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?