We are a year behind IMO, we should have been doing this for next year, not the year after.

It doesn't take a crystal ball, you only have to take off the tinted specs and smell the coffee to see a lot of these senior players are done.

Re-signing Senior, Donald, and Ali for next year was poor management IMO.

It's certainly a valid point of view, but I'm prepared to adopt a wait and see policy on this. A lot of people (myself included at times) thought Keith was done a couple of seasons ago, but he has proved otherwise. Hopefully, he and others can continue to do so.

It's only natural that the senior players will start slowing down at some point but to go from winning four titles in a row to not making the top six the next season is harsh.

How? we will be lucky to get 5th this year in the league. So why would it be harsh to drop a couple of spots next year?

I thought you were on the badwagon that these players had 3 or 4 years yet anyway?

I thought, Ambler, Burrow & Delaney all played well but the rest were average to poor with Sinfield, Hall & especially Smith having bad games.

Badwagon? that sounds fun

I do think McGuire, Burrow, Sinfield have another 3-4 years in them, that's just my opinion, I never said anything about Senior, Donald & Ali still doing it in 3-4 years as they are all that bit older.

I expect us to finish higher next year, this year we have had a lot more injuries than normal, we've also been very patchy with form but have beaten wire x2, hull x2, Wigan & Saints (all the teams above us) in the last few months, I don't think it's the end of an era just a very patchy year.

I think our most likely spot is 4th, with 3rd still possible. Can't see us losing more games than the teams below us TBH

I think given the talk of teamspirit and loyalty at the end of last season, it needs to work both ways. It doesn't send out a good message to say we want you to play for this club for less than you could get elsewhere for the prime of your career, then we'll bin you once you start to get old.

there's more to building a successful team than getting the most talented group of players together

It's a fair point. But the club are in the entertainment business, not a charity.

Will they therefore be honest enough to tell the fans and the sponsors that unfortunately in order to reward players for previous achievements we will have to accept a huge decline in what we will produce for a couple of years?

I don't think they need to improve as they are already good enough to win it as proved over the last few years, I think they need to get back to our "normal" form and players can suffer periods of poor form and return without it being terminal decline. I also think that it's very hard to keep up the same consistent level of performance for 4 seasons especially when the side has been so unsettled with injuries.

No doubt that many of our players have been poor this year but IMO the outlook is not as dark as some think.

The current squad (or the majority of it) have done what only 1 other club has done in the history of the game by winning 3 consecutive titles. I think that deserves a bit of patience and loyalty by the club after one mediocre season (which given a couple of good performances at the correct time could turn out even better than the previous 3 seasons!).

The teams above us still have a lot of questions against them. Wigan have lost their 2 biggest games of the season (us in CC and Saints at home), Warrington have yet to prove they can beat Leeds, Saints or Wigan, and Hull have to prove they can cope without Long. Only Saints have any evidence that they can cope in high pressure games and they are decimated by injuries.

There is a lot of knee jerking going on here over a poor performance which could still have resulted in a win, following two extremely difficult fixtures in a row. As someone said it's only July FFS!

If that were a given then maybe, but I don't think that a huge decline is around the corner, we may not win much over the next few years, or we may do. No-one has a crystal ball here.

we will get a top 4 finish and we have a good a chance as any if we get some bodies back. wigan and wire have been relativly injury free,lets see how they cope if they get a sudden glut of injuries as us and saints have all season.
there is a massive over reaction by some about this season although with so many out of contract for next season i would have tried to freshen things up with a couple of changes

The problem is who out of the OOC players would you release?

Donald - proven himself to be one of the top wingers in SL
Senior - maybe if Watkins hadn't suffered such a serious injury but there is no way to know how long it will be until he fully recovers
Buderus / Diskin - it appears that the coaching staff still aren't fully sold on McShane, and if they are intent on using the 2 hooker policy these needed to be signed up
Kylie - no other prop in the club offers what he does
Ali - again offers something totally different to the other 2nd rowers at the club.

To replace these with similar players would IMO cost more than it would to re-sign the existing players and you risk upsetting the special atmosphere at the club which has resulted in the success of the last few years.