I agree with the majority of your points, Cruncher. The one I'd like to highlight is the mental strength (or rather lack thereof). It's bothered me for some time that we no longer seem to have a sports psychologist on the books - or if we do we need urgently to replace them with someone better. The catastrophic lack of urgency, grit and ability to complete the basic skills well in certain games has led to some dire performances this season even, or possibly especially, when we have had more or less our first choice side available. Yet on some occasions (e.g. the Saints game) that same side has looked really good. They have it in them, and presumably the coaching style doesn't vary dramatically from game to game. Yes, there's the quality of the opposition but Saints are no pushovers now that Holbrook has turned them around. Changes in personnel are needed. and we do need fresh ideas from the coaching side: but I think we also need input from someone who can help the players find that mental steel as well. Yesterday was another "special occasion" game, the club worked hard to get more fans in and, as on similar occasions throughout the season, the players didn't turn up mentally. Frankly, I can't wait for this season to end - and I felt the same last year, though the Grand Final win put a gloss on 2016. I can't see that happening this year.

£50k plus Lewis Tierney wages perhaps? Maybe more if Tommy takes his coaching role sooner?

Things change which may give us some wriggle room on the cap - we let Smith go last season while under contract and if the club are doing their job this off-season they'll be trying to offload a number of players for free to freshen up elements of the team or looking to move Leuluai or J Tomkins onto their non-playing jobs early.

I hope you're right, I couldn't believe they were willing to sign Smith. I just can't see why other clubs would want to pay the wages of the players we are willing to offload at the moment, or why Leuluai or J.Tomkins would be willing to take early retirement. Of the top earners I reckon:

Could maybe offload:
Manfredi or Burgess - Probably the most viable option, as they are both very good wingers who other teams would want, and we have Davies, who looks ready to be first choice.
Nu'uausala - MAYBE a chance that an NRL club would take him as squad player, given that they have a much larger cap, so can take a punt or two. Hopefully the homesick stories are accurate
McIlorum - Can't see Wane being too happy to lose his lovechild, but this would be a good move to be honest. Can maybe see some mid-bottom end SL clubs being interested given his CV.

Don't think other clubs would pay their wages/the player would be willing to leave a good contract:
S.Tomkins - Marquee money, seriously doubt any club would take him as their marquee player now.
Leuluai and J.Tomkins - Signed when their stock was much higher than it is now, so I suspect they have quite cushy contracts which other clubs wouldn't be willing/able to match. Can't see why they would go voluntarily.

Would be a bad move for us to get rid of:
Gelling, Gildart, Williams, Flower, Bateman, Farrell and Lockers - Very good players in positions we don't really have much cover in

True enough. It's a bit of a dilemma though. If like me you think Wane is the main problem do you stick with him another year because the only coaches you could tempt here are the likes of Chester?

I think crowds and season ticket sales will plummet if there are not some big changes made. We might make the top 8 next year without a repeat of the early season injury crisis but if it is off the back of the boring rubbish served up this season (and last) I can't say it appeals very much.

I just don't know.

I'm not sure what stage we're at with contracts. I suppose there is still time this year for SW to do something remarkable again, but I seriously doubt anything of the sort will happen.

I can only say that if we get a sniff of a quality coach from the NRL, even if it's another well-regarded assistant (as Madge was), but we have to wait another year, it might be worth hanging on to what we've got until the time is right. Though even that might not be possible. SW himself might step down if he thought he wasn't part of a long-term plan, and that could leave us with a stopgap coach, which could be utterly disastrous.

This is all conjecture, of course. In reality, it's impossible to imagine us tracking down and luring a top class Aussie coach in the time remaining between now and next season. They'd surely need at least a year just to put their personal stuff in order.

But I maintain that we need to do something drastic. The top of the tree is suddenly far, far above us, and I can't think of anyone in the immediate vicinity who's likely to get us up there.