Daryl Powell sings the praises of Warrington’s ‘karaoke king’

Warrington coach Daryl Powell showered debutant Lucas Green with praise as he predicted a bright future for the young forward. 

Highly-rated academy product Green made his first team debut in Warrington’s 13-6 defeat to Wigan last Friday.

Powell says he has always been impressed with the young forward, who even smashed his initiation song prior to making his debut!

“I’ve always been impressed with him,” Powell told Love Rugby League.

“From what I’ve seen from him in the academy is how mature he is from being in changing rooms when he has spoken.

“He is a mature young fella who understands the game, speaks well and is in great shape physically. He has been awesome to have around.

“Even his song before making his debut was outstanding – he has got some confidence about him! I’ve been really pleased with how he has behaved and acted when he has been around us.

“He’s a pretty tidy rugby league player who has got a big future ahead of him.

“If you are making your debut or something special has happened then you get to sing a song and he just rattled it out.

“I didn’t know the song so don’t ask me what it was, some youngster’s song! He rattled it out like he was karaoke king, so he did a good job of it.”

Daryl Powell wants to bring the youth through at Warrington

Warrington have hit the headlines over the off-season for their impressive recruitment drive in bringing NRL stars to the club.

But Powell is keen to put an emphasis on producing their own players, too.

“It always is (about bringing the youth through),” he added.

“The challenge for young players is to be desperate and work hard and be at that level, so when you do get the opportunity you can show exactly what you’re about and that’s challenging for young players because you get put in the cauldron of Super League competition and it is pretty tough, so that’s the challenge for those guys.

“For me, I want to give them the opportunity and what they have to do is make sure they deserve it and be consistent.

“If I’m looking at a young player who is in our first team squad, they should be the best player in the competition they are playing in, whether that’s in the academy or reserves.

“We’ve got a mixed bag of young players that are in our first team. You get opportunities if you work hard and you keep working hard, by being resilient because the road to the top in rugby league for most players is pretty tough.”

James Harrison a perfect example of earning his spot

Powell was keen to highlight the efforts that forward James Harrison has gone to in order to make his professional rugby league dream a reality.

Powell added: “Jimmy Harrison, for examplem has had a real tough battle to get up to Super League level and he has shown how good he can be there.

“He was working for Opta for a few years earning some spare cash so he could go after his rugby league dream.

“For some players who go through scholarship, academy and straight to first team – it is a little bit different and sometimes they need that different journey to get the best out of them to have those ups and downs because it is not a straight road to the top at times.

“Young players have to keep working hard. They’ll come into the first team and drop back out at times, that’s happened to a few of our boys so they just have to keep driving themselves.”

READ NEXT: Warrington hopeful of key forward returning for Saints clash