He's a Leeds fan, I believe....



Though if you are referring to Saints, I agree, theirs has been one of the longest transitional periods in sporting history.

Yeah, we won the grand final 3 times.

We will be stronger next year. People need to stop crying and whinging.

For what it's worth, I'm gutted.

Predicted 4th at ther start of the year, and then after 5 games thought we'd be lucky to be serious challengers at any comp.
Several were talking about relegation after 5 matches and saying loads of bull about Smith doesn't coach any attacking play, the wingers don't do any sprint training etc etc

First half defensive display was awesome (was it 4 sets on the bounce we had to defend?)
Fair play to Wigan - they had a stranglehold on the first half - and when we did get the ball we didn't complete enough. So at 8-4 I was relieved.
The 2nd half was far more even.
We had chances but going for drop goals on the 3rd was frustrating for me.
But in the end we still lost - at the fine margins.

I don't want this to sound as sour grapes but I really don't like the way Wigan play the 'holding down' game and '3rd man in the tackle' game, but if the refs don't police it, is this what our game is going to become? You can't blame any team for getting away with as much as they can, but is it in the spirit of the game?
I truly hope not. It's not one I'd like to see.
I'm full of admiration for their 'blitzkreig' type attack - with lots of players forming 3 lines when attacking. Really impressive.
But then there's the 'high shots' which the refs don't blow for. How many times was Myler hit? And hit late?
10 meters verses 8?

I'll watch the match tomorrow on the Beeb and hope I'm wrong about some of this.
Others have said the ref made the right decisions for the big calls - that's as maybe but the general feeling I've got is one of frustration at the way the game was allowed to be played.

I think as far as the drop goals are concerned we lost our expert before the season started .Lee Briers was used to taking shots at goal in pressure situations ,but the lads last night looked as if they were not prepared at all for having to settle a match with a drop goal so maybe that should be worked on for the future.

This is where you lost any credibility my friend.

After the first few rounds I would have settled for mid table, it was looking like a complete shambles with nobody quite sure who was going to fit where and our new big star prop was useless leaving our pack almost totally reliant on Hilly and Ben for any kind of go forward. Together with the weekly who the heck is playing 6 and 7 this week conundrum it looked bleak.

What we have seen is a team grow in a stuttering fashion with pieces now seemingly starting to fall into place and things settle down a bit. In amongst all this uncertainty we very very nearly got to a GF final. Yes the competition hasn't been the greatest standard this year but early doors I was just wanting to get this season out of the way and build for the future.

The team has surpassed itself in my view all things considered, well done to the boys

The thing that us Rhinos fans can do is say that whilst our side was at their peak was that they delivered the biggest prize on offer,and on numerous occasions too

Warringtons best ever squads in SL have clearly failed this objective would you not agree?

The Rhino's will surely have to go through their transitional period without a doubt and maybe wont win a GF for quite a while,But who's to say that the Wolves will either during our barren spell?

I'll take solace in our 6 GF wins and 3 WCC success' to date and ask you to match us any time soon

I'll take solace in our 6 GF wins and 3 WCC success' to date and ask you to match us any time soon'"

Numerous CC finals. Finally winning one this year. Let me know when the wolves finally get over their hoodoo.

Always your year.

History is great, it can never be changed, but you see the future is yours to shape, ask yourself...who is at the potters wheel?

Apparently it's only "your year" if you win the Grand Final.

a Wheeler!

Unfortunately that song will stick with is because win it or not..for the last 6 years we've made our own bed.
Since we flashed the cash from Morley onwards we've given a statement and completely bummed it in the GF and play offs.
But don't get me wrong, I'd listen to the same always your year for another 6 years if I had a choice between a GF or another 3 CC wins.
Wembley always for me.

Almost Churchillian, and far better than your usual efforts.

In the early days of the campaign, when we floundering somewhat, I suggested that the club hadn't managed the transition from being a team reliant on it's older players to one reliant on younger players too well. My view was that the club had been caught with it's pants down a little and been forced to blood too many, too young, too soon.

Was I wrong? The development of B.Evans, R.Evans and Laithwaite plus the development of England suggests I may have been, but what is certain is that our transitional period is going to continue in 2015, and beyond, and the club need to plan on that basis, [inow[/i.

Westwood, J.Monas, Grix, Asotasi, Higham, Bridge & Atkins are, in varying degrees, now at or beyond their peak and the sands of time are trickling ever faster through the hourglass. We need to start planning exit strategies for these immediately and bringing the next Ben Evans, James Laithwaite into the setup immediately.

2014 wasn't our transitional season. It was the beginning of our transition, and we've made mistakes, we've recorded notable successes and we need to learn from it and continue to move forward apace.

Still doesn't beat your record , 1955 and counting ..

All successful clubs are constantly going through transition but it only gets talked about as "transitional season" when there's a dip in form from the previous one. Ideally you want to avoid the situation where multiple key players retire at once but sometimes it can't be helped because you've had a generation of key players all around the same age and you don't want to move them all out prematurely because they are still class acts, and if you do it will get resentment. See the Chelsea situation where they brought in Andre Villas-Boas to manage the transition and move players on, he quickly got the senior players backs up and they rebelled against him because they felt they still had success in them, and they were right, under Di Matteo they won the Champions League. Now Mourinho has managed that actual transition perfectly by steadily bringing players in so the old guard can leave more on their terms and look how they are flying. It's not as easy in rugby league because of the salary cap, so you need to manage it through new signings coming in at the point they are exactly needed and not before. Hence Daryl Clark coming now rather than last season - it wouldn't have been a good use of salary cap to have Clark competing with Higham as second fiddle to Monaghan.

The other point with the age of players is 'building for the future' is pointless unless you are actually maintaining a level of success now: you will just develop players to be signed by other clubs, as happened to Arsenal for much of the past 6 or 7 years. If we brought through a golden crop of youngsters but were not in the mix for trophies then when their contracts were up we would face a real struggle holding off the NRL or Leeds/Wigan, just like we couldn't stop Harris and Sculthorpe leaving. So sometimes some older players are useful signings too, if you don't have a quality youngster available in a key position for the here and now, signing a quality 30 year old might give you 2 years of certainty and the situation may be different 2 years down the line, whereas going with an unknown quantity might leave you with a substandard player and no hiding place.

You'll be the first in the queue then, to congratulate the Wire when they do finally win another championship?

Oh, sorry, that's not the way we do things in England, we prefer hubris.

Compare and contrast with how the pundits greeted Rabittohs first win in 43 years this morning.

Id've been cheering you on next week if you'd have won on Friday

According to your board your lot are planning to bring a banner to our place to poke fun next season.
So I doubt any Wiganer would cheer us on.

Yes, a nice anniversary banner, how very kind of them

Indeed and they say other clubs are obsessed with them..

We should be flattered I guess

against saints???