Deserve what we got

Quote: Alan "I take no joy in saying it - I feel utterly dejected right now - but I did say on here, weeks ago, that I felt that our lack of class and pace, would get us relegated. I still feel that was the over-riding reason for our failure. True, we have had a handful of outstanding victories, yet have never been able to back them up with another outstanding performance, so yes, the season has to be classed as a failure.

Yesterday was just another classic example of our dreadful inconsistency. Just six short weeks ago, we hammered Catalans, scoring five tries, having four disallowed, and conceding just one. We have had convincing victories against Saints, Huddersfield, Warrington, Wigan, Hull, and Salford as well - and equally convincing defeats at their hands.

We have had a 'troubled' season, with injuries, suspensions, and apparent fall-outs. Just look at who was unable/not allowed to play yesterday - Brown, Higson, Ridyard, Hock, Weston, Pelissier, Vea, McNally, Green, Acton, Mortimer, and Langi. Would any of them have made a difference? Maybe, maybe not, but many of them would/should have been first choice selections. I refuse to criticise individual players. They are all 'heroes' to me, and have sweat blood in the cause of 'my' club', but there is just no substitute for class and, in my opinion that was a quality in short supply this season.

With the benefit of hindsight, we probably signed too many 'experienced' players, whose bodies just weren't up to the demands. We never managed to eradicate the 'discipline' problem that plagued us through the Championship years. Our coach was inexperienced, at this, or at any senior level. I still say he did an amazing job to succeed in his first season. As for this season, well he was given plenty of 'experience' to back him up. Was there too much experience in that back up - i.e. was it a case of too many cooks (pardon the pun) with clashing egos getting in the way?

In my opinion, we got many things wrong and were unable to put them right. We need to learn from the many mistakes that were made, and rectify them for next season. There isn't much time to do that. How many players (and coaches) will want to stay? How many will be asked to stay? There is an excellent opportunity to have a mega clear-out, with contracts being null and void, yet that may not be a brilliant idea. There is very little time/opportunity to build something completely new, as a lot of personnel will already be signed up by other clubs, for 2018. When we do recruit, please let pace and class be high on the list of qualities we look for.

So, to the title of this thread. Yes, I firmly believe we deserved what we got - but it really pains me to say it.

Right - when do the 2018 season tickets go on sale!
Agree with all of this. though I think it's not so much we had too many experienced players, rather, we didn't have enough youth. Scrapping the reserves in 2016 set us back massively, meaning we had to go into a SL season with only 27 players on the books at the whole club. No reserves meant the workloads of Hock and Tickle couldn't be managed. Compounded by the fact that Green was seemingly unselectable.

The team also seemed to lack character when things went against them, as showed yesterday after a couple of questionable decisions in the second half led to complete disintegration of team discipline. Our wins this year have been convincing, we're good when things go our way, terrible when anything goes against us. Might be fitness, tackling technique (we weren't any good in the collision even in the championship!), or could be the fact that excuses seem to come out of the club. Refs decisions, crowd on their backs etc... Where is the leadership in the team?

Finally, the owner needs to make one person accountable for the performances on the pitch. We seem to have a coaching committee all passing the buck. If that person is KC, so be it. It would then be up to pick the team, and handle playing affairs with the assistants there to do just that. Assist. Hopefully no more instances of DB giving team talks from now on.