Quote: nantwichexile "I agree with the last statement, but my point seems to have been overlooked. Do you really think the team can sustain that level of committted consistency right up until and on into the GF; a team that could be lacking (almost certainly) at least Moon and trial-by-twitter-Hardaker?
This is not even considering any other potential injuries/suspensions to McDermott's first choice 17 and his inabilty to grasp the concept of wisely using or trusting subs that might fall outside this first choice 17'"
Moon will probably get a suspension but with an EGP can't see it running into the playoffs. With Hardaker, unless the ref says he heard anything I don't think trial by lip reading will be enough to condemn him.
As far as level of consistency, perhaps not. Perhaps we may be poor against Wigan and Hull in the last two games before raising again. Also may not be great against Widnes/Catalans in the first week but still have enough to beat them at home if we do end up 5th/6th. We weren't at our best in 2012 in the first week vs Wakey but we got the job done.
All the issues you raise are ones that can be turned around and pointed at the other 5 legitimate contenders. Time will tell, we aren't in any worse state then them, yes we had to raise for the CC, but so did Cas and so did Wigan in 2013 and Leeds and Wire in 2012, the latter three all Grand Finalists, two of them winners.