In the course of a clearout at home I've just found all the press cuttings I've saved from the last SL game at Wilderspool as I bought 6-7 of the national dailies on the Monday after the game. It was certainly a day never to be forgotten, but if you look at the team that day and look at the current squad, it gives you some idea of the progress that the club has made both on and off the field. The team that day was as follows; Cardiss, Westwood, Grose, Domic, Gaskell, Appo, Wood (c), Fozzard, Clarke, Wood, Noone, Wainwright, Burns. Subs were Hulse, Gleeson, Guissett, Stevens. Briers and Sibbitt were both injured and Mark Hilton had just copped a 3 match suspension.

No disrespect to that side which did really well on the day, but the different in class of the current side, especially the back line, is unbelievable.

One little aside, there's small photograph of the author of the League Express report, it's a very young looking Nathan Ashurst.

can we have a silver away kit again please?

Bar the ones that are still here, we've improved (immensely in some) in every position. Pity we got rid of Domic too early. Thank heavens for the Moran millions, so we've been able to attract players of a much higher calibre than 8 years ago.

Ooooohhhh no, designed by Gok Wan after 10 pints of Tennents Super. GO GIRLFRIEND!

Playing wise we did a lot with what we had that year. Appo played out of his skin while Briersy was out and he and Nat Wood were the driving force behind that side. We've come a long way in 7 and a half years in every respect and the blokes who played in that last year at the Zoo didn't let us down.

I liked Paul Cullen for reasons that have been discussed to death on here but I have also wondered what would have happened if we had Tony Smith back then.

Would Nathan Wood have played at 9 Just like Monaghan.

Would Dean Gaskell have been given chance to improve just like Riley.

Is Carvell that much better than say Guisset.

Is Louis Anderson much better than Burns was or Paul Noone could have been.



I admit that there has been an increase in quality but If you look at squads for 2006-2007 the difference in quality between then and now is not that different. I often feel sorry for a lot of the players that played here between say 2004-2008 and think that with a different coach they could have achieved much more.

So what your saying is that Paul Cullen was e?

corrected for accuracy

A huge factor must have been that until '07 we weren't in a position to spend up to the full amount of the salary cap. With the extra spend came players of the quality of King, Monas, Hicks and Louis. Whether TS could have made a huge difference in the years before that with the restrictions that Cull had to deal with is anyones guess. TS struggled at the Giants for a few years who were probably in a similar financial position as us back then. It was only his move to Leeds that proved that he was an exceptional coach. Money talks in every sport but its not just Simon Moran's input that has changed the club, there's been a huge amount of hard work off the field that most of us don't see that have contributed to the success we've enjoyed. The trick is to keep it going and continue to improve.

point taken.

We had to because of that Quota. We brought in Wilshere, Leikvoll and Lima, didn't Grose and Wood make up the rest of Quota rules at the time? 5 players? Not 100% sure, Cat will know, but we deffo had to let Domic go rather than wanted to let him go.

Wilshere in, Domic out. Good bit of business that was.