There are a number of decisions that the management team have made over the last couple of years that have question marks against them. I have a long list but I will just have a go at a few of them.
A) Why give Gidley squad No 1 and play him at FB in pre season friendlies then he never sets foot in that position. I know we had a good start to the season with Ratchford out injured and Gidley at 6 but that one does baffle me. It looks like he intended to play Gidley at FB but changed his mind after week 4.
B) I am a bit disappointed about the use of younger players in the 17. How will Wilde. Julien, Philbin and others gain the number of games if the are only in the 17 as a last resort. Fair play Toby King has been given a decent run but Patton and others need circa 50 SL games before they start to be reliable standard players (G King is just getting there) but they will never get that when they are only used as a last resort. Why play Jack Johnson in one of the last games last year and then only give him a go this year when everybody else is injured.
C) I know we have to manage the squad under the salary cap but I think the squad has been mis managed. Easy with hindsight I know but we went into this season with some players with high risk ratings. Laithwaite and Harrison were pretty much gone for the season and we knew that last September. Dodds, B Evans and Wheeler must have had a high risk rating based on previous injury record. Then we have 3 wingers that throughout the season have had big question marks over them (Penny, Ormsby and Lineham). And to finish it we have gambled on Cox and Bailey.
In short if we knew that Laithwaite and Harrison were both unlikely to play why gamble on so many other players. If you are going to gamble at least have faith in the youth players - to not play Sam Wilde against saints was very poor.

All easy with Hindsight but I have to question some of the decision making.

If we fail to win the Grand Final we need a root and branch clear out of a lot of the back room team which seems to be growing daily. Harsh but fair.

Simon Moran deserves better for his unwavering input.

For some reason Tony Smith seems to be obsessed with the idea of a team of play anywhere utility players who can be interchanged at will & still produce 5 star performances. Several back up plans wouldn't be a bad idea either for when plan A goes pear shaped.

Maybe for next season we could be called the Warrington Square Pegs.

i REALLY REALLY REALLY want a new coach for next season.

Its no fun watching a team of flat track bullies that cant win big games.

He needs to start rewarding form. Some players know they are going to be picked every week regardless.

A good idea in theory, but not one you can implement at the sharp end of the season when you've got a patched up squad.

Far more complex than your simplified analysis would indicate. With regard to the salary cap, the club have been very sensible with players like Grix persuaded to retire to the back room staff to make space. Laithwaite has gone and probably Harrison, too: B Evans and Wheeler have been given chance to revcover from injury: the club could have just sacked all four if they simply ruthlessly managed the cap: I'm pleased that my club treats its players fairly. Gidley may have been signed as a FB but as he is clearly the best 6 at the club so why wouldn't we play him there? Jack Jones got an early game this year and then got injured. The only serious mistake has been the signing of Lineham, who has not responded to TS's man-management in the way that, say, Lee Briers did. That's as much Lineham's fault as Smith's. Plenty of young players have had runs this year, but you won't turn a 19 year old into a solid SL player if you play him every week before he has the mental and physical capacity to handle it.

He stuck by Cull for a very long time and Cull had nowhere near the success that Smith has had. This forum in January had us finishing outside the top 4, if not the top 8 and if we got a lucky draw, we might make the cup semi. Hindsight is easy, but we have done remarkably well in light of fans' expectations. Now, expectations might have been too low and some would have wanted change last season, but overall we have done better than most of our fans expected. Sport is sport (copyright, adapted from Theresa May) and it doesn't always go the way you want or expect. I'm not giving up until we have not won the Grand Final.

I don't disagree but the period of time now without winning anything is becoming (become?) longer.

Smith has had unbelievable support from the club on and off the field with the sole aim of becoming Grand Final winners.

Whilst I agree to a point, as in, sometimes it just comes down to luck 'on the day' or the bounce of the ball, what worries me is I've yet to see us convincingly close down a game this year. We seem skilled at throwing them away. See Cas in Newcastle, last week's debacle, the effing CC Final, and many others. You can't rely totally on luck, and when it comes down to it we're just not ruthless enough. When Flower walked on Friday and a few minutes later Tomkins had his hissy fit, we should've smelled blood and put them to the sword.

I still think we're missing the winning mentality of Morley, Hodgson et al. Yeah, even a few years down the line. There's fewer and fewer players in our squad who are used to winning big games, IE finals.

The last i read was that Wheeler was joining the Canadians for next season along with Laithewaite.

thats correct, which is a big bloody gamble by the canadians, eh.

For me, Friday was worse than a 80-0 hammering.

I've never asked for the sacking of TS but I did on Friday.

I'm also not a huge fan of Kevin Penny but it's clear to see that Russell and Evans on the wings are not effective as Lineham and Penny were early on.

Ratchford is as brilliant as he is awful, in equal measure. I actually think he has cost us the LLS and Cup with his abysmal handling.

I'm finding it very hard to pluck up the enthusiasm to travel to Hull.

I believe free coach travel is being offered to Hull.