Cant really argue with that. I don't think we will win a trophy this season (hope I am wrong). Back to back challenge cups was lovely.... I think the next few seasons could well be a bit of a transitional phase for this team.... good young players coming through.. key players at the ends of their careers... with a few nice Smith signings thrown in for good measure..

As long as we have a good play off run and hopefully a day out to Wembley or OT thatl do me. A final, one or the other, id settle for. A trophy is a bonus.

Also, the biggest factor for all teams this year is going to be injuries. Between us, Leeds, Saints, Wigan and possibly Huddersfield theres not much to choose from. Keeping the key men on the field will be the deciding point. Saints without Roby and Wellens, Wigan without the Tomkins' brothers and Leeds without Sinfield/Buderus will struggle.

Us without Monas / Briers IMO were knackered. If all teams keep those key players fit, then all have a shout at winning it.

See my sig - give the effort and I'm happy.

Most fans would class a season without silverware as a failure, but as long as we compete well in SL
and defend the Challenge Cup to the best of the sides ability we can't ask for much more. Think we could well reach Wembley again and I'd be happy with a top 4 finish into the play offs. TS will undoubtably have the players better prepared then last year come the play offs.

Agreed, the first paragraph I've mentioned before and wouldn't mind if the latter happened.

Semi Final of the CC and a Top 4 finish, ill be happy with.

Well it is crazy not to care about the Challenge Cup. There are only two trophies on offer and a maximum of two teams that will win them. The moment you are out of the CC it becomes very difficult to win a trophy and I don't think it enhances your chances of winning Super League.

If you hedge everything on the playoffs and have one bad day then thats it, season wasted. Back to the old days of "always next year"

For me my no.1 hope for us this season is that we win the Challenge Cup again - 3 in a row would be a special achievement. A Grand Final appearance doesn't really mean anything if we don't win it, it's not like we can say ooh look now we know how to make major finals, we've been in two the last two years anyway.

But overall I think there's a fair chance that our season will end up trophyless but as long as we look credible, play some good rugby along the way I will still be happy, it will be a lot better than we had under Cullen and Van de Velde. Regarding the league with us having injuries I can see us losing ground early in the season so don't think we will be credible contenders for the minor premiership, but we should make the playoffs, so if we do end up getting knocked out of the Challenge Cup we might slip under the radar a bit, everyone will do their mid season analysis on how we are getting old and past our best and need to go into a rebuilding phase, so we might sneak quietly into the playoffs with everyone talking about Wigan and Saints and then be an awkward team to face once in there.

I would be happy if we just managed to beat Saint Helens this year!

Every effort should be put into us winning the Challenge cup again.

Just as a matter of interest, who were United playing, Sorry but I coudn't resist. Good luck for the season ahead.

We should be finishing in the top four challenging for 1st place and we need to put a good showing in the playoffs this year then next season i think we will have a good chance of winning the grand final.

As far as the Challenge Cup is concerned, just as long as we are knocked off our throne by a worthy opponent, then I'm not bothered what round we go out in, though a 3rd win would be even better!!

As for the league, I just want us to remain competitive with the Wigan's & Leeds's of this world and by the time the play offs come around, we manage to mount a proper challenge, unlike last year, when we ran out of steam.

I just hope that if things don't go as well as last year, that the fickle among the crowd don't forget just how bad times were before Tony Smith arrived....Its always a worry that a few people will start to expect a trophy a year and if it doesn't happen, will start to make muppets of themselves and the sensible majority.

Personally, only a Grand Final appearance would be a good season for me.
I know how mad that seems considering 2 years ago a CC semi appearance and top six finish would have been a good season.
But with the squad and Coach we now have only OT will suffice.

So if we fail to reach your target, would you then question TS's position at the club?

The cup all depends on the draw, as we all know. If we get a tough draw early on, and get beat by the better team on the day, I'll have no complaints - having said that, I'd dearly love Wire to three-peat



As far as the league goes, 3rd place should be the minimum target, I'd venture.

