New Warrington captain Adrian Morley will lead his team into their opening match of Super League XIII tomorrow urging them to rid themselves of the tag of under-achievers.

It is more than half a century since the Wolves were champions while their last Challenge Cup triumph was back in the 1973-74 season and last year they failed to make the Super League play-offs.

Expectations ahead of the new season, however, are higher than ever following the arrival of high-profile signings Chris Hicks, Michael Monaghan, Louis Anderson and Australian Test centre Matt King, who will all make their debuts against injury-hit Hull at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

And Morley, who also experienced the dreaded "under-achievers" label in his early career at Leeds, is determined to lead from the front and help bring some long-awaited silverware to the club.

"It's a huge season ahead," he admitted. "We've recruited very well and expectation is obviously very high, not just from the fans. We've got high expectations of our own.

"We'll be going out there and hopefully we'll be competing for some silverware this year. We feel we have been under-achieving the last few years but particularly last year.

"The expectations are always high at the club but, if you look at the squad we had last year, we should have finished higher - and this year we'll be looking to get out there and finish much higher.

"It does play on your mind but the only way to get rid of it is to get out there, perform and pick up the wins.

"We do use it as motivation - I played at Leeds in the late '90s and they got called under-achievers because at the time I think it was something like 20-odd years since they'd won any silverware.

"I don't know how long it is since Warrington have won anything, probably longer than that, but Leeds have got rid of that tag and we really need to get rid of it as well."

The close-season signings made by coach Paul Cullen should certainly help, with King in particular promising to have the kind of impact his countryman Trent Barrett had at Wigan in his debut year last term.

"We have strengthened well, particularly Kingy, who is a current State of Origin player and current Test player," Morley continued.

"There aren't many who come out here in the prime of their career so he'll be Warrington's gain and also Super League's gain as well.

"We've got a great talent there but the players we've signed around him are no mugs either. Michael Monaghan's a fantastic player too.

"You've just got to look at some of his performances last year for Manly. He is a great organiser and a great player and he'll do very well for us."

Hull, too, will have four debutants in Peter Cusack, Shaun Berrigan, Todd Byrne and Danny Williams, but they will also have seven first-choice players missing through injury.

Full-back Motu Tony is the only regular in a back division shorn of Great Britain internationals Richard Horne, Kirk Yeaman and Gareth Raynor as well as new signing Adam Dykes.

Tommy Lee and Danny Washbrook will form an inexperienced half-back pairing, 17-year-old centre Tom Briscoe is poised to make his debut and Matty Dale, Craig Hall and Danny Houghton have a combined age of 59.

However, coach Peter Sharp is able to field a virtually full-strength pack and is looking for a big game from experienced prop Cusack, who will captain the side in the absence of Lee Radford.

"Cusack is a marvellous leader of men," said Sharp. "That's what I look at. If we had an Achilles heel within this club then it was leadership from within.

"We've got a lot of good players but not a lot of good leaders so the likes of Cusack, Berrigan, Dykes certainly and Todd Byrne will address that to a certain degree."

More news from SportingLife.com