It is quite a strange situation. We are almost treading water for almost a month whilst those around us will be battling like hell. I think we'd have been happy at the start of the season to finish third but can't help being disappointed as we could have done better.

We lost 4 league points either side of the Wembley game.

The Wigan pre-Wembley game was a 4 pointer really, that we handed on a plate to them with the team we selected.

Viewed with the benefit of hindsight though.

I don’t fear anyone at any venue.
I think every defeat bar the fatigue vs KR, we just beat ourselves, with poor discipline, and/or playing an injured player.

Agreed but it also showed our younger players could compete en masse. Games like that and playing so determinedly when a man down in 2 occasions may yet prove to be the most important games of the season.

In addition, the nature of our narrow defeat was seen at the time as a boost, a moral victory and a 'just you watch out when we bring all the big guns back' scenario. Peet had missed a trick he'd made a mistake.

The rest is history.....

Yes indeed this is true. I still think we can improve the centres (attacking) and improve on Drinkwater for 2025 when hopefully we can nail our home form also.

More than just our league position I am more pleased with how we seem a "team" again.

Getting the basics of passing & retaining /respecting possession would go a long way towards winning the games that matter. We have some very good passages of play then the mistakes creep in & let us down.

As we all know it’s about hitting the peak at the right time, when it comes to play off rugby. Finishing third, just keeps that momentum moving forward, I think that’s probably best for this Wire team. Wire shouldn’t have anything to fear whoever they face in the playoffs. The teams who battling it out for 4th and below places are patchy in form, not got the consistency and flow heading into knock out rugby. Only Kr, Wigan and Wire are building up their own game in terms of form. The Gf will be one of those three teams.

There's a team 9 miles or so to the north West with a friendly bunch of fans that I would never rule out of at least getting to the final. I would hope to avoid them even in a 3rd v 6th game at the hj.

I don't really agree that finishing 3rd keeps the momentum rolling forward for us. IMO we have been patchy for weeks now. Our last top performance was Wigan away. We have stuttered since then and i wouldn't be surprised if we lose to Saints. Although they were turgid against Hudds, so i hope i'm wrong. I'm sure we will beat Hudds & London but they're not really great opposition to have going into the playoffs. I'm thinking our earlier perceived 'easy run in' is not that ideal now. Especially as we cannot finish below 3rd and unlikely to reach 1/2 spot. The glass half empty in me says we will lose to Saints, have underwhelming wins at Hudds & London and then we are undercooked for the playoffs.