I think Wigan's method of grinding out wins last season was just that ,a way of winning while pulling the wool over the eyes of opposing teams. They soon found an effective plan B for the play offs & final ,when it was needed.

As for the Wire & silverware ,it is very nice to win a trophy or two, but if the team can entertain me for 30+ games a season i am more than happy.

I think that anyone who comes on here and says last season was a failure is just trying to be argumentative, anyone with any brain cells knows that in a 12 team comp to finish top after 27 games and reach 2 finals is a dam good season. I understand everyone including me wants see wire win the GF, but they are 1 off games and you can not criticise recruitment or coaching ability or player development from 1 match. If Currie stretches over, if Atkins gathers the ball round his ankles, we win the Treble. To be 2 incidents away means we were very close and by far the best team in the league.

You are Tony Smith, and I claim my £5
You cannot criticise recruitment from 1 match. We're not. The season has done that for us. Likewise coaching ability.

We've proved we don't have the gumption or nous, to close big games out, when it matters. This has been evident for 4 years.

We'll NEVER have a better opportunity to win the GF, and we blew it. Take off your P&B tinted glasses, and get up from your Tony Smith duvet, and realise WE LOVED UP, and he's responsible.

Never mind, we go again in February. Same old Wire.

It wasn't a failure, however I consider it extremely disappointing.
I expected far more.

All of this.

This season was it. That was 'our year' and we came out in the second half and not one member of our pack wanted to run a ball in with intent. The amount of breaks Wigan made through our edge defence was extremely disturbing.

I agree with you marshman, if we don't win the GF then the season can't be classed as a success brigade are way off the mark IMO. We could have won the GF but on balance didn't deserve it ON THE DAY I would suggest that the opposite was true regarding the CC.

We seem to have drifted from the halfback solution thread title but my problem with TS is limited to succession planning three or four years ago not now and we should be looking forward to next year based on the improvement we had last year on the season before

Rubbish! The lack of front line props (due to injury) meant that Sims and particularly Hill had played far too many minutes by the end of the season and that's not to mention the second row injuries. I was surprised we got past Saints given the state of our forwards.

I think that is why i found the Dodds signing so strange. Ben Harrison needed 12 months tlc & we sign an injured Aussie & an injured Ryan Bailey.

But Dodds injury that kept him out for the season was unrelated to the initial problem so hardly foreseeable. Then there was the option of Ben W but that was kiboshed as well. I was vocal on the signing of Bailey I said he was a bad egg and it reflected badly on our club.
The way I see it is the club have tried to be creative in signings at the lower level to manage the cap, if they come off its a Brucie Bonus. I don't expect anyone thought we would have to rely on Bailey/Cox as much as we did.

To some this irrelevant because our forwards didn't perform for 40 mins in a major final our recruitment, coaching, investment in youth, choice of tea bags in the canteen is all wrong and a broom should sweep through the whole club.

Dodds' injury knackered up his pre season, and he missed the first couple of months of the season, as well as ben harrison, there was also the injuries to laithwaite and Bevans, which in particular seemed to take forever to get sorted, cox and bailey were supposed stop gaps for the first part of the season, unfortunately two of these never ever cleared up, and as said we ended up relying on them a lot more than was expected.

Didn't we sign Dodd's injured and recovering from a long lay off in Aus?

To be fair, Wigan had a lot of injuries and won the GF pot through a mixture of squad strength, coaching, and a will to win.

I think pretty much [ievery[/i team had lots of injuries last year, that's my belief as to why the quality seemed lower than previous years. Credit to Wigan, they managed a terrible situation very well and came out as the GF winners, but we weren't that far off. We did look knackered in the final, a lot more so than in the previous games, I think we'd reached our limit by then (and we didn't exactly have a massive bench to rotate with, did we); we didn't have the attacking spark we needed but we still nearly won (or at least nearly drew level with Atkins' try) and we also kept Wigan to 12 points so we can't have been doing that badly... With a bit of luck we could have won everything, and while that doesn't mean we can't find criticism, I do think people are overreacting at times

This was my agenda most of the season.

I kept blarting on how Hull FC won't make the GF of finish top.
Hull were the only team not to be smashed by injuries. They went almost all season with the same team and yet couldn't pull clear of Wire Pies and even Saints came back at us all.

I called it that they would not win the LLS or make the GF. I got some stick from the Hull fans sayin I was disrespectful...no I wasn't, it wasn't a pure ruddy guess. "It logical Jim"! Yes well done Hull, it was a bigger achievement for the club as a whole, it'll not be repeated next season. 5th spot at best.

IMO, last season was the worst SL standard across the board and the easiest SL to win. That is why even with making the finals, I call it the most disappointing season I've seen under TS, probably ever.

There have been many a season we've been exactly where we were at (deserved) and a two or five where we've over achieved....but never can I remember a season where we so much utterly under achieved. So much as it was easier to won the CC than it was to loose it!

The reason was mainly the busted and fringe weak pack, strangely a halfback, who I won't name, managing to win us games against the odds, and when our pack was in better shape, we won tough games without him.

...leading me back on topic!
We do need a quality half, the last leaver proves as much, but that pack being the best is more important.

Last year's pack was a quality forward off a clean sweep in the dullest season it was.

[climes down off soap box]