The End of Term Report - Part One

After twenty-seven rounds, the season has ended for six unlucky teams. These six teams will not feature in the play offs and the players will no doubt have a nice rest before pre season starts again in November (for those not playing in the world cup). Below are my views and opinions as to how these six teams went throughout the season and why they didn’t add an extra week onto their season.

Hull KR
Paul Cooke has been a major figure in this side since he joined last season. I say that in off-field terms, as his on-field achievements haven’t exactly reached the highs of when he played across the other side of the river. In fact, even his off-field record isn’t exactly clean. Considering the whole squad has had to react to his behaviour for the past eighteen months, they have done exceptionally well to finish seventh. His suspension for leaving Hull FC until the Easter weekend did nothing to help team morale. Added to the fact he was dropped for no reason for a lengthy period of time towards the back end of the season, it’s a wonder Justin Morgan has kept the side together and stayed on target for a play off spot, which they were unlucky to miss out on.

Wakefield
To me, Wakefield were never within a shout of a play off place. Yes, league positions show they were fourth with nine games to go, but they never played any Rugby League that justified that position. However, the light at the end of the tunnel is that they have a player worthy of his world cup place, despite it being in a side that won’t eclipse the achievements of England. Danny Brough has been a godsend for a side that twelve months ago, was a serious contender for another taste of play off football. But Wakefield have been hit with some serious injury worries this year. Brad Drew, Jamie Roony and Jason Demetriou have not had as much game time as John Kear would have liked and their impact has been missed throughout.

Harlequins
Started strongly, but then just seemed to fade away as the season progressed. Stats show after five rounds, Quins were second in the league. By the time Quins played Catalan again in Cardiff, they were ninth. After which their form showed consistency that remained average. Brian McDermott has a long way to go, but signs are good. Home-grown heroes, Rikki Sheriffe, Joe Mbu and Louis McCarthy-Scarsbrook all look promising individual international potentials. But overall, the squad just didn’t have the quality to improve their league position from 2007.

Huddersfield
Its not been the best of seasons for Huddersfield fans. For the second year in a row, the team that has tasted play off football for the first time the previous season has not achieved the expectations to improve and become a decent outfit. In fact, the loss of Brad Drew is one the club will no doubt be reeling over as his form alone catapulted Huddersfield into the play offs last year. Kevin Brown and Luke Robinson have not had the impact that was required whereas Chris Thorman is a shadow of his former self.

Hull FC
I can’t begin to understand what went wrong here. One minute the club was shocked to be out of the play offs thanks to sixth place Wigan, next thing you know they struggle to replicate any of the past three or four years of very good rugby that we had become used to see from the black and whites. Theres little doubt these players under performed and without Richard Horne for the majority of the year they have struggled to play any decent form of attacking rugby. Shaun Berrigan was due to be one of the reasons Hull FC would be nearer the top of the table than what they achieved. However, I also think the loss of Shaun Briscoe had something to do with their downhill spiral.

Castleford
Never in the history of Super League have I respected a team finishing bottom of the ladder than what I have with this Castleford outfit. It’s been a rocky roller coaster that’s not gone without controversy. The trial of athlete Dwain Chambers is one that will go on living in people’s memories for a long time. As the announcement was so close to April Fools Day, even I had trouble believing such a thing had occurred. But this hasn’t derailed the team from playing when it matters. Wins against the top six four times, plus a draw shows that they are a team that can play when they have to. Its just they haven’t played when they weren’t massive underdogs and when they limelight wasn’t on the team that could ship in seventy/eighty points. They have three years to build on this season, but all the signs are there that they can produce decent rugby league football.


So how well have I done in predicting the final league ladder? Well, going off my first ever blog post on here, I predicted the bottom six would look like this;

Wakefield
Hull KR
Huddersfield
Catalan
Harlequins
Castleford

The only team I got right was Castleford, even my pre-season analysis wasn’t that far off. However without blowing my own trumpet too loudly, I wasn’t far off with Wakefield and Hull KR and I was only one place away from getting Huddersfield right as well. However, I seem to have completely mis-judged Catalan and Hull FC. One has done the complete opposite to the other and that to me comes as quite a shock.