Have some people become that deluded that they are actually de-valuing the challenge cup? The cup that everyone had euphoria about when we broke our 34 year duck in the competition? It beggers belief, it really does.

Real Madrid would.

Do you think a manager would have lasted this long at Real if all he had delivered was a couple of Spanish cups?

Don't forget there's a coach out of work who has won 3 SL Grand Finals.

oh dear I think my master plan for the season was actually taken up by Leeds

I wrote this after we had got beaten by Huddersfield and King got injured in game 1 and I never thought at that point we would finish up as league winners

As contradictory as this sounds, I would surmise our season thus; a good one, if, ultimately unsuccessful. I really didn't see us securing top spot, which puts the consistency issue to bed. Enjoyable, despite the lack of pots.

I said that only a O/T appearance would suffice, well now that I have got the benefit of hindsight I think that this season has been a terrific success.

I say this not only because we have broken records and had the best attack and defence topped by being the League Champions. Also the RL we have played has been wonderful and a delight to watch.

We have beaten every single team in Super League, totally rid ourselves of the Saints hoodoo and beaten last years Champions home and away. We played badly in four games and lost them all.

In the most important game of our HJ history our key players in Monas M, Brett, Richie and Lee played no where near the level that they have all year, this for me was the reason why we didn't reach O/T, if our players had played the way we all know they can then we would undoubtedly be in the G/F.

I also think this season has been a terrific success, I would have felt a lot of frustration about being trophyless had we not won the Challenge Cup in 2009 and 2010, but that has satisfied me for now, and we won the league which feels like a major achievement to me. Now only one more thing to hope for, the Grand Final win. I actually don't mind the fact we have still got something to be hungry for, some of the excitement of watching Wire would go for me once we have won the things I've never seen us win.

Agreed. I think Friday night's result will be motivation enough for next season's quest for a grand final win.

We've been a joy to watch all season, finished top of the league and relinquished the Challenge Cup to the eventual winners (mainly due to our worst 20 minutes of the season). I'd say it was a success.

Make no mistake, this season is a HUGE success. WE WON THE LEAGUE, FFS.....something we've not done for nearly 40 years. This season has been epic.

Last season (at times), we flattered to deceive.
This season, we've looked the real deal. OK, we lost some close matches, but hey-ho, we're clearly not invincible. We've achieved the double over ALL 4, of Sky's original BIG 4....in 6 of those games, we've "torn the oppostion a new one", and in one of the others, we "took the foot off the gas, but still won (Stains, away)".

Re the play-offs.....OK, we all knew the perameters for success in this comp, and we've failed. But I don't buy this "big game bottlers" tag, which some numpties have given us, since Friday night. Only a year ago, we pummelled a SL powerhouse at Wembley...how was that not a big game....and how quickly some forget that day.
I've not seen Friday's game yet (I was working at the time, and want my disappointment to have gone, before I view the game), BUT, we lost by two points, to a team who have been schooled in the art of winning big play-off games, for the best part of a decade...we haven't been used to that end of season intensity.....yet.

Next season, we have some new players to adorn our squad. I'll reserve judgement on Ratchford...I'm not overly confident in him, but, he'll get my support.
My only worry for us, is back-up hooker. IMO, Higham has been living on past glories, when he was Cunningham's understudy When MonaghanM goes off the pitch next year, I fear for our direction around the pitch.....imo, Higham is not the answer, unless we go to a half back partnership of Myler and Ratchford (fingers crossed he 'hits the ground running'), and we switch Briers to 'acting half at the play the ball', whenever MonaghanM is off the pitch.

2012, the year of the Wolves? it could well be.....here's hoping.

The real big game bottlers are Leeds and Saints.

Leeds have lost Challenge Cup finals in 2000, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2011.
Saints have lost Grand Finals in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010.

These teams just don't have the ability to deal with the pressure of everything being on the line in a final. Warrington have been in two finals in recent years and we won easily in both.

Mixed in with all the dissapoiontment of Friday night, there was also a hint of "phheeewww! Smith will stick around a bit longer now."