Right up until we appointed Tony Smith in 2009 (what a bad step backwards that season looked like it was going to be and in league terms it was). I lived more in hope than expectation that I would ever get to go and watch Warrington at old Trafford, I thought we could get a lucky draw and make Wembley one day maybe. I would have snatched anyone's hand off at that point just to watch Warrington play at Old Trafford in the final rather than watch other teams there like I had done previously. The last 10 years for the most part have been beyond my wildest dreams as a wire fan growing up in the 90s.

Winning 4 Challenge Cups in 10 years is a level of success well ahead of anything I expected us to achieve going in to 2009 so I don't take that for granted, nor the fact that we made several other major finals and lost. There are no guarantees, but we have at least been up there competing.

I share the frustration of a lot of fans though that we have hit a plateau and been there for some time. The recruitment has not been good for some time, and when people say "with our squad we should be champions" they overrate our squad. There are a lot of players who are regulars in our first team that Saints, Wigan would not be interested in as starters. Since the break up of the last great team (Leeds), there has been a power vacuum in Super League and none of the squads - including Saints and Wigan - are really that great in a historical context. If the team of the early TS years had come together eight years or so later, it would have completely dominated the Super League of today, so it was unlucky timing that when it was at its peak Leeds still had all of their greats, and despite that Leeds team being seen as an ageing side, their core players were still playing after ours had gone.

After going through some dips themselves, Saints, Wigan (and now Leeds) have managed to rejuvenate themselves quite quickly to that top echelon, because no team is so strong anymore that climbing to the top is the formidable obstacle that it was when Cullen or TS took over. It does feel like an opportunity missed, and although I think Steve Price is fundamentally a decent coach who can put together a credible team, I don't get the sense that Price is the type of coach who will separate us from the pack at the top and I don't think our management and recruitment generally is good enough to separate us from the pack at the top.

So I think it's a cop out when people just want to take the approach of resting on our laurels, yes we won 4 Challenge Cups in the past 10 years, but three of those were with a set up much better than we have now. If we really want to take the jump we do need to make changes. But that means bringing in the right people, and if that means waiting a bit till the right person comes available I'm ok with that, rather than just playing lucky dip and bringing in someone who could take us backwards.

Context is needed though. Them teams haven't had half the squads we have had or spent half the cash we have.

As always Sally is bang on the money.

I don't think we actually missed out on anyone as in other people offered more money etc it's just nobody wanted to come over to play for us. An unknown prop knocked us back, Sammy Lisone Knocked us Back, Zane Tetevano Knocked us back as he didn't want to Bring his young family over here but a year later here he is at Leeds.......but money obviously talks. And i think there was another prop we were in for that didn't want to play for us either. Then low and behold the missing puzzle piece in Latu was signed so he was 4th or 5th choice......but more likely the only one who wanted to play for us because nobody else was interested in him at all.
I'm happy with Butler and Mulhern being added to our Squad and it's the first year i've felt good about our prop situation in quite awhile. It's just the lack of extra cover now as the backs ups now are basically Sita unless he trains the house down and Butler becomes the back up, Doro and J.Clark plays there from time to time and that's about it.