Look lads we can’t make arguments around “if we hadn’t won the Challenge Cup it would have been a failure of a season.”

We won the damn thing, and took our local bitter rival down to do so, and so in reality it has been a very successful season.

Thing is , having seen a mountain of failed seasons over the last 40 years, I know a successful season when I see one

Wires didn’t start with Super League you know

The nub of this is that we are all disappointed with our attack when in the opposition half. A new top class half back should help. Blake Austin is not a creative half back ... he's a runner. In addition if Gelling has a strength it is his creativity.
The Wire think tank has a few months before the start of next season to come up with and practice to solve the problem.
Finishing 4th and winning at Wembley are not a sign of failure. Several other clubs spend the maximum of the cap. We have no right to expect much better. But the way we went down hill was alarming. Thank God the season is over ... but blimey winning at Wembley felt so good.

Exactly. The ambitious clubs make the change in time. Leeds/Furner, Saints/Cunningham.

I don't disagree with most of what you say but your argument did contain the "why do fans who don't achieve much in life expect so much from a club" and I argued that there need not be a parallel between an individuals aspiration and that of the club they support.


Secondly, I think 3 years is long enough for a top coach to create a GF winning side. I'd be happy with Price continuing into 2020 but for a) the style of play b) his misalignment of expectations thinking this was a good season c) His inability to drive consistent results.

I suspect we will start 2020 as we finished 2019 and he'll be gone by Easter if the club have any cojones.

I wonder how we would have felt if we had been as ambitious as Leeds and jettisioned Price early in the season to appoint Richard Agar.

To be fair if you offered me winning the CC 11 seasons on the run and not making playoffs I would take that! I'd swap a fair few of them for winning the grand final though.

I would. We would have achieved something historic and smashed Wigan's records.

Winning 11 Challenge Cups in a row would be an unparalleled period of dominance. Yes, it would be a shame to not win the Grand Final but lets be honest the more likely scenario is we won't win a Grand Final in the next 10 years anyway, and will win maybe 1 or 2 Challenge Cups if we are lucky. For the first 20 years I watched Wire we won neither.

So yes if this is deal or no deal, and the banker is offering a future of 11 Challenge Cups in a row, it's thanks very much banker its a deal for me.

Out of interest I'd like to hear your rationale for this (I don't disagree)

If Fitzpatrick stays running the show for that 10 year period then yes.
If I was running the show for that 10 year period then no.

Expectations are high. We spend the most money...results ought to reflect it.
My worry isn't Saints next season onwarda but Toronto.

How do you work out "we spend the most money". Surely we spend the same as St Helens, Wigan, Hull, Leeds and Catalan ... top Salary Cap. Unless of course you know something different?

Ok, so if we all agree that a half back is either a creative type player or a runner, then the question has to be asked - what the **** is Dec Patton, because he is neither creative or a runner?

Next year what Dec Patton is NOT (same as this year) is our first choice starting half back