We have in my eyes one of the best prop forwards in the league in Fifita who is a handful to stop near the line, he drags in four or five to stop him and then we benefit from the very next play...

Huby, England, Fifita (And Hirst when he gets his chances) are all playing very well and Pauli is getting better every time I watch him play. I think England is that grunt and aggression, he has a very direct style of play which seems to go unnoticed by many.

I don`t think we have an issue with our pack.

Though the pack played well last week

the pack lacks that aggression , yes they hit up but don't seem to have that bit extra to break through. compared to last season I would say on the whole that our packs gone soft. I'm not sure how anyone can say our packs been good and our results would go along way to say the complete opposite .

I'll be honest I well hacked off with being knocked out of the cup, but then its just silverware I suppose as the money is in super league,
look at it from a fans point of view, 50 years on from losing in the final against our local opponents we had a chance to put something to bed with our best team in years but its now water under the bridge,
I even had a gut feeling that had we put our energies into it we could of still a top 8 finish as well as decent run in the cup and even put a bet on it which I never do, had known we would of gone out resting players I would of given the money to the club instead.
I'd of loved to see what the Wakefield public had of done had got there, could of been an increase in attendances but now I feel there's nothing to play for,
do I think we get within the top 4, no, we've lost too many to the teams above us

when I think back to the cups that was available to win back in the 70s there is only 3 now, 4 if you count Adam Watene's trophy

I still think we have the right team and managed by the right coach, I know we have the right management and great set working with them
patience is a virtue but I'm running out of years

Let's be realistic. We were not going to win the trophy this year.
We should have won and I was disappointed on the day but we got what our performance deserved and it's gone now. If it kick starts the rest of the season I'll be happy we lost.

realistic be all means

would you said the same to Sheffield when they won it

come on each cup game can be targeted to the team you play, that cup this year was winnable with this squad this year and would of meant something special after 50 years and what happened to poor Don.
I expect us to be in the top 8 anyway, now your saying kick start the rest of the season so your expectations must be a top 4 then

I genuinely can’t believe some of the comments regarding cup & potential league finishes on here recently. I get that most of you have supported Wakey through thin & thinner, but you don’t half talk yourselves down!
I’d say that your squad is at the least the same as last year & is arguably stronger; so why shouldn’t you be confident & try to improve? All this worrying about other teams & “under par year last year for bigger clubs” talk is what keeps clubs like ours (Cas) in their place.
I said on here earlier in the year that the biggest change required at wakey was the mindset of the fans. You have to start thinking like a successful club & believing it. You have loads to be positive about & positivity encourages more positivity which in time will lead to more spectators coming. You could argue that this is what JK brought to the table; belief. The players believed it & look what happened last year.
All this talk of being where you should be based on spend & fans etc is a cop out in my opinion. It’s as if some people are worried to be positive in case they are shot down later; so what if you get it wrong? It’s better to be optimistic & back the club rather than throwing the towel in cos the terrace’s are crumbling or you get a bit wet at games!
I apologise if it’s a bit ranty, but if you keep settling for 6-8 guess where you’ll always end up.

Sheffield were only underdogs in the final because they were playing Wigan. They were no mugs. They'd been in the semi the previous year I think and that was when you had to play all rounds.

Of course it would be nice to win on the anniversary of that game but let's not kid ourselves. That team was a double championship winning team. We have a lot of potential in our team but we are not the 68 team.

Kick start means playing better......at the moment we need to improve to make sure of 8 whether you expect it or not.

THE only thing we have to play for now is stay in the top 8 when and if (if we play like we have been its going to be a big if) that is confirmed - season is over - we are going to have about 10 meaningless games to finish the season - we are so far away from being close to a top 6 side let alone at top 4 - we will be happy to finsh 8th and that for our club and budget is a good season.

we threw away a cup final shot why o why

Most teams in SL have as much chance of winning the CC as any other club. We've blown ours for another year.
We have arguably our best squad (we think anyway) in years and capable I think of a top 8 place AND winning the CC.
The best team in SL this season by a mile are Saints and we beat them. We played as we should have been all season.
Should have been in 2nd round of cup but we succumbed.
May scrape into top 8 but from what I've seen so far this season expect nothing beyond that!

That's a nice pep talk, if slightly patronising, but it's magical thinking, akin to the current admonition that if only Remoaners would back Britain, Brexit would be a success.

The 'belief' of fans will have absolutely no impact on what happens on the pitch; I prefer to base my beliefs on facts and evidence, and the facts and evidence tell me that we're capable of finishing just inside the top 8 - which is perfectly acceptable, given what we spend on our squad.

There is perhaps some truth in the theory that positivity will get more people through the gate - we had that in spades under Glover however, and it turns out that most of the 'new' people who came through the gate either weren't paying, or didn't exist.

Sorry can't agree there. We are a better side than Huddersfield and the reward would have been Catalans at home, another team we could/should have won. All of a sudden we are one game away from Wembley and a potential shot in the arm for the club of huge proportions. This squad has the ability to beat anyone on its day as the Saints game showed. It is a massive missed opportunity and for me Chester got his pre-match prep badly wrong.

Or right? For the 2nd year running. The club clearly has a different outlook to the fans but they are the ones who see the bigger picture.

It genuinely wasn’t intended to be patronising & certainly not like the pro-brexit analogy!
Perhaps Having wakey in-laws & reading this forum has skewed my perception of your fans, but it appears, to me at least, that too many are waiting for the team/club to fail, because it’s easy & that’s all they’ve known, rather than being brave enough to strive for better & put their head above the parapet in saying so. Vasty & I have commented on the difference between the two sets of fans (awaits the standard inbred, fingers & toe jibes) & whilst we can be accussed of having a bit of a small town mentality, we definitely believe we’re big enough to mix it with the bigger clubs & are generally as positive as we can be in backing & selling the club/brand to anyone who’ll listen (&those who won’t)!

I agree with what you are saying to a certain extent! Whether Bren thinks its patronizing or not, it`s a fact that Positivity breeds success - Obviously there has to be some realism in there and it`s not the be all and end all. We have the lowest budget in the league yes, but I actually don`t think that is reflected in our squad, MC and CC have done a great job and built a very competitive team on a smaller budget than the rest. Yes I get fans bringing the budget up when a moronic post comes up like this every so often, to remind us of the uphill battle Chester faces in some aspects but its all I ever hear from some our fans, even when we win i hear fans constantly talking about how we have the lowest budget in the league. A positive attitude from the top down can take you a lot of places that you would not get to with negative approach.