I'm not going to start saying my dad's bigger than yours or that one 'decent' season is either the sign of an up turn in fortunes or just a flash in the pan. What I will say is the general feeling is one of positivity and for once in a while I'm actually enjoying watching RL, even when we've lost games we've generally played good on the eye entertaining rugby. In a post(ish) covid world I think that could be a crucial factor in pass sales next year.

The fact we lost games to Covid when we did did us little favours, we were playing well and on a winning run and then we had the compounded effect of us getting covid and losing 2 games and then I think it was the 4 next games cancelled due to other teams getting covid on top of that. We replayed the Cats away game so in effect we only cancelled one game due to ourselves. The reluctance of teams to then fulfil a fixture after that was something the RFL should have addressed, there certainly seemed little appetite for any team to try and push it though.

I do think Hull threw the kitchen sink at our 'cup final' and that seems to have had a detrimental effect on the season for you lot. I'm not sure how many players were rushed back for that game but going from barely being able to raise a team to being as near as full strength in a week was some feat, typical derby game in the end the team in form lost.

The bigger club thing is always thrown around, what is a big club? In non RL terms you could argue that Newcastle are a bigger club than Chelsea, all big does is raised (unrealistic) expectations. Even in RL terms its still a long way behind the likes of Wigan and Leeds.

All this in a season that has quite literally been a lottery due to the unbalanced fixtures. As for calling somebody for waffling you are doing some of this yourself to an extent. I think it would be a fair assessment to say had the fixtures all been played equally then you could judge the success or failure with some form of reliable basis but this season is just not possible. Yes we have not done as well as had been hoped however there are mitigating circumstances for that as with all clubs some have faired or handled it better. I also think it’s fair to say had we as a club been able to play the fixtures we had cancelled and not played the fixtures when we could have avoided them i dare say the situation would be different.

It’s been a very poor season due to the impact across SL of the postponement of fixtures leaving a totally unbalanced league table.

On BH he started well and we saw changes/improvements that we’d needed in defence. He was unfortunate that he was unable to make many changes due to both contracts but also the covid situation. Tony Smith has been at Rovers a good length to have moulded the team and make changes to the playing squad.

Next season there’s a number of clubs with points to prove and hopefully a league where all fixtures can be fulfilled so that will be a better guide as to where teams are at in real terms.

I agree but you cannot get away from eight defeats out of nine matches is very poor. Covid, not playing everyone twice is continually referred to by teams not doing well. It was the same for everyone. It is often mentioned that we played Leigh three times by fans wanting to disparage our achievements. However they fail to mention that we also played Cats three times, the only team to do so.

Yes BH did start well but the sign of a good coach is how you deal with adversity.

No one is denying that our form has been poor over the past 9 games so not sure your point there. The loss of Connor from the injury sustained in a meaningless friendly certainly affected our form along with the stop/Start nature of the period over the run of those games. It’s also no coincidence we had gone into that period in a good position.

You say it’s the same for everyone, whilst other teams have been affected I agree surely the unbalanced fixtures point that it’s not actually the same. Yes you have played Catalans 3 times along with Leigh but also avoided St’s twice, Wire, Salford and ourselves. Do you not think it’s fair to say that has played a part and shows the issue of unbalanced fixtures? Not just in games missed/played but also in respect of teams having training shut down and very little prep time to then be playing teams who’d had uninterrupted training.

As for dealing with adversity is probably a little easier for someone who is familiar with a club and players than someone who’s new particularly when training is shut down at times as you can not get any continuity.

Yes we’ve been poorer than expected no arguments there however there’s no escaping this season has been somewhat of a lottery.

if we had played those fixtures at the time we would have won at least 2 of those ,,and played one of our home fixtures against saints away

Pure guesswork, you could have lost them all. Similarly our cancelled games, Rovers (A), Warrington (A), Leigh (H), Salford (H) - we could have won all of them or lost all of them - though we were in good form before the triple cancellations between the two Huddersfield games.

Lets's all hope for a fully completed fixture list next year.