PART of Australian Kurt Gidley’s mindset about continuing his rugby league career in England with Warrington Wolves from 2016 is that he has not given up hope of winning silverware at club level.

Although Newcastle Knights, the NRL club he has represented for 15 years, won the Grand Final in 2001, Gidley was only 19 at the time and not selected in what was his breakthrough season.

Knights have not reached the final since and Gidley’s silverware opportunities have instead come in the 24 games he has played at representative level with Australia and New South Wales.

“To experience that Grand Final from the sidelines and to be a part of the celebrations after it was amazing,” said Gidley, who was on the wing for the Knights side that lost the World Club Challenge to Bradford in Huddersfield the following season.

“So it’s still the dream of mine to win a Premiership or some sort of silverware and that’ll certainly be my goal when I come over to Warrington.”

And the utility back believes he will be heading here knowing what it will take to win the Challenge Cup or Super League Grand Final with Warrington.

“You get there by hard work and concentration, doing your extras at training,” he said.

“You’ve got to be mentally tough and prepared to grind it out the whole year. You don’t get them given to you.

“Warrington’s a very strong club with great facilities and those factors were part of my decision to sign.

“I’d love to be going home - whenever that is – with some sort of accomplishment and silverware.”

Gidley, who has signed for 12 months with the intention of earning an extension of at least one year to his contract terms, says the highly competitive edge to his make-up goes back to his early days.

He carries a mentality of working hard on the training paddock and the pitch in order to give the best of himself.

The 32-year-old Knights skipper, who made 30 tackles and no misses from the stand off position in his side’s 30-10 loss to Manly at the weekend, joins Wolves in 2016 after his signing was confirmed last week.

“The competitiveness probably comes from having two older brothers,” said Gidley, younger brother of Matt who spent 2007-10 plying his trade as a centre with St Helens.

“I’m very proud of my brothers. There’s Matt, who I was lucky enough to play alongside for half of my NRL career and I’ve always looked up to him.

“I’ve got another brother, Adam, so there was always plenty of back-yard footy when we were young and I was always the smallest of the three.

“I think those early days of mucking around in the back yard made me pretty resilient and made me competitive.”