The Dentist Wilf wrote:
That is without doubt the 'science' of it and you are spot on. Make no mistake about it we have been crap of late and seem to have taken a step backwards to 'the same old' from a bright start to the season. Whats more it is in fact hard to see what changes we can make to redress the situation in our current financial and contract state. At the other side of the City its fair to say that Hull KR are probably playing with more heart and passion than we are at present as well (however strangely they still couldn't beat us in what has been their cup final for years probably ironically because some of our under performers were motivated by the significance of the game to the other side) but to gloat in such a way based on a season that is so imbalanced where everyone hasn't played everyone twice and who you have played has been allocated by such a scatter gun way is just naive really. Looking at who Leeds, Cas and rovers have played In the end in 2021 the bottom half of the play offs could well be dictated by who you have managed to avoid in the fixture list this year rather than who you have played.
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.
