Quote: RichieS "Getting pretty sick & tired of hearing the fact we were champions last year, world champions this year and cup finalists as an excuse for the absolute rubbish displays in the last few months...honestly, give it a rest. The team is not playing well, the injuries and subsequent results have knocked confidence and the coaching staff don't look like they have a remedy. It is quite obvious things need changing.
Super League rugby evolves, fast. Coaches are far better equipped now-a-days to see what or who isn't performing and they can usually make the required changes. Shaun Wane doesn't seem to be one of those, for whatever reason, nothing ever seems to change. Same tactics, week in, week out and that can only be down to his stubbornness in outright belief that eventually it will work and we will get a result. He hasn't quite grasped that the other "top" teams have evolved and can see our plays and predictability a mile off!'"
I've yet to see anything like a positive post from you mate?
You say we haven't evolved and we're predictable but yet we've been consistent enough to make the last 4 grand finals and won 2 of them.
Nobody would have predicted Castleford's rise this season, nor Salford and Wakefield for that matter. Likewise nobody would have predicted Warrington missing the top 8 or Wigan being at the bottom end of it. It's sport and things like that happen. We don't have a given right to win and we have to accept the emergence of other clubs.
None of us are happy with our current position but there are mitigating factors that we have to accept. The injury crisis was unprecedented. We lost our scrum half with a broken jaw, our back up scrum half (Shorrocks) was out for the season, the other back up (Powell) was covering at hooker and we had to play a 17 kid (Woods) who for all the world was never ready. That's just one example of the mitigating factors I'm talking about!
I stand by my earlier comments, with a good pre season and more luck with injuries I'd put my mortgage on us to make next year's grand final.