Quote: Deus Dat Incrementum "Over the last 15 years apart from the dominance of Leeds / Wigan / Saints there has been a number of teams that have lifted the LLS, Picked up the odd challenge cup win or appeared in finals. Us, Hull FC, Huddersfield or Catalan etc.
Now even though we can try and pretend that we were close to lifting the SL trophy we didnt and have been a million miles away.
So even though we appear a million miles away I can appreciate the direction the club has provided and the challenge that they have laid down to Powell. For years many people have said that the club has carried passengers (loyal servants in their comfort zone) on a gravy train.
This year has been tough to watch but I appreciate Powells hard d stance.
I am not yet convinced that he can take us all the way but i hope the minimum is that he brings a professionalism and ruthlessness to the team that we have not seen for a while.
If I was given the choice right now of swapping places with Huddersfield, Hull FC, Cas and Catalan i would take our position. Yep, terrible season, but not a great previous 10 years but the decision has been made to make the hard calls to do something about it rather than just making a few tweaks round the edges and hope that it comes off.
Let's get things right. That 2019 challenge cup win was because the players wanted to win that game but how many all or nothing games over the last 10 years have the players not quite had the desire, prep or mental toughness to overcome the opposition. At the start of the season I dint expect this scale of clear out but now it is happening I am on board with it.'"
I can understand there's a bit of a feeling that the slate will be cleaned before we enter 2023, and there's a hope that 4 forwards to come into the squad beforehand will be the cavalry that we've been holding out for. Nevertheless, its far from easy to have any confidence that Vaughn, McGuire Dudson and Kasiano will be our required panacea, when we've created yet another unbalanced squad.
Were still looking at having Mata'utia at 3, Currie at 11 and Holmes at 12. Add that to Ratchford at 7, Clark at 9 who are no longer able to compete at former level, and either Minikin or Thewlis at 2 (not having a pop at Thewlis, because he should be at fullback, but we've brought in Dufty rather than a 7). All this makes us look even more unbalanced than we did at the start of 2022, with a lack of grunt. We could even be a centre short, should Wardle not sign and King be 2023's version of Josh Charnley.
Happy days ahead? I don't believe that DP has put together the right squad, as he hasn't been ruthless where the above are concerned. I have a feeling that at least two out of Philbin, Harrison, Mikaele and Bullock will be out on loan to enable a couple of backs to come in, and thus continue the stop gap situation that we encountered in this season. It's not professional enough.
Either the rebuild has not finished yet, or we've done it just to remedy the prop issue, at the expense of the organising spine, the outside backs and being stuck with a non functioning second row. I'm far from being onboard.