2017 Season Review
The professional
season is now over following Leeds Rhinos’ victory over the highly fancied
Castleford Tigers. It’s been an eventful
eight or nine months and it’s not over yet as the World Cup is just around the
corner.
Congratulations
to Leeds for their victory at Old Trafford and hopefully Castleford will dust themselves
off and go again much stronger for it next season. They had a fantastic year and you’ll never
take away their first ever first placed finish in the table from them.
Also, huge congratulations go to Hull FC for a memorable Challenge Cup victory over Wigan to retain the trophy they won last season.
For my
final blog looking at this year’s domestic campaign I’ll take a look back at my
predictions from the start of the year and whether I got any of them right?!
Super League
My
prediction that Wigan would sweep all before them this year was way off in the
end. They came close to grabbing the
Challenge Cup title but couldn’t quite hold off holders Hull FC. I was also surprised that they failed to
reach the play-offs and finished sixth in the Super 8’s.
I
predicted that Sam Tomkins would come back and have a big season but it never
really took off for him. His form
ultimately led to him not being selected for the England World Cup squad (that
squad selection is for another blog though!)
I then
predicted it would be a baptism of fire for promoted Leigh Centurions after being
handed a very tough opening six games.
They actually surprised me by doing very well to win three of those
matches and my thoughts that they’d finish in the top eight didn’t look so bad
at that stage. But they couldn’t win their
fourth game for nearly three months.
That
ultimately led them to having to spend the latter part of the season in the
Qualifiers and we all know how that ended up for them. It’s a shame to see Leigh come straight back
down as it would have given hope to future Championship clubs coming up to the
top tier that they could actually compete and survive.
My final
hope was that we would see a more competitive Super League campaign with more
clubs in the mix. We certainly got that
with the likes of Wakefield and Salford’s excellent seasons and Castleford
finishing top for the first time in their history, a full ten points clear of
second placed Leeds.
The fact
that last season’s champions, Wigan, could only finish as high as sixth overall
shows how other teams have progressed around them. Yes, they suffered injuries, but they also
suffered with injuries last year but still went on to beat favourites
Warrington at Old Trafford.
Championship
The first
question I asked was would Hull KR bounce back at the first attempt. They did with relative ease. They swept away all before them in the
regular season (apart from two defeats against Toulouse) to finish three points
clear of London Broncos and bounced back into the top tier thanks to victories
over Leigh and Widnes in the Qualifiers.
It
remains to be seen how they will fair in next year’s Super League but having
been a SL side for a number of years before relegation they should already have
everything they need to put up a good challenge.
I then
asked if Bradford Bulls could beat the odds and survive relegation after their
12 point deduction. Unfortunately not,
as despite keeping the crux of their small squad, it took them until the end of
the regular season to finally reach zero points.
That
meant they had a mountain to climb once the Championship Shield stage kicked in
and would have had to win all seven of their matches to survive the drop. Seeing a club as successful as Bradford drop
to the third tier of rugby league is a huge reality check for the sport and
proves if a club isn’t run properly, the club’s demise is inevitable.
I then
predicted that London Broncos would step up and push for that SL place following
a good showing in 2015 where they missed out on a Million Pound Game spot on points
difference. This time though, they fell
even shorter behind by finishing five points off the MPG.
I
predicted that Toulouse would also make the Qualifiers and it would have come
true but for a Round 21 home defeat to Halifax.
Oldham and Swinton, who had survived relegation the season before had
another difficult year and in the end Oldham drew the short straw and will spend
time in League 1 from 2018. On a
positive note at the bottom end of the table, promoted Rochdale Hornets
survived and enjoyed a relatively successful campaign.
League 1
My first
point on this division was whether Toronto Wolfpack was just another doomed-to-fail
expansion experiment by the RFL. As
predicted they eventually won the League 1 title with relative ease, only
falling short against York and Keighley.
After my impromptu
visit to the North American city in May with Barrow Raiders my mind was settled
about the legitimacy of the Wolfpack and felt that they are a club that will be
successful and are here to stay.
But,
because of their success, there is now talk of other North American cities
hosting expansion clubs as rugby league continues to grow across the pond. That can only be a good thing for the sport
but a downside to this is that the third level of British professional rugby
league could end up being a play-thing for the RFL to try new ideas and
constantly change the boundaries.
I also
wanted to see a Cumbrian revolution this season. We certainly had it with Barrow and
Whitehaven fighting for promotion all the way to the Play-off Final at Craven
Park last month. That was a fantastic match-up
and in some quarters considered more important that the MPG as rugby league
fans want to see a revival in fortunes for the semi-pro Cumbrian clubs.
To have
over 3,000 spectators at the game was fantastic and to see how much it meant to
both clubs before and after the game was also great. Barrow won so they will be the Cumbrian
representatives in next season’s Championship.
Hunslet were the only heartland team to miss out on the top eight this season but did end the year with silverware in the League 1 Shield. I'm sure they'll build on this year and come back much stronger in 2018.
Finally,
I wanted to see if another non-heartland club could break into the top eight
after London Skolars did last year. This
time it was Newcastle Thunder who reignited their fortunes and broke into the
Super 8’s and eventually ended the season strongly to claim a Play-off spot
over Doncaster, Keighley and Workington.
It was
the same old teams at the bottom end of the table with Hemel Stags and South
Wales fighting it out for the wooden spoon.
It was eventually handed to the Welsh club who will now start 2018 under
another rebranding as West Wales Raiders.
Let’s hope this one proves more successful for them.
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