It seems I'm the same age as your father so a comment is required. Wire have won lots of trophies over the years. 1950s we were very strong with Gerry Helme, Brian Bevan and Co, but I never saw that side as I'd just been born. 1974 was a very special year, but the Wire team of the last five years has been a different animal altogether. After 1954 we faded away, and after 1974 we faded away again. Every time we looked to be building a side that would compete year-in-year-out we lost key players : Andy Gregory, Greg Mackey, Ian Potter, Iestyn Harris, Phil Ford, Paul Sculthorpe, to name but a few. At the end of the 1990s we even had to scrap the youth teams to save money ( either that or go bust ). We never competed consistently though we won the odd thing now and again. This 21st Century Warrington club has a far more robust vibe, with a secure financial structure, good youth policy, success and reputation enough to attract star players and on the field genuine competitors every week. It's painful to lose semis and finals, but better to lose them ( even a lot of them ) than be where Wire has been for most of the last 40 years: nowhere near them. We used to go into games against Saints, Bradford, Leeds, Wigan etc hoping, but knowing deep down that we could never match them. Now we go into all these games realistically expecting to win. It's not so long ago that we routinely did not make the play-offs at all!



Wire are in a good place. Don't knock it.

Never of believed it, really? You managed to beat widnes and castleford to get to a semi final. Massive well done. Challenge cup, you managed to fight your way past hull kr Doncaster and Bradford; massive well done!



You're making out like you've got a team of kids that are making their debut season. Small club mentality.



Agreed its a transitional year from your star studded golden oldies team that peaked in 2011/2. But remember wigan lost one of their best players in their recent history, Tomkins, a former Man of Steel, Pat Richards and strong players Harrison Hansen and Lee Mossop. And are bringing through kids like Burgess, Bateman, Sarginson, Powell. Transitional year for ourselves.

No way Wire bottled anything. Sometimes in big games you just come out on the wrong side of the scoreline. We had it thrown at us in 2012 yet came back to win the double.



You'll be stronger next year for sure.

I wish I supported an also-ran club

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Great effort last night, just lacked a little composure in the final quarter.



You’ll definitely miss Monaghan but Clark is a fantastic replacement & Sims is a brute.

Cannot believe the negativity. We have only been at a competitive level for five years. Some people have short memories.

You do make a point somewhere in your typical Wigan fan belittling attitude of a post. (Thanks for those "massive well done"s since one of those sides knocked you out of the CC at your own ground!)



At last night's game, Wigan had six players gone since last year's Grand Final and Wire had eight. This has been a transitional year for both Wigan and Wire. And it wasn't just fringe players neither. Some of the best players in both clubs' histories left. Yet I reckon we're still the best two sides in the competition. And there was basically nothing between us last night, Wigan had a bit more power and pace and a better kicking game and that was it.



Makes you wonder what the hell the likes of Huddersfield are doing when they actually strengthen a LLS team and go backwards, and Leeds who strengthen a champion experienced side and have a terrible SL season. Maybe it was just a one off season for Leeds and they did win the Challenge Cup (which is a great feeling and maybe it was their season goal after the five final losses in the past). They were some scenes at Wembley when they won.



But what about Huddersfield? If there was a season to go and win it, it was this one. Saints have had injuries all season, Wire lose Briers Morley Hodgson Carvell (four leaders and excellent players, two Wire legends, a RL legend) Cooper (on fire in the NRL), as well as the likes of those you mentioned Wigan lost, neither club replaced those players with similar big name signings; Hudds and Leeds strengthen and don't capitalise. Cas and Catalan took greater advantage of the others' depletions than those two.

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I expected nowt for us this season. We reached the semis of the CC and Play-offs, and went on a run of ten wins on the bounce. I think we beat every team bar Wigan over the season and we matched Wigan in two away games and were within 4 points in both, both could have gone either way. I thought we'd struggle to make the 8 at the start of the season.



Overall, although I'm gutted to lose last night's game, I'm quite pleased with our season. We exceeded my expectations. Can't complain at that.

What a gracious post.

It's kinda true though. The original sentiment behind the thread was ''hey look at us, look how well we've done and this is our transition''.



That post was just pointing out you could apply the same logic to wigan. They are going to be champions in their transitional season. So transitional seasons are another thing warrington are also rans at.

Also rans...Leeds fan...hmmm

I never understand when people say "such and such a team will NEVER have a better chance".



How do you know what will happen in the future? Things change more than you could expect in sport.



For how many years did we hear that when we would play Saints and they would have Long, Wellens and Scully injured and we would hear, if you can't beat Saints this time you will NEVER beat them. But we beat them quite often these days and the fact we lost those games in 2004, 2005 etc doesn't seem to have much bearing on the outcome?



I wonder if you could get a time machine back ten years to our first season in the HJ and say OK here are some predictions for the next ten years, Warrington will sign Andrew Johns, Adrian Morley will lift three Challenge Cups in a Warrington jersey, Man City will win two Premier League titles, Liverpool and Chelsea will win Champions Leagues and Englands cricketers will win four Ashes series.



Who would have been predicting those events...?

Can you tell us about your 2009-2013 transition seasons?

Saints made some major finals in that time and whilst it was obviously a shock to their system that they lost so many great players and were struggling to find the right combinations, they still did quite well with an unsettled and inexperienced team and some coaching changes.



So I think Saints should get credit for how they managed their "down time" and if they win the Grand Final this year it will be a huge achievement as they are still in "down time" as their own fans will admit.