He was excellent at losing at the Bookies. Quite an expert apparantly.

Can think of a couple for myself too!

Richie Barnett Jnr - "The man has got pace to burn! He just needs the space!" Never made a break!

Kevin Penny - Will always hold the guy in high regard after THAT try at Saints in the cup, easily my Fave try in my time watching the Wire, just a shame he went and handed Gardner a try about 10 mins later. Always thought TS would make him a star

Chris Riley - Never thought he was good enough but he has proved me wrong time after time and has been a consistantly good winger approaching a 100 tries for the club. Fantastic achievement!

I also beleved the Steve Anderson hype thinking we would shock a few sides once we had 'gelled' could not have been anymore wrong!

I think I can now consider myself wrong that the SL Licensing system was working. I realise it can't guard against the economic situation or a club simply failing to perform as well as genuinely expected, but clearly Bradford Bulls have been seriously mis-run for a few years, their problems can't have appeared overnight. Yet the licensing process (supposedly a very thorough audit of all aspects of a club) gave them a B only last year.

I'm not sure that straightforward P&R is the way forward, but something needs to change.

Dean Gaskell - I thought it the try he scored against Oldham in the CC away, a really good legth of the field effort rounding the fullback, would open the floodgates for him. Unfortunately, they dried up as quickly as they started.

Chris Rliey - few years ago we got hammered at Catalan and he was ripped to bits I said not fast enough not good enough to be a Super League winger. oppps

I always stood up for God, thought he was a kind God that loved us all. That was until i read they Bible, Was i wrong!

If someone really wants to cheat the auditors and pretend everything is hunky dory at the business when there are serious problems underneath then they are only cheating themselves. The RFL and Super League can set up rules as best they can to protect clubs from making mistakes but in the end its the club's responsibility how it runs itself, nobody elses.

All clubs need to really take responsibility, their boards need to take responsibility and look at who is making the financial decisions, are they trustworthy, are they being open and transparent. If they are not, its the club that is going to suffer like Bradford are now.

If Warrington Wolves were being run by cowboys racking up a huge debt then I wouldn't be expecting the RFL to sort us out, I'd be pointing the finger at the board and saying who was in charge of this mess...

Absolutely. BUT, licensing was supposed to reduce the risk of clubs spending money they didn't have. The benefits were supposed to be better run, stronger clubs that would help raise standards in SL year-on-year instead of the boom-bust symptoms associated with P&R at the lower end and chasing trophies at the other. It was under that basis that clubs were awarded a 3 year stay in SL, at the expense of other applicants who felt they'd earned the right on the field to challenge themselves at the higher level.

If you go back to saying clubs can cheat themselves if they want and it'll be them that suffer, then you need to open up the opportunity to do that to others currently outside SL.

haha where do i start ive got a good few wrong over the years but here's a couple that stand out

Early last season i confidently predicted that Rhys Evans will replace Riley and become a permanent fixture

When we first signed Westwood I saw what was a slow, immobile centre and thought "what the XXXX" funny what a change of position does

Possibly I'm suffering from the same thing I mentioned earlier, giving too many chances, but I think it needs more time, especially given the shocking economic conditions. Most clubs are struggling with lower incomes after a 10% drop in attendance between 2008 & 2009*, yet I don't really see any major change in how clubs are performing - might they have done worse without the licensing system in place? Bradford is a special case in that there appears to be have been actual fraud involved, and what exactly could be done to prevent that?


*Just been grabbing the figures from the results lists on wikipedia: 10,000 average per game in 2007 and 2008 compared with 9000 in 2009 and 2011, while 2010 was only half filled in. 2012 is currently at ~9800, but with most of the league decided that'll drop in the last two weeks.

Ryan Atkins. Never thought he would be a centre, thought he would make an ideal winger and run in a bagful. dfidn't think he had the hands or the heart to be a top class centre, and thought he would starve his winger. a winger is only as good as his centre, and atkins has made some impressive wingers look truely outstanding.

Tony Smith - inerited a good squad, but went off the boil and jumped from Leeds before he was pushed. Poor at England / GB and couldn't manage the cliques. Jumped at Wire - who hadn't done their homework.

Might have been wrong on that one.

The other one was Chris Hicks - aging Aussie who wouldn't do a lot.

Might have been wrong on that one too.

Tony / Chris - I was soooo wrong.
Smith - best coach I've seen since watching Warrington when Bowden was coach
Hicks - best winger since - and on a par with - John Bevan

who is going to admit they were wrong when they thought widnes would be a great addition to Superleague and would perform much better than bottom of the league crusaders. And would bring massive crowds...... what with them being a massive heartland club......?

Behave, they've improved exponentially since June and should be in with a shout of the play-offs next year.

This may be the first post in the 'mistakes' thred which is likely to be a mistake... How very meta.