2002 was easily the worst I can remember. Paying good money to watch the likes of Gary Hulse, Dave Alstead, Leon Felton, Tom O'Reilly, Dale Cardoza, Danny Halliwell and Kevin Crouthers, plus of course our 'star import' Matt Rodwell, was soul-destroying.

You forgot "The Sturminator", Dean Busby and Warren Stevens who Cullen described "as the best forward in the Championship".

Least we got Westwood and Wood in midway and Darren Burns and Fozzard were decent.

Sid Domic too was good for us that year.

He was indeed. Just to nudge the thread back to the subject of crowds, our average home attendance in that 2002 season was 6,270. The highest 'gate' was 9,105 (when we played Widnes), which is still well below our average home crowd for 2024. Shows how times have changed.

Yes, he was the good side of average.

He wanted to stay but we didn’t offer him a deal. He went to Wakey.
Who was it we brought it to force Domic out?

I don’t like to dwell much on that period of our club.

The RFL changed the rules and reduced the number of Overseas Quota players that a club could have.

Wire didn`t bring another player to the club to replace Domic, but were forced to release a player and chose him.

I remember being at Wigan for our play-off defeat which was Sid's last game for us. The crowd were singing the "Super Sid song" and he was almost in tears.

Cheers. That’ll be why I couldn’t think of a replacement.

Domic was much better than "the good side of average". With hindsight it was a real mistake to let him go - we prioritised Appo who had the one good stretch in his Wire career at the time. Domic went on to be an integral player for Wakey who made the playoffs the next year when we didn't, and then to Hull who made the Grand Final.

That 2002 season was easily the worst of my time following Wire. Much worse than 2022. There was more at stake because the club had far less stable foundations. When you look at what happened to Halifax after 2003 you can see the fate that could have been in store for us. We went into 2002 with basically a Championship level squad, plus a handful of really good pros who stepped up and played well when we were in trouble - Burns, Domic, Fozzard and Nat Wood who we signed mid season. Briers had his worst season for us but he did turn it on in a couple of games that were crucial for us in staying up.

I remember we played 3 games over Easter - I think it was Salford, Widnes and Wakey - lost them all and thats when we knew we were in deep trouble. I have a strong memory of coming out of the ground at Belle Vue realising we were way short of even the sides at the lower end of the table.

Signing Nat Wood from Wakey - a relegation rival - was huge because he brought a competitive edge which we had lacked. We signed Westwood at the same time which over the long term was one of the biggest signings in Wire history but he didn't do a great deal that season.

Sorry lads but I was wondering why we have done so badly this year. But have enjoyed how bad it was in 2002. Nat Wood was fun wasn't he.