There are still areas for improvement but it has been up there with the best despite the disappointments.

The bad

Inconsistency and some big scorelines against. I know you can't win them all but conceding 40 or 50 points in a game is not on.
Home form - its hardly fortress KC at the moment. I felt more confident when they played away and that really shouldn't happen. What's more poor shows at home are not going to help attendances grow.

The good

The cup of course - what Wembley hoodoo?
Maintaining the standard set in the previous season, Wigan & Warrington couldn't do it, Warrington spectacularly so. Its important that this revival in fortune keeps on track, too many times in the last 30 years we have seen an upturn fizzle out rapidly.
Signs that the team can win without Ellis (though he will be a huge loss).

Overall its been good, perhaps not quite as good as 2016 because it was that elusive first Wembley then and it had the added bonus of the MPG to keep the joy going but I can't say I'm disappointed.

I realise next year will again be a tough job and I won't go in with any expectations of silverware but the team is in decent shape and as long as the spirit and effort is maintained there are at least realistic hopes of some good days.

Our expectations have risen because of the CC wins, because we have a great squad of players, because we are passionate and want to win and when we get a sniff we do feel disappointed when we don't get everything we want. I think we've had a good season, with the squad we have, one that is even better than last seasons, there should be an expectation to be in it for silverware at the pointy end.

Connor has being a revelation, Kelly has being at times sublime, Sneyd has proven his doubters wrong and has improved IMHO, young players like Fash have come through to show they are worthy of a place in the 17 and some performances were absolutely top drawer against the top sides in the league (Cas in the CC and home league game plus Leeds in CC)
Radford has learnt that rotating players is an absolute must, injury or not, that was what cost us last year ultimately, that and the post wembley headache, he changed that this year and acknowledged early on (In the pre-season friendlies) that he needed to involve the younger squad players more and trust to them.
At times in attack we've looked fantastic, at time in defence we've being brutal.

So, all that said, why have we been so far off the pace of Cas and massively inconsistent? Too often our discipline has let us down, too often the mental preparation seems nonexistent, too often we put in really poor performances especially at home, not because we don't have the ability or personnel, but because we didn't turn up or just lapsed for long periods. That is as much down to the coach as it is the players.

Too often our line speed in defence is shockingly slow, too often we are missing tackles (worst in the league for it by a big margin), too often giving away posession, we made the 3rd highest amount of tackles, only just behind salford and saints), we made too many errors, 2nd only to Saints. Too often we look short of ideas in the 20m and are relying on a kick, we were very low down in the tries scored dept (7th I think) and Sneyd's goalkicking has won us a heck of a lot of games. catalans are the only other side to kick more goals than tries scored (just one in their case).

Given everything and how we were going to push on and with a better rounded squad than last year I think its a 7.5/10 season, as I said though, our expectations are higher now so if we had gone from doing nothing to winning the CC and being so close to getting the league leaders and GF appearance like last year then that score would be higher..
Some things are very good, some aspects have improved but there are still the same problems rearing their head that means the difference between being CC winners and 3rd place to being at the top table for both.

You still can’t give Radford any credit, can you. If you’ve got a season pass I’ll buy it off you and get crowd funding to put a wilted pot plant in your seat.

My problem with this years FC side is its a good team but its not an amazing team and that is why we can only realistically mount one challenge and that was the CC. Ill get shot down but it would of been better to go out of the CC to say Cas then we could of concentrated on winning the GF with 100% focus

I never liked Pearson crowing from the rooftops (or city hall balcony) that this team wants to win the GF which of course unrealistically lifted fans expectations beyond what the squad is capable of. Yes want it but dont be shouting your mouth off about it

I've said the same regards next season . Think it will benefit us if we can go out at the first opportunity so we can concentrate on the league position and grand final .

If I could have one thing next season it would be that the class of 2018 become the first FC team to really make the KCOM a fortress and that we win almost if not all our games there. I don't know how we do it but a team with such passion and tenacity should make their home a 'hell house' that teams don't want to come to. Instead I have the opinion at times that teams like to come and play there.

The first paragraph I can agree with, the second not.
What was Pearson supposed to say. 'Thanks for coming everyone, but the lads have put the cues on the rack and we won't be trying to win the GF'.

He said what everyone wanted to hear, that we were going to give it a shot, and we did, and came within a whisker of making it to OT.

IMO an 8 out of 10 for me, and I hope next year that we do as you say.

