This year has been extremely frustrating, I do believe Blease and Arthur will fix some of the issues in the off season.

Don't know if this is a reflection of the quality of the league but there are 3 games that stick out for me, Huddersfield at home, Hull KR at home and Salford away, I still believe that we 'should' have won those with just a bit more composure. That would have had us finishing 4th, and in fact any other year finishing on 28 points as we have would have got us in the playoffs.

As I say that might be a reflection of the quality of the league.

What I would like to see next season is starting off well, getting some decent wins early on can pay dividends later on in the year, I'm usually one for saying its a long season and your start doesn't reflect your finish, but I'm ditching that philosophy next year, we need to start with some momentum so we aren't chasing points at the back end and it will also get the fans back on board.

I'm still not over Huddersfield at home. From that point on I'd lost faith in Smith. The thumping from an understrength Wire shortly after confirmed it. Agree with your sentiments re KR and Salford, but you also have to factor in our two daylight robberies against London.

Agree with this. The Huddersfield at home game defeat was really inexplicable, we (twice?) built leads that should have been enough to grind out a win.

The London games were poor too, for far too long Leeds seem to more often than not be brought down to the level of the opposition. It seems like an attitudinal thing but for professional sportsmen we let this happen far too often. We've seen it happen under Arthur and Smith, but this lack of ruthlessness during the regular season arguably goes back to Brian Mac's days or even earlier. Is it a culture thing, or just chronic mis-investment in playing staff?

We used to delight in the fact that the team peaked for the latter part of the season and didn't always perform during the regular season.
Now that is being described as a problem.

We didn’t perform during the season or peak at the end of the season. That's the problem.

Hmm, a rather strange but intriguing comment. What other motives do you think someone may have when they have posted something relating to their team on that team’s fans forum. If someone posted they were getting a season ticket for the first time in 10 years for X, Y and Z reasons what do you think their ulterior motive might be?

What about the post Golden era?

The post-golden era woes, as far as I understand, are purely on-field issues. In 1996 the club really did face oblivion financially.

The bad times post-2015 may feel worse because we were spoiled for the preceding decade. We talk of the GF win of 2017, the CC win of 2020 and even making the GF in 2022 as 'papering over the cracks', but these achievements are still better than anything the club did for most of the 80s and 90s.

Now we are more frustrated with the club's inability to turn a strong financial, resources and infrastructure position into on-field success.

I suspect there are differing opinions of what minimum success looks like. During the golden years there were quite a few posters on here who were constantly predicting our demise and the need to replace coaches and players. They will not be happy with anything short of the playing roster of the NRL champions. And then there are those of us who just want Leeds to get back into the top clutch of teams in SL, and at least have the potential to be title contenders every year, even if we don't win every time.

There were a number of us who started worrying about the lack of succession planning before the Goldens ended. As it turns out our worst fears were realised. There clearly was no succession plan worth the name. Junior development had ceased to produce real star quality and we continually signed average players to replace great ones. McDermott stayed too long and had to be sacked, and then Furner-Agar-Smith were poor choices of coach.

Its definitely the case that even since 2015 we've been far more successful than the 80s and 90s. But we've also flirted with relegation several times, and the poor seasons just feel worse after the riches we'd previously seen. For me the issue is that with better management the relative decline could have been stopped years ago, and we really ought to have rebuilt properly way before now.

But it does feel like Arthur may be the coach to at least turn the ship around on the field, and in Blease we at least have an up to date professional managing the club. So I actually feel relatively hopeful for the next couple of seasons.

If I hadn't seen such riches, I could live with being poor.

Oh, sit down…

You know, I almost went for that line when I wrote that. I thought I was getting away with it...

I’ve been getting away with it all my life…

In the 80/90s you had one dominant side in Wigan - the only full time side in northern RL and they could compete with the very best in the NRL. Furner was a bad choice but the team was already in decline. This was compounded by employing Agar who was "last man standing" and eager to have the job. Covid was a challenge for all in the sport as it was for many businesses and coming just after a massive investment in the stadium timing couldn't have been worse.

Most fans just want the team to play at "elite" level where the basic skills are performed to a high standard in an entertaining brand of rugby. The players should have a pride in their professionalism including their fitness - something sadly lacking at Leeds.

How many on here can say they look forward to attending games - how many attend because "that is what we do"

I used to really enjoy watching Murray's teams play - they were tough, skillful and totally committed plus they had real superstars in Harris,Goddin, Morley and Blackmore backed up by a host of talented players - Newton, Sheridan, Cummins etc. All topped of with a coach who understood what it was to be a fan and his joy at being in his role was evident to everyone.

I don't expect the team to win every game I just want to be entertained.

My decision on Season Ticket will depend on the revue and implementation of the game rules. Which deserves its own post.

What we do, recruit etc wont influence that, but if course i want us to challenge next year.