Quote: The Speculator "I tell you what's weird, look back at the season on paper - and I stress, on paper - and it really doesn't look that bad for long periods.
Superb win against Leeds to start, then an away win over a fancied Huddersfield. A gutsy comeback victory against Salford, then a win at Craven Park, which is always tough. A home win against Leigh, which looks better now than it did then, a 38-0 win at Castleford, an away success at Catalans.
Anyone who says 'we had a good start but we had easy fixtures' is underplaying it a bit, I think.
Sadly, our confidence never recovered from those back-to-back defeats against Wigan and Saints. The following game we played Wakefield at home, when Wakey were at their lowest, and we struggled to a win. Then a few weeks later the McGuire situation happened and the wheels just fell off completely (including somehow losing that Challenge Cup quarter-final at Wigan).
The nadir was losing 42-6 at Wakey, which made Powell's position untenable, and the following week we were poor again at home to Catalans. But after that, the performances and results did pick up a bit. We should have won at Leeds, did win at Hull FC, thrashed Castleford (yeah, I know, big wow), won at Huddersfield and gave Saints two hard games.
But now, getting back to what I said at the start about the season not seeming that bad on paper. The truth is that even when we were winning, most of us could see that we were still not good enough to be contenders, and that's where this club has to judge itself. Despite those positive early results, we have ended up mired in mediocrity yet again, and the sense of apathy that seems to have settled over most of us fans should be a huge concern to the club. It's galling because the league is so poor at the moment, we don't even need to be that good to be contenders. Saints are a rank average side this year and were there for the taking but we couldn't do it.
Do I have optimism for next season? Hard to say at this stage. I am more intrigued than anything, such is the gamble with Burgess. I hope it pays off, obviously. But as ever with Wire, it's the hope that kills you.'"
Excellent post. I'd only add that I was never confident, before, or during, those games against Wigan and Saints, even when we were in front. The victories at Catalans were never built on, as they should have been the bar in performance level that we ought to have strived to reach in each and every game. The truth is that our performance levels over the season, just weren't any where near consistently good enough.