All of that and then some...
The home form was terrible..even the games we won aren't great viewing mostly. Ground out wins with a squad on paper in the top 2 before seasons start
We got points early on whilst riding our luck..played hudds with 9 out..played Wigan with even more out..played wire who were utterly terrible at the time (still dropped a point. Then we got nearly 120 put on us at home v Salford n Leeds. 45.0 at magic. 40odd by hudds at home
Saw a season best 6 performances on our season review on something. Had cas other week with 9 out and Wigan at home when they had loads out. So it's fair to say we're struggling to pick out more than 4 top games performance wise. Our size..superior squad to most and sneyds kicking got us out of jail many games
Our stat not long ago was we'd conceded more tries than scored. A terrible stat for a 3rd placed team tbh.
People saying improved attack. Barring a maverick in the middle in Kelly not much else has changed. His individual efforts have added a little more. If teams really work on nullifying our kick threat for tries we'll be bang in trouble.
Which brings me to the problem. Shaul has been great to watch at times. But lack of ball in hand threat is killing us. Utterly killing us. 4 try assists all year. Rankin has 9 already. Yes that's not his game. But that's not good enough in this age. He scores some worldies..but they tend to come in games we're well winning. In big matches that need a game breaker they're rare. Scored 2 in games We've lost this year I think. Rest in games We've won and drained the opposition and tired them out. With a fullback who could link and pass our wings would have 5 a piece more minimum
Last week our forwards didn't dominate so sneyd struggled..so Leeds got Kelly extra attention. That's it. Kicks to Connor out in the centre was our only outlet
2016 and 2017 are missed opportunities. This is a good good team at its best and it should be lifting the trophy on saturday
Next year people are saying extra pivot at 13. Nearest I see that is watts or Hadley. We don't play that way to carry a pivot. We play off being dominant. Kelly can make a fist of it if not but sneyd is redundant if not
I look around I see so much potential in the teams around us to improve
If Barba stays and combined with new coach having an off-season in saints be really strong
Wigan will be unlucky to have as many injuries. Plus wane be gone by Easter if they don't buck up
Wire right back in the mix next year by time they've completed recruitment. Masila and Currie alone would've won them a few more this year
Leeds are Leeds. Who'd have said they'd be in GF at seasons start
We don't add some new stuff and find our home form we'll miss the 4. If we'd not had fortune of Cas in last game and them resting most of the team we could of easily missed this
Now that's all a bit doom and gloom. But I'm just been honest. Check my posts back. I was saying a lot of this 5 months ago
It still hasn't sunk in we've won the cup back to back (at Wembley) which is amazing. But can a season be measured by 3 or 4 cup games a year?
I'd still say it's been a successful year in the most part. But this team was a good team on a mega foundation from the year before. So it's part success part under achievement
Sorry to be so negative but I truly believed we were going there Saturday and I've seen us at our best v both who are there and our best beats theirs!

nowt like being positive

Are you simply incapable of reading, I've given Radford plenty of recognition/credit in what i wrote

The company I work for in Melbourne is HostPlus
We sponsor Storm
Had the chance to hear a corporate speak from
Frank Possini and the Storm CEO
They said that after they lost to the Sharks last year they had a 2 day
forum with the players and went through every inch of why they lost
and more importantly what needed to change
They left nothing uncovered including refusing to take part in coming to the UK to play FC
You saw the result - relentless drive to win the GF

I emailed Adam and explained most of what I'd heard and top bloke
AP is he was very interested

Lee R is currently compiling a season review

I would include the players if he isn't already

Get all the negatives out on the table - ALL of it

It may be that they train too hard ?
Attacking patterns that some key players only agree 70% with
Storm brought in an incredible attacking coach

In fact Storm change asst coaches regularly bringing in new
Ideas and enthusiasm

There are many things that lead to
GF success and I hope we have some sort of full on dossier with lots of player input that helps us to GF success

Season for me - 9/10 as I love the CC

The attack isn't anywhere near good enough. Only 7th highest try scorers in SL, and that is effectively out of the 8 who played in the top 8's.

Add in highest number of missed tackles (160 more than cas), 2nd highest number of errors, highest number of penalties conceded ( in the top 8's), highest number of yellow cards ( in the top 8's) and highest number of red cards in the comp and it's easy to see where we've fallen down. With some improvement in our attack - I've said for some time we need a specialist attack coach, better discipline and mental approach/toughness we should be there or thereabouts next year. If we don't improve in these areas we won't be top 4 nest season

amen to that!

The reason why SL is poor to watch (officials aside) is because it's a slug fest, the majority of the top sides are coached by former forwards, and it shows. The game is in decline because of this, and unless it changes it will continue to slip even further behind RU.

You only need to read the press in Aus about how Storm revitalised their attack
They brought in a new guy and he's turned them totally around