs Warrington Wolves with one of the club’s worst ever win percentages

Daryl Powell was relieved of his duties as Warrington Wolves head coach following yesterday’s massive loss to Wakefield Trinity, by a score of 42-6, and it now raises the question of what his legacy at the Halliwell Jones will be with the opening day victory in 2023 over Leeds Rhinos being among the highlights, and yesterday’s loss certainly being among the lowlights.

Powell took over at the Halliwell Jones prior to the start of the 2022 season with the club aiming to break through into the top two and go on to challenge for silverware following back to back seasons finishing third and falling at the first hurdle in the playoffs.

The 2022 season promised a lot but ultimately ended up being one of the club’s worst in Super League history as they finished eleventh registering just nine wins in the league, at one point being in a genuine relegation battle with newly promoted Toulouse Olympique.

Powell finished his first season with a record of just nine wins to nineteen losses having also crashed out of the Challenge Cup at the first time of asking to Wakefield, ironically the last team that Powell would lose to and ultimately cost him his job.

The higher ups at the club stuck with Powell and backed him with major investment in the squad with key signings including Catalans trio Josh Drinkwater, Gil Dudson and Sam Kasiano who offered a playing mate for George Williams and some bulk to the pack.

They also looked to Australia for some NRL forwards with the 2017 World Cup winner Josh McGuire and Italian international Paul Vaughan signing up too.

Eight rounds in it looked a master stroke with the club flying high atop the table and an unbeaten start, with the club registering almost as many wins as they did in all of 2022 by early April.

During those opening eight games they surpassed 30 points on five occasions with one of those scores being the opening day hammering of Leeds Rhinos 42-10.

That eighth win against Catalans was the first game without prop Thomas Mikaele who headed back down under for personal reasons, and seemingly the wheels started to fall off with his departure.

Powell and his men won just four of the next fourteen, with a record of three in twelve in Super League leaving them to slip to sixth in the table and hanging on to playoff football.

Ultimately that twelfth loss, which marked six in a row, saw the end of Powell and he finishes with an all-time record of  21 wins from 50 games, a percentage of 42& which dating back to 1980 is the club’s fourth worst win percentage.

It also pails in comparison to the percentages that they have put up during much of the Super League era with both of Powell’s most recent predecessors (Tony Smith and Steve Price) sitting atop the win percentage charts.

In 301 games Smith won 200, and brought Challenge Cup success three times, clocking in at a 66.4% win rate whilst Price oversaw 74 wins in 117 matches and also picked up a Challenge Cup victory.

The question of what went wrong at Warrington for Daryl Powell is incredibly hard to answer, a squad as talented as theirs shouldn’t be operating at a 42% win rate, especially when they have shown the ability to blitz sides and put on strong winning runs.

For context they’ve twice beaten league leaders Catalans this season, but also provided Wakefield Trinity and Castleford one win a piece.

It’s unclear who will replace Daryl Powell but they’ll have a job at retaining their current playoff status given the current form of the side and also the close nature of the chasing pack.