Although at times I've called for Tony Smith to leave this year I'm undecided on what's best. On one hand we have underachieved again...(by the high standards we set ourselves) but who realistically is 'better than' Smith for the job, not just a knee jerk reaction. I can only say maybe Daryl Powell. Would he suit us? I'm not sure. Brett Hodgson maybe to work with Briers to bring some attacking flair to the club? Do we throw Morley's name in there?

One thing that is for sure is our recruitment has been poor. With the exception of Sandow, our acquisitions have brought nothing to the club. Here is where the blame should be. Wingers and centres must be a priority, and some meat in the pack. If not.....no success will be upon us in the near future.

If we are going to start speculating about potential replacements for TS, can we start by excluding the past-players gang in any capacity please? Michael Monas and Brett Hodgson are still at chapter two in the coaching manual, and based on the performances of their respective teams this year, they need to start again and re-read chapter one.

Given that the general feeling is that we have dispensed with our entertainers tag (although the rest of the RL world seems to dispute this), we might as well just wave a cheque under Tim Sheens nose. I'm sure he'd prefer Warrington to trips to Batley and Sheffield in front of 300 people, and his CV is errm rather good.

The rugby would be dull-as-dishwater NRL style, but according to some it already is.

But, we lost Dodds and Harrison and Westwood, all beefy blokes who would have been chosen before Cox Bailey and King so which ever way you cut it they are 5th 6th and 7th choice props. How much of the salary cap could you spend on that level of back up? Not very much is the answer to that rhetorical question.
This isn't football, there is an imposed budget and therein lies the skill/luck balance. That is why people like Cox, Wheeler and Blythe are with a punt.

We blew it in the unprofessional loss 28-35 to Wigan.
Had we won that we could have coasted at hull, played an under strength Wigan team in the semi and then most likely hull at old Trafford.
If you don't take your chances it comes back to bite you, and it did.

That is utterly irrelevant. St Helens were not as competitive a team as we were this season.

We desperately missed Westwood in that Final. He is still the heart and soul of that team.

Dont understand all the Gidley bashing, from a Wigan fan perspective (me) he was awesome, he ran his blood to water, and I firmly believe if Wire had won, he'd have clearly been MOM. Someone else posted somewhere that if Gidley had been playing for Wigan we'd have beaten you by a lot more. Gidley and Sandow (if he stays) will have you moving round the pitch with ease again next season and you'll be there abouts again at the business end again.

As for Ratchford......I'd have him at Wigan in a heartbeat, he is class!!! When he was at Salford he was unplayable at centre, selected for England etc, Wire buy him and play him everywhere but centre......doh!!!! I agree, if we had Gells and Ratch in the centres at Wigan we would take some stopping.

Thankyou for your contribution to what I thought was a great blood and thunder Grand Final, which was played at a 100 MPH. Your fans were a credit to the club and all the Wire fans we met after the game were extremely gracious in defeat. Keep the faith as you will be competing for the big trophies again next season.


Matt

Totally agree, the talisman.

Perhaps he did play centre at times but he played hb at Salford but Myler was hitting the headlines...very soon after we realised we should have got Ratchford, and so did.
Poor Doc Marwan was gutted.
The deal was done just before he bought the club.

You announced Ratchford'a signing in July 2011, Koukash took over Salford in January 2013.

Sorry Mark but how can you say it's utterlyirrelevant?

Saints were out of the cup early doors, were comfortably in 4th aided and abetted by Catalans end of season implosion two of the top three playing in a hard fought CC Final in tremendous energy sapping heat, the top three playing each other over the final couple of weeks to decide the LLS and the play off order and they even managed to end up with their favourite fixture of the season as their semi final.....the perfect storm

The relevance is the injuries to our front line pack members probably cost us in the end. I did agree that planning your end of season does allow those carrying knocks or those with long minutes to arrive in better shape, but, planning to play Saints at Langtree Park in the semi final isn't a sure fire way of winning the Grand Final