Consider what Gelling tweeted then: "I'm either walking off with a ring or being carried off with a toe tag". It was pretty much life and death for that lot, not just hot air from the coach. As an aside he didn't shine as brightly on Saturday, think we actually did well to shut him down. Just a shame about the other 12!

Don't care much for Wane to be fair. Although he was gracious and complementary after the game, I really couldn't give a hoot what he said beforehand. All billy big balls and bravado which we've all heard before and overcome in the past when turning them over numerous times.

We lost because we never got going, their pack bossed our under strength pack and they were the better team. Not because of who said what beforehand.

That goes much deeper than giving the game away in a press conference. That's a club culture, which obviously Warrington don't have in comparison to Leeds/Saints/Wigan. You can't build that kind of culture if you've never won anything because composure is as big a part of things as being brave and being committed is. I'm sure each of Wire's Grand Final teams have WANTED to win it just as much as the opposition. The psychological barrier in sport is huge and you need to win one before that will materialise. Smith is right, you will do it soon.

Wigan just had a more dominant pack, and better backs, we didn't lose the game due to pressure.

I wouldn't put Saints in the same breath as wigan and Leeds, yes you won a gf recently but that was because of flower melting down, not dome great club culture.

I think he needs to leave before we will achieve this.

His unbalanced team selection & predictable tactics, around a quick play the ball, have been a major factor in the two final defeats this season.

Sadly, owing to his stubborness/arrogance, I can`t see any change during his tenure, & we continue to come up short in the major games.

ive wanted a new coach for almost 3 seasons now... but it isnt happening.. so instead of letting it wind me up, ive decide to embrace it next season.

if you ignore the actual rugby we played and the results in the 2 finals, we definitely improved on the season before



So if Smith can learn from his mistakes, bring some decent forwards in and stop doing that silly laugh when were getting beat, then im willing to get behind him next season... sort of.

Fully agree about that smirk on his face.

...but have we definitely improved by going up the table or could it be that our dinner guests have simply took those seats further down it?

The most positive thing I feel about this season is that we have gone through what was always going to be a very tough process of reinvention post-2013, and managed to create another generation that is now competing on all fronts.

The team didn't change much from 2008 to 2013 and that was basically a team of senior players that got old together that was kept together because it was a special team and we pushed it all the way to get trophies. We got 3, and came narrowly short in 2 Grand Finals. Had it not been for injuries in 2013 we would have won that one.

But I think we all knew that that team had a limited window to win trophies. When we lost to Leeds in 2012, I remember thinking we probably have one more shot at this next year before we have to go through rebuilding. When we lost in 2013 how many of us had a kind of sinking feeling that the time had gone, especially when it was announced that Briers was retiring. I was looking at teams like Bradford and Hull (who had been competitors under Kear and Sharp but lost their way) and been worried about the future. I feared we would end up mid table for a few years, lose Tony Smith and be back in the years of mediocrity.

But Smith has rebuilt a team again that's competed and but for a couple of match saving tackles we could have won the treble this year. I see no reason to think we won't be up there again next year.

Ultimately all I hope for is to have a team that is capable of competing at the top. There will be luck involved in big games, injury, form, fitness and so on so sometimes you can be ready but not win, but in the end if you are there or thereabouts enough you will win. Sides like Saints a few years back and Wigan the last few years have been going to Old Trafford and losing repetitively but it didn't mean they were bad teams.