Can YOU remember what your expectations were at the start of the year ?

I seem to remember a lot of people tipping us to be outside the top 8 this year after finishing bottom last. I remember a number of people saying we should be in the Top 8 and that would constitute a good season.

We are currently 8th. We have just missed out on a Challenge Cup Semi Final spot after the team gave an immense effort, without our two most experienced and influential players, against a very good full strength Huddersfield team. We are currently 8th. We have pushed a number of teams extremely close and can count ourselves unfortunate that we haven't picked up more points. Winning means everything and the air of negativity around now, would have been non-existent if we had scraped home in the cup.

We have won 7 out of our 15 games. Any Super League team can beat any other team on their day. We have 12 games left to play. We are currently 8th. We have just had 2 young players called up to the England team. Can we fault the effort of our team ?!

Sometimes I feel the need to state the bleedin' obvious.

I agree.

I agree.

I concur. You would think this team is bottom of the table and playing garbage every week with the amount of negativity in some posts. It is why I hardly ever post on here as some people do not want their opinion(s) challenged/questioned.

Totally agree. I expected 10th and hoped for 9th. We are 8th and were 3 minutes from a Challenge Cup Semi. That despite losing our Captain and major playmaker for a significant amount of time.

Im happy for now

I said an improvement on last season was the absolute minimum requirement given the improvement in the squad - let's not forget though that we had the highest player turnover of any SL squad last winter. This season was always going to be a developmental one and for good reason - it's the first time in years we've had a decent balance of experienced and young players; combined with a good mix of British players too.

I still think top 10 is realistic with top 8 as a stretch target. We seem to have lost a bit of composure at the moment and aren't able to hang onto those close games; games that we were actually winning more often than not earlier in the season. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that we're missing Sherwin and Hudson, but the squad are pulling together and can adapt to play without them. We're havign a tough time of it now, but I think we'll come good again for the last 6/7 games and have a decent finish.

Expected 10th or higher, so I'm pretty happy.

Moi'ssi

10th would be nice but getting to the playoffs would be a dream.

I'm pretty happy at how things are going at the moment, from the start we had it will be disappointing to drop out of the 8 by end of season, but even if we do, my expectaions at the start of the season will be bettered so long as we dont finish in bottom two.

Keep the faith

Couldn't agree more. If we'd have been offered 8th in the table and going out of the CC in the last minute of the quarters 99% of fans would have taken that offer.

Rome wasn't built in a day..

Well said.

That little saying "Rome wasn't built in a Day" should be the new club slogan and plastered round the ground to make the fans understand we are building, so are not yet the finished article

I agree, if we had been offered this postion at the start of the season we would have taken it, however.......
the worrying part is that we have only won 1 of our last 7 against SL opposition and that was against Celtic - who are hardly SL standard themselves.
We still haven't learnt how to close out a game and are continuing to make the same mistakes, with no sign of anything changing.
We should have beaten Leeds & Huddersfield, were in a good position against Hull and started well v Warrington.
It's being called lack of composure, it's not....it's lack of professionalism, one of the older heads needs to get a grip on the field and dictate the style of play that is going to win matches, if that means getting points on the board then turning off the style, getting the basics right and grinding out the result then that is what has to be done. High speed quality rugby will follow when we start winning consistently.
TM is doing a good job and building a team around local youngsters is what we need to continue doing but winning is the only way to build confidence and grow as a team
It's time for one of the older heads to stand up and make a difference.

Ferkinell, sense at last,