Sam's done well this season and quashed a lot of peoples doubts.
His reputation as a player was second to none. Players can relate to him. They respect him and want to play for him. It will be interesting to see how he - and the team - develop over the next couple of years. One season is promising, three more so.

In the Super League era Tony Smith is the only one I'd say was a top class coach - no matter how much I enjoyed short periods with other coaches (the Cullen Andrew Johns match v Leeds, the Price CC win over Saints etc).

Lowes - a disaster.
Price - BORING
Powell - results speak for themselves, but I do think that he took the hit for many things that were not of his doing or in his control. Don't get me wrong - he must take a fair share of blame but those around him - players, administrators etc - must also do so. We needed a major reset, and we got that but maybe not in the way we expected.

I'm looking forward to next year, but we need to recruit the right players. It's disconcerting how we struggled in the forward battle on a number of ocsssions this year - not least v HKR.

4

I think back then they were playing when *they* wanted.

At least Sam seems to have stamped that "player power" out.

I think that's the difference between Burgess and Daryl Powell, Powell knew it needed to happen but couldn't sell it in the same way as Burgess. I guess the generational difference and temperament was a barrier.

Looking at the whole picture, you can only look at the progress made and be satisfied that we were in the conversation in both competitions, even more so when you consider the player movements during the year. Kasiano, Dwyer, Dudson, Bullock, Russell all shown the door, without being replaced for long periods and the academy contributing massively. Add players like Thomas, Wrench and Hayes who while they are young, they were part of the plan and in Wrench and Hayes’s case were first choice at one point. All in all, there is huge improvement and you can see there is more in that group.

With all that said, we have to think like champions. We have to think ruthless. We have to unpick why we ended up empty handed, and a part of that is understanding the rationale behind the use of subs. We saw Musgrove play 14 minutes last week, Vaughan with limited minutes again from the bench, changing back from Powell starting to Walker despite that looking like a good, balanced partnership. Did Bateman deliver what we needed?

There are lessons to be learned, and I hope we’re not too busy patting ourselves on the back to be doing a full review and preparing to go further next year. We have to kick the door down next year, Wigan won the lot last year and still went out and recruited, including (albeit a bad call) finding a goal kicker in Keighran. If nothing else, it put the rocket under Smith to develop his kicking. I’m not saying we go and buy, but we need to turn 4 into 6, especially in the games that matter.

Sam has made it that we compete in each game and we have avoided getting beaten by big scores. I think we have only conceded 30+ once and 5 games 20+

Will be interesting to see how things change between Burgess and Vaughan now then.