Daryl Powell: Warrington's new head coach looks to spread belief in push for honours

Daryl Powell led Castleford to three finals during eight years in charge, the first in 2014 ending a 22-year Wembley wait

Newly-appointed head coach Daryl Powell believes his main task initially at Warrington Wolves will be to instil belief in the challenge for trophies.

Powell is happy with the quality of the squad and also impressed by the training facilities that he has come into at Warrington from Castleford.

With all the logistics in place, the 56-year-old says building culture is the key to delivering success.

"I want people to believe in the club," Powell told BBC Radio Merseyside.

"The challenges and pressure gets put on by the individual themselves, and I want to work with the players and culture to prepare everybody for success.

"It's a tough challenge, St Helens are the team that everybody is shooting for at the moment and I think we've got everything in place to be successful.

"We just need to put the foundations in place and then work so hard in every area of what we do to make sure the expectations are met."

Powell built his reputation, having left his stint as coach of Leeds in the mid-2000s, with Featherstone and then boyhood team Castleford.

He took Cas to a Grand Final and two Challenge Cup finals having raised standards and expectations over eight years in charge.

In building for the new season, Powell has recruited new talent such as Oli Holmes and Peter Mata'utia from Castleford and ex-Cronulla back-row Billy Magoulias.

Those new faces add depth to existing stars such as England's George Williams, Gareth Widdop and Stef Ratchford.

Meanwhile, Powell has hopes that the return of scrums to rugby league after the Covid-19-related withdrawal of the set-piece can restore a missed dimension to the game.

During the pandemic, the traditional restart after a knock-on or kick to touch was replaced by a turnover, limiting teams' opportunities to run scrum-base plays and denying coaches a chance to attack a tied-up defence.

"One of my real frustrations over the Covid period, the game has become one-dimensional," Powell added.

"We don't get so many tap penalties because of six-agains, you take the scrums out and you have a turnover - the game looks the same.

"Scrums will be fantastic, I absolutely believe scrums will make a big difference to the game and the look of it. But, I would like six-agains to go."