BP1:
The more I look back at 2016/17 the more I now view it as a missed opportunity. As fantastic as the Wembley victories were we should have gone hard and fast after that and scooped the whole lot.
Wembley 2016 was obviously an emotional moment for everyone connected with our club, but Radford should have given them a week off and then gone again. In truth, 2016 wasn't a vintage year and we were palpably the best team in the competition, but we lost focus post-Wembley (post semi-final in truth) and never really got going again. Wembley was far later in the season back then so we had little time to recover our focus to grab a SL title that, in truth, was there for the taking.
2017 was possibly an even bigger miss. Wembley victory, narrow play-off semi-final defeat at Headingley meaning we missed out on playing a Cas side who simply froze on the night. Twelve months later we were back to being mid-table fodder again!!
The Wembley victories will always be an emotional cherished memory to last a lifetime for every black & white, but these days I can never shake off the feeling that we let a treble (in 2016) and a double (in 2017) slip through our grasp. I don't see Peters making the same mistake with rovers this year, but he will have the looming shadow of Wigan stalking his every move from now until October. Think rovers will win tomorrow, but believe the treble is anything but a done deal for them. Win or lose tomorrow they will still have a lot of rugby to play before they are anointed kings of all known universes (well, the SL universe at least!!!).
Yes in 2016 we went top in May after beating Rovers in Newcastle and pretty much stayed there until the end of the regular season. The Super 8s started the week after the Cup Semi and we wobbled with a bad loss at home to Cas but then had big wins over Widnes and Catalans. After Wembley though we collapsed and lost three out of four. The Warrington defeat at home cost us the League Leaders Shield and a home semi. We should have won the treble that year.
