Absolutely. We should give all the present winning squad ten year contracts and continue to look to the glory years as vindication of sound decision. Players getting progressively older each year should not be a consideration at all. They are all as good as they have ever been and always will be. Feckwits.

Ah...11 months ago. The passage of all that time has not dimmed those distant memories for me. I still lift a glass of wine by the log fire and recount the tales of those halcyon days. Ah....the warm glow has faded somewhat with the passage of the eons, but as long as I hold off the onset of Alzheimers those heady days, all that time ago will still seem as fresh as if they happened only last year. People will not belive me, they will say "do records still exist of these marvelous times?" and I will simply smile and raise a toast to memories..

Lets dismantle a proven very successful side as soon as they lose a game, if only we had done this in early '07 when most were writing us off as usual.

That wasn't even a knockout game, let alone a final on neutral territory.

The difference in magnitude of the 2 games is enormous.

So let me get this right...only knock out games at neutral venues count.....and we are talking about the squad who have just won 3 grand finals on the trot....is that correct?

That was one game in a season we finished 2nd.

When does knee jerking not become knee jerking?

do we have to play poorly for 2 or 3 others before we talk about it?

The cracks of a first CC final in 5 years with probably our worst season for injuries in over a decade?

we had worse injuries in 01.

we had to play very young inexperienced players and we finished 5th.

this year with injuries not as bad and experience proven team we could finish 6th.

Out of interest why is it that you and others have a complete disregard for the patter of performance each season? yet at the same time always hark back to previous triumphs?. I am not having a go, I just can not understand how been rational, which I have no doubt you are, why you can not accept a dwindling of performance and conditioning in players, compared to last season, and then again to the season before that. Or do you just not accept that there has been a decline in performance?

Ive been away from this forum for a few years and now Im remembering why.

The actual point of the thread was to say that the squad is showing some signs of age, whcih was only highlighted by our season which includes the CC final.

Therefore, what are peoples views, now the dust has settled a bit, on how we progress further? Every squad needs freshening up, ideally yearly - Im talking one or two new players where they add value, not wholesale changes.

If we dont add a little this season then I can see us having to bed in four or five players the season after which is always difficult.

Because to be honest I don't think it is declining to the extent that some others do.

It's not been the best year but neither was 2006, Webb & Kylie did not win the last 3 grand finals by themselves.

We have good youngsters in the squad like BJB, Watkins, Ambler, Pitts who should be here for a long time to come.

What has the decline in conditioning been? because Davidson has been with us since 2006.

I think that we should have got one of the props that Saints and bradford have got..LMS or Bryn Hargreaves,we need reinforcements in that position ,both are British and with youth on their side(all 3 qualities together are hard to find at the mo)Having Watkins and BJB back will obviously help but maybe Senior has to go permantly into the 2nd row to spice it up abit,but that doesnt give us much in the centres as Delaney(at best) is steady!!!

I don't think Hargreaves would offer us anything we don't already have and I must admit that whilst hearing plenty about LMS I have only seem him play a handful of times so couldn't say either way.