I get your point but I'm not sure the analogy holds firm as Hudds only spent 1 week at 2nd in the league (after the 1st game), and had occupied places as low as 9th. Whereas, I think I am right in saying, we have held 2nd or better for 13 weeks.

Good point.

check my sig :-p

I think you are reading too much into it. It was a comment in a post-match interview when he has to come up with something to say.

and who knows what the question was that he was asked, thats why he's responded mentioning 'contenders'.

I'd say its certainly out of character of tony to even mention or acknowledge such a situation or the club to be in the position.

Very much the cliched one game at a time bloke.

[urlhttp://www.warringtonwolves.org/tv/?v=99[/url

Its in there and that "contenders" was only a snip of what he said.

on the original question. If we maintain our form towards the back end of the season, we're gonna have to knock one or two off to pick up the SL trophy.

Would it be so bad if we didnt win the GF OR CC this year.I see this season as more of laying the foundations to being a sucessful team over a number of years.One area i think we need to look at is a ball playing 2nd rower, Westwood and LAnderson good at what they do.Just seem to be lacking that little bit extra.

No, not so bad. We haven't won the league since 1954 so we can cope. I'd like us to trouble the semis though, as surely Leeds, Saints and Wigan will. We have no divine right to beat any of them but at least be on the same page.

I'd have Westwood as one of the first names on the team sheet for workload alone, but agree we could change Louis, and improve, with a more skillful ball playing 2nd rower. Imagine if we could get a "Solomana effect" for the 2nd row who could last the whole 80.

So. It still knocks you out the play offs or loses you the final if you lose by 2 or 10. The fact is when pitched against genuine title contenders you have been done each time.

In matches way before the business end of the season. God knows what will happen in the return fixtures or in the play offs. Let's enjoy it, eh?

And?

Its not play off time yet

Indeed.

2nd in the league and better still to come.

We heard all this crap last year in the CC you won't beat Wigan....blah blah you won't beat Hudds blah blah

Really the media and the outsiders are the realists, its our own fans who thought we were going to win a trophy this year who were the fantasists, and thats why at the end of the season, despite us having a very good season and made stacks of improvement, the mood will start to shift slightly against Tony Smith, because he hasn't delivered what the fans expected.

After we are knocked out of the playoffs, look for the threads on here about "where Smith got it wrong". Then midway through next season wait for the "is it time to get somebody to take us to the next level" thread. At the moment we are a bit like where Spurs were under Martin Jol, consistent against the teams below but coming up short against teams who have been at the top for years. Spurs made a change to take them to the next level (Juande Ramos).

lets just keep quiet and let everybody ignore us. and bob along just under the radar happy days

Tosh. 2003 we beat all the teams below us and fell short.

We are different now. We bounce back well from defeats. We look solid for 90% of the time on the field. We have coped with losing Carvell and for shorter periods other players. You can't know how we will react to the pressure later in the season. The really big games (i.e. not round 14 of the league) which were QF, SF and Wembley last year, we played fantastically well. That QF was one special match.

That's BS sally. Unfounded speculation. Heard it all last year from you when you were telling us we could not win the CC.

I'm not predicting we will win anything by the way. However, I do think we have a good chance.

As the saying goes you have got to be in it to win it and we are still in it

In Smith We Trust? Come on.

Being a wigan fan wire saints leeds and wigan could win both trophies they are all good enough to beat each other on the day .So i for one aint writing any of them off.

Sometimes I wonder if Sally watches Warrington live.

I'm not saying we are a bad side and I'm not denying we are a long way ahead of where we have been at any point before in the SL era (including 2005). My estimations of where we are is top 4, possibly top 3 finish, but we won't win Super League this year. I just think it is a bit too big a step for us to take from where we were, to being able to win SL. Regarding the Challenge Cup a good draw again and we will be contenders but I feel that if we play Saints or Leeds when it counts, they will still have enough to get over the line against us. I would put Wigan in teh same category (ie they won't win this year either). It may be that we are starting to see a shift in the balance of power away from Saints-Leeds towards Wire-Wigan, but it will be in the next couple of years rather than this year.

Wires71 if you're so confident why not put your money where your mouth is like Paul Youane would. You win if we win any of minor premiership, Super League or Challenge Cup, I win if we don't. Suggest your stake?

I'm not afraid of a wager and I have one already for this season with Burnzy wire on relative performance of Wigan and Wire.

I'm not confident we will win anything but I live in a world where I'd rather believe in the potential for Warrington, you seem to err on the side of negative in a sort of "told you so" sort of way. The last time you "told us so" about the CC you were flat wrong.

Having said that I'll back my team I've watched for 31 years against any stake you care to muster at appropriate odds. How about a £1,000 3:1 on Warrington making a semi?

who does this tool support..take it its a scouse or toss pot wiganer