Lesson 1: Recruit as the season reaches the business end ( ala Leigh)
Lesson 2: Pay your players on time (ala not Bradford)

That is all.

the first think that jumps out at me is the amount of experience pro's on both teams. We seem to be taking a very different approach.

Not a bad leigh team but I think I'm right in saying 8 of that team didn't play against Huddersfield in the qualifiers in the game we won promotion.

It might just be we have the best coach at the moment if we had had him earlier we might not have been in this position I know its done but we made to many mistakes in the last 3 seasons time I think to put it right

Line ups mean nothing MR. If they did, Leeds Rhinos would have won every game last year and we would have hammered Oldham in the cup.

Based on personal experience, I think that coaching, mindset, desire, skill, confidence and luck are the key variables for CONSISTENT success in any team sport.

The one thing I don't understand is why we didn't get sheens in straight after we sacked Chester if he had a clause in his contract that he could leave if a head coaches position came up

Leigh's side in that game isn't great, I reckon your side will be better than that. But they built momentum and then signed 3/4 good players to push them home.

Leigh recruited a very experienced & battle hardened squad. They could probably have fielded a full team with more SL or NRL appearances than Campese. Deep pockets needed to follow that model.

Our first attempt at trying to gain promotion started off like a house on fire. We built our team around a young and exciting, unpredictable back line that ran up the points and excited the fans. We took a few SL scalps along the way in the challenge cup. As we approached the middle 8's we started to pick up a few injuries and SL sides had worked out how to stifle our backs and dominate our pack. Both our coach and owner would, throughout the season, belittle our opposition and alienate the club with the RFL and in the media with outlandish statements.

Year two, we appeared to have learned from our mistakes at all levels within the club. By chance the previous arrogant coach had been poached by the Canadian club and we were presented with the opportunity to rebuild from roots to tips. Our owner embraced the RFL and built bridges with opposition directors and the media. Our assistant coach was promoted to head coach and he quickly built an experienced pack that would go on to dominate the league. The style of play was changed to be forward dominated, possession domination style, completing sets and pressurising the oppositions red zone. The season was treated as a "pre-season" to practice the Super League style of play. We regularly rotated the squad to ensure that any player could step in and wouldn't be Afraid of dropping an out of form star player. More than anything we built up a team that saw themselves as a SL side in waiting. They believed that they should be playing rugby at the top table and went for it. Players that decided that they couldn't take the risk of fighting for a chance of Super League rugby with Leigh were quickly replaced by superior players who were prepared to give it a go. It didn't matter that it was June/July, if you were looking to get a contract elsewhere for the following season you were dumped out of the squad and replaced by someone who was prepared to fight to get the club a Super League place. (Make sure you keep enough space on the cap to do this!).

All in all, build a Super League pack from day one, don't get involved in the Championship spoiling tactics, keep building your squad throughout the season and ensure that your fan base believes in what you are doing. The championship is an enjoyable comp, give it the respect it deserves and enjoy the ride!

and replace you next year (only kidding)

Long post, but very insightful and articulate. Many thanks.

I like the "lesson learnt from the failures of the season before" mantra. Let's hope the same lightning strikes twice.

Need to learn from your own clubs mistakes first& never sign a squad like last years if you ever get back in SL.

On paper the backs were pretty good just our half backs were injured or bother it was the pack that let us down really but if the halves had played all season we'd have probably still been in SL

We probably would be....having already signed Addy, Scruton and Clark for next years SL..., food for thought when we are been asked to pay SL money to watch pretty far from SL rugby.

I know optimism is the buzz but the club really do not seem to have learned anything at all. Its just carry on as before and hopefully nobody will notice we are playing Rochdale , Oldham and Swinton...

Unless there is a massive sea change, years of struggle await should we be even able to get back up.

And lets not mention the academy decision...Pearson certainly ran rings round us on that one...