It's been an encouraging start to the Pearson/Gentle era.

However once again we had no cup run, so that was one 'fail'. We have, though, beaten everyone except the top two and only Wigan did the double over us.

If we win next weekend and then are competitive the following week we can consider it a more than acceptable season, especially given we lost our fullback in April.

I estimated 6th/7th at the start of the season for us and 7th/8th for our webbed fingered friends so I'm pretty happy with how the season has panned out up to now, especially since i thought McKinnon was great and when he went felt our wheels might fall off big time (and they did for a bit!). Would be good to get a play off win, and if we get Moa back in addition to tickle, our pack will be improved further and who knows!

our points tally would have seen us in 4th in 2011

Decent season.

Big positives for me

Youngsters getting game-time and looking the part.
Much more attractive rugby.
Good coach who talks sense and has good tactics, seems a strong personality who has kept people like Aspinwall, Seymour, Westerman under control.

Our lack of taking opportunities and points for column is a concern but with a new halfback combination, including an attacking FB this should improve next year.

Also need to be more composed when we are in the lead. Again having experienced and better halfbacks will help this.

My hopes and expectations are always much higher than they should be, it helps to aid my general grumpiness towards the end of the season. Strangely I tend to be more confident about the tougher games and less confident against the easier teams.

But I was hoping for/expecting a top 6 finish and a creditable Cup run.
I wasn't expecting so much time being put in by younger players, but after reading up on Gentle was suspecting that they would get improved game time. Should really have seen it coming.

Now the regular season is over I'm reasonably happy. The season has been the usual roller coaster ride of exhilaration and horror. Thankfully I'm all but immune to it now, thirty plus years of attending games has seen to that.
The Coach is everything that was promised.
The "problem" players have stepped up and done a job.
The youth has stepped up even further and have seldom looked out of place.
My heart has been in my throat sometimes, but I'd rather that than have it having dropped so low it feels like it'll not come back up again.

Or keeping out 200 less