Of course if we had lost to Saints in an earlier round of the cup like we have done for the last X years then the squad would also have needed rebuilding then as well?
The fact is that the closer you get to the trophy, the greater the hurt when you fail and the more soul searching that goes on.


The problem with pessamists is that eventually they are going to be "proved right". You can complain about the squad all you want, every year, because unless we win the GF every year you will eventually be able to call yourself wise. You might as well predict winter. It's going to come along.

Of course not. Neither should we have bothered signed Dave Furner, Mark Glanville, Chris McKenna and many other strong defensive players. It's not an important aspect of the game at all.

I agree with this. But I ask again, If someone said over 18 months ago that unless changes are made for 2011 then the side would struggle to compete like it had, is that really a Pessamist? a lucky guess? or a realist?

Predicted what?

That we'd have an injury hit season?

That despite this, we'd be 4th with a game to play and still have a strong chance in the play offs?

That we'd make our first Challenge Cup Final in 5 years beating 3 of the top 5 along the way and lose to the 2nd place team in the league in the Final?

There's better in Super League we could have got and not flown over some second rate Aussie and paid him substantially more than we would a youngster from another Super League club.

You're either trolling or you're a deludonoid.

None of the above.

You know how much he's being paid do you?

Which youngsters from another SL club are better that would be cheap and available?

There aren't that many good centres in SL to start with - if Shenton is deemed to be one of the best we're struggling.

It's 2010. Any prediction about 2011 is still just a prediction.

There's a reason he's come over here at such a young age to play, it's either he's after the money or he's not good enough for a NRL side to want him, both would back up my point about him.

It was 2009 when stated. Prediction or not, I ask again, was it Pessimist prediction? lucky guess prediction? or a Realist prediction?

Having said that, it might well be that the club actually make the changes now that they should have planned for earlier, and have actually seen that they might have been shortsighted. I sincerely hope that is the case.

Oh dear.

Realistically the club have now two places in the squad to play with, Donald and eventually one asumes Eastwood. Returning to the club is BJB, and we will have Watkins back for next year. There may also be other players who leave during the off season for other reasons, under contract or not.

You rebuild a team slowly over time, you don't take drastic action when you have the squad who won the league leaders shield and won the GF. 1-2 players a year from within the club, and 1-2 players a year from outside would seem sensible. This year we have Clarkson who has come through and looks a great prospect, Ambler also looks like he will develop and Watkins would surely have also come through this year as well but for his injury.
Delaney was signed for 3 years and we signed an international back row from NZ who should have been with us for 3 years. That's quite a lot of player turnover for the Champions.
We know the likes of Kylie, Keith, Ali, Buderus will need replacing at the end of next year and now also Donald and Eastwood (although as he's hardly played for us he barely counts) are also going this year. Peacock? Who knows now if he'll come back at all? The time off may do the rest of his body no harm or he could never recover from the knee injury fully.

The team's core for the last few years, Sinfield, McGuire, Diskin, Bailey, Webb, Hall, Smith, JJB, Ablett, have all shown they have plenty in the tank (Burrow, I'm becoming worried about - although I'm not writing him off just yet), but I suspect that some fans have become "bored" with seeing some of these guys turn out for us year after year. I haven't. This year we have lost direction, partly due to injuries disrupting the season continuously and partly, I suspect, because the guys are mentally tired of constantly having to be on top. Every dominant team over the last few years has had "breather" seasons, where they haven't won anything. Saints won nothing last year, and with key injuries look longshots to win anything this year.

Too much emphasis on the WCC and the CC this year has cost us league points. But it's a sobering thought that if we had not lost games to Crusaders at home, Castleford at home, Salford and Wakefield, we would be very close to Wigan and top spot. That's not a huge extra "ask" for the guys for next year is it?

There is no need to panic. Think how long Wigan and Wire have been building up to this successful season. You need a lot of luck with injuries in SL and all the disruption of earlier in the season meant that we have struggled to get any momentum going.

My big concern this season has been our terrible defence. Quite often we have relied on our attacking prowess to get us out of jail against teams. I'd rather see 18-12 every week rather than 52-50 basketball scores. Complaining that Delaney is a defensive player is just a laugh. If more players were defensive minded we would have probably had a better season.

I think rather than players being past it etc we should look more at their motivation. If all 17 players had the spirit of JP, we might have given the Wolves a match at Wembley.

Delaney is one of the last people the witch hunt should be looking at. IMO he was one of our more dangerous & better players in the final. All this talk of playing him in the back-row is silly - I'd much prefer him at centre to Smith. Thought he did a good job of handling Inglis in the WCC as well.

Just because he's over here doesn't mean he's not good enough for the NRL - Lauitiiti is just one example of a player who came over earlier on in his career, Jamie Lyon is another, Tonie Carroll etc. I'm sure money is a factor, but when isn't it?

Senior is the bigger problem - still an attacking threat but his defence was awful on Saturday. I fear that next season will be one too far for him.