Discussed a few times this year I am sure but .....

Are you enjoying this season so far ?

I am feeling a bit indifferent about the results this season, could be a hangover from the Grand Final last year ?
I am not getting that excitement before matches now and results although good to win don't seem to worry me as much as long as we come good or close at the end of the season ........

Does Super league need a shake up ?

It seems that people just turn up for the matches and go straight home. there's no pre-match build up in the pubs anymore. Atmosphere at home games if dead. most probably because they've not had a drink so aren't feeling as merry I don't know. All I do know is that looking at the crowds on TV, when you are there or in my case today listening on the radio. The game sound boring due to lack of atmosphere. How are we supposed to attract new fans like that?

Everyone is thinking about 2011 when we were smashing teams aside and putting 60+ past them. we've slowed down a bit and that 'champagne' rugby we were playing, that attracted those new fans to the HJ, They can't understand why we're playing like . When in actual fact... compare this team to pre Tony Smith and we look like the dogs doo-dahs.

I will admit that superleague needs looking at though. too many teams now are just thinking about coasting all season until play off time. And who's to blame them? its not their fault they're playing to win at the end of the season. Those in charge need to take a hard look and think about bringing back promotion and relegation because too many teams have nothing to play for, nothing to keep them fighting.

I don't think we have slowed down by choice. Since 2011 it seems to have been the rfl's aim to slow the game down and reduce the number of big defeats in the league. Certainly the game is slower now with players allowed to lie on.

Could be down to the weather.

Blaming the system is avoiding the point.

The truth is the quality of Super League is not what it was a few years ago, especially at the top.

The top teams today (Wigan, us, Hudds, Leeds etc) would all have got comfortably beaten by the top teams of the mid 2000s. Us and Hudds are nowhere near as good as the Saints and Bradford sides of old, and Wigan and Leeds are not as good as their counterparts from then either. That Wigan team that never won SL but had players like Lam, Farrell, Dallas, Craig Smith, Newton in it would have run away at the top of the league these days and smashed the current Wigan team.
In fact John Kear's Hull team with Swain, Kearney, Blacklock, Richie Barnett and co in it would have been real contenders if they were around today.

Now we have a lot of much of a muchness teams with a shortage of real quality players.

The NRL has a top 8 system and no relegation. Nobody says that it is a boring competition with meaningless games, the sponsors are queuing up to put money into that.

I'm not enjoying this season because every game has been freezing and we've nowhere near lived up to our billing as competition favourites so far.

If we can put a run of wins together - incorporating some of the bigger games we've got on the horizon like Huddersfield away and Saints in Manchester - and that also coincides with a dramatic improvement in the weather as well, then I'll start enjoying it a lot more.

As things stand we look like a team starting to decline before we've lifted that desperately coveted Super League trophy, and for some of us that's a very painful thought.

I to am feeling a bit flat this year. The champagne rugby is no more, we are a team struggling to fine form.

It is, in my view, a very valid point to question the structure of the league. As discussed on a number of occasions elsewhere, teams are seemingly more focussed on the end of season and perhaps timing their peaks to the coincide with the play-offs.

I'll day it again, this is a very similar pattern to last year and apart from losing to St H in week 1 of Play Offs and the major disappointment if the GF, last year was great. I think knowing we will probably be there or thereabouts again makes this part of the season less exciting. even if it was FPTP, the London game and today's would not have been top games. I still enjoy seeing how we develop over the season though - will Currie kick on? Will Riley and Atkins have a purple patch soon? Where is Westwood's Mojo? Have we seen the best of MMonas or can he give us one last hurrah at the GF? etc etc

I'll day it again, this is a very similar pattern to last year and apart from losing to St H in week 1 of Play Offs and the major disappointment if the GF, last year was great. I think knowing we will probably be there or thereabouts again makes this part of the season less exciting. even if it was FPTP, the London game and today's would not have been top games. I still enjoy seeing how we develop over the season though - will Currie kick on? Will Riley and Atkins have a purple patch soon? Where is Westwood's Mojo? Have we seen the best of MMonas or can he give us one last hurrah at the GF? etc etc

Must we really go through this every time we have an 'ugly' game? Deary me, we are in for a long season, followed by two months of special RLWC gloom and doom!

I just worry that come august/september the team will be under immense pressure to suddenly 'click' in time for the playoffs and revert to 2011-12 style of play. some kind of form needs to be built up and missing key players for so long, scraping wins etc isn't the best way to build form. Suppose we can only wait and see what happens!

It's an interesting time to be a Wire supporter either way and it's not as if we're miles away from finding form!

There is plenty of time for that. When you look back at this time last year we really weren't much different, and that was with Briers and Morley fit. I don't think we really got going until the trip to Perpignan in the Cup from what I can remember.

I ALWAYS enjoy my RL. It's the greatest sport in the world.

On the point closer to home, we've only played well a few times this seasons, and they've been sporadic halves, or even 20 minute spells.

Is Mr Smith doing a Leeds, and letting his side "go through the motions" until round 27? If he is, he's playing a dangerous game. I don't fancy an away game for the team, when the going gets tough. We don't seem as mentally strong as we did a couple of years back.

The game as a whole....yes

Rugby League is in a lot of trouble. Numbers participating at junior and youth levels have tumbled and there appears to be apathy about the professional game. Not entirely sure how the game can be boosted though, complex issues.

Funny this because the general consensus on this board after the last couple of seasons was that we should be getting the losses in our belt earlier in the season and taking it easy before picking it up at the end, as thats what Leeds had taught us.

After the 2011 and 2012 Grand Final that was the talk on here - its no good being the best all year then falling short.

If we were running ahead clear at the top of the league thats what would be being said now as well.

So really we are getting the season we want - and are still not happy.

Also we have been getting to see young local lads in the team which is also what the fans want, why should we always just go for pension hunting mercenaries from Aus....much better to give lads like O'Brien, Evans, Williams a shot.

The fans want Williams ? Yeah....right.

Does anyone truly believe a team goes out without wanting to win and do their best EVERY week??

Finally! Someone speaks sense. It is a bit like the claim we here every year that Aussies "don't care" about winning the World Championship. Morley says in his book this is rubbish.

There's caring and there's caring.

Last August we played London and Leeds in consecutive weeks, the Leeds game was at Wembley. I'm sure the players, coaches and fans all wanted to win both games. But maybe we were less bothered about one than the other.

Enjoying it? Yes i guess so but it's not met my expectations since the Wigan friendly.

I thought this year we were going to look invincible, me just look ok at the moment but i'll only really start to worry about form in August.

I will start to fully enjoy it once Briers is back