\n There is always a certain level of intrigue around the release of squad numbers for a new season, and that is certainly the case for the list Warrington Wolves have just put out.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 33-strong list, which has been unveiled ahead of the club\u2019s new home and away kits being launched and released for sale this weekend, features upgrades, downgrades and even names some fans may not have heard before.\n<\/p>\n
\n But what, if anything, can be deduced from a list of names with numbers attached?\n<\/p>\n
\n We\u2019ve had a look at a few of the interesting takeaways from Wire\u2019s 2026 squad numbers\u2026\n<\/p>\n
Writing on the wall for Dufty<\/p>\n
\n If it wasn\u2019t abundantly clear that Warrington Wolves were ready to move on from Matt Dufty, it surely is now.\n<\/p>\n
\n Naming him as 18th man for a game he wasn\u2019t even in attendance for and then playing him hopelessly out of position at centre the following week felt like a bit of a public hanging and now, the Australian has had the number one shirt taken away.\n<\/p>\n
\n Social media star “Big John” Fisher even mispronounced his name in Wire’s reveal video, which may get certain conspiracy theorists speculating.\n<\/p>\n
\n The decision to promote Cai Taylor-Wray \u2013 a youngster with only 12 Super League games under his belt \u2013 is something we\u2019ll come onto next, but Dufty is now all the way down at squad number 24.\n<\/p>\n
\n We all know what a fully focused and dialled-in Dufty is capable of \u2013 the 2024 season demonstrated that \u2013 but the club have clearly decided that the more recent disciplinary transgressions are too much for them to overcome.\n<\/p>\n
\n At this current juncture, it would be a surprise if we saw him in a Wire shirt again.\n<\/p>\n
Show of faith in youngsters<\/p>\n
\n Taylor-Wray\u2019s move to number one is surely an indication that, currently, Sam Burgess sees the 19-year-old as his starting full-back.\n<\/p>\n
\n Of course, there is a full pre-season for that to change but it is yet more evidence that Warrington are committed to building their future around homegrown talent.\n<\/p>\n
\n Moving Adam Holroyd up to number 11 shows the same thing, as does giving Ewan Irwin number 18 while Tommy Rhodes, who will only be a first-year academy player in 2026 but whose talent is spoken of with intense excitement within the club, has clearly caught the eye enough to be giving a number of his own.\n<\/p>\n
\n Leon Hayes may have had his number seven shirt taken off him by Marc Sneyd but one gets the sense that a strong pre-season will see him really challenge for that scrum-half position.\n<\/p>\n
\n One absentee from the list is young centre James Duffy, who made three first-team appearances at the back end of 2025 and has gone on the Academy tour of Australia. Could a loan move be in the offing for him?\n<\/p>\n
A firm-up of Currie\u2019s move<\/p>\n
\n For the first time in a decade, Ben Currie will start the season with a different squad number.\n<\/p>\n
\n As 2015 turned to 2016, he moved from 17 to 11 and has kept that shirt ever since but now that shirt is Holroyd\u2019s.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, the fact he has been given the number 13 shirt instead is a firming-up of the idea that has been pretty prevalent since early in Sam Burgess\u2019 reign \u2013 namely that Currie has been converted from an edge player into a ball-playing loose forward.\n<\/p>\n
\n That is not to say he won\u2019t pop up in the back row on occasion \u2013 or even at centre or half-back \u2013 but as we saw throughout 2025, Burgess is loathed to move Currie from the middle unless he really has to.\n<\/p>\n
\n Luke Yates moving into the number eight solidifies his status as an immovable part of Warrington\u2019s front row \u2013 it will surely be him and one other that start in Wire\u2019s first-choice side, and James Harrison being kept in a starting prop\u2019s shirt could suggest that he is currently favourite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is always a certain level of intrigue around the release of squad numbers for a new season,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-236762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}