In that case I'd rather have Ratchford, least he is reasonably exciting to watch. Rather than winger charging in midfield driving his legs.

Losing narrowly always hurts. But Wire came so close to winning all three. Often in top class sport a coach can do no more than send his team out well prepared and then take - the poor refereeing decisions, the bounce of the ball, some good players making rare mistakes and your best players having an off day, to say nothing of the opposition actually turning up.

Tony Smith has had a great season. You can ask no more as a fan, than being in the mix at the end of the season which Wire were. I must be one of the few who think that coming top of the pile after 30 games is still an achievement to be proud of.

Thanks by the way, for making Saturday special. The atmosphere at the ground was great. The fans were a credit to the club. The team and management took defeat gracefully.

Good luck for next season. I suspect you will be very close.

If you'd have said to me...we will offer you a LLS and 2 loser medals before the season, I'd have said no way.
The squad is much better than that. It'll win the two cups and have the LLS sewn up 3 weeks early.

Think some perspective is needed here. We have been running with 2 front line props for most of the season, and not through choice. This has left a very lightweight pack and on Saturday it told. It's been a long season for Hill and Sims (look at the minutes they've been putting in). Players like King, Cox and Bailey were there as squad fillers not star signings.
It's all very well saying sign world class players to replace X and y, but they won't be on world class player wages, and there is a salary cap.
We finished 6th last season. A few of our young players have had more game time than would've been ideal but this will stand us in good stead.
Finally I don't believe for one minute that Matty Blythe is meant to be a "star" signing, but Dom Crosby is a good signing.

You might just be on your own with that one..........just for a change

If he came to Hull we would show you.Great player

Is it though? We've been light in the props all year, we've got no decent passing centres so our wingers struggle and are then dropped, and we've got a few players who aren't good defenders.

If we'd had Dodds, Harrison, Grix, Westwood and Currie in that GF I'd have agreed but I though Wigan had a comfortably bigger, faster, more powerful and better pack than us and that's why they deserved to win.

Sometimes he is, sometimes he's utterly average and isn't a brilliant defender or organiser at FB. IMO he's a centre first, utility hooker/half back off the bench and a stand off before he's a full back but he plays full back most of the time.

He's the passing centre our team is crying out for, whenever he plays centre he either gets MOTM or runs whoever does close.

Thank God for Captain Hook. We are much to critical of our players. Mind you if you look at the Forums for other teams all "fans" are the same. We watch our players more closely and spot all the weaknesses. Some forum members seem to think we ought to have won the treble and then in the next breath go through the team and say how weak we are ... that's illogical. We need to stand back and think how lucky we are to support such a club. I know it's frustrating that we didn't win one of the big two but as Captain Hook says ... get a perspective. I'd like to add ... don't be so flaming miserable.

From an outside point of view then... where would Hull play him?

I'd take going out of the CCF at the first hurdle, finish fourth in the table just to concentrate our resources and win the GF. That is really all that matters.

Very gracious post, thank you and congratulations on the title

Mate of mine at work, Wigan fan, said he would love to see Ratchford playing for them - he reckons with Ratchford & Gelling in the centres that they'd be unstoppable.

I bet you'd take it

However, serious questions, how do you do that and is it wise putting all your trophy 'eggs' into the one SL 'basket'? This year would our 17 have been any different if we sacked off the Challenge Cup and nursed our squad through to 4th to set up a grand finale? Are you saying that the injuries to Westwood, Currie and Dodds could have been avoided somehow by a softly, softly approach

In sport more often than not you don't have the choice, I would have liked our 17 to have been fresher with a bit more energy in the tank for sure, maybe next year win the LLS early then coast and it would help if the CC was moved so it didn't interfere with the 'business end of the season' rather than contenders having to duck it (no pun intended?

I don't possess hindsight, so at the start of he season we had a full compliment....besides that,
Champion teams don't settle for mediocrity.
The expectation of this team was IMO for a wipeout akin to Leeds last year.
What we saw this year was sport science and fortune against our nearest rivals keeping us in touch.
Too much tuna pasta and not enough raw meat.