ANOTHER regular season is over, and as we await the play-offs and the scrap for the Super League title, so here’s a Schoey spotlight on the twelve teams, in finishing order and with my marks for each…
WIGAN WARRIORS
I HAD to look twice at that recent Mailbag letter suggesting I’m biased against Wigan.
The writer is correct to say they stopped me winning trophies – but they also stopped a lot of other players too.
It’s also true that I’m not a Wigan supporter, but I do respect an historic club and what they have achieved, and I have praised them plenty of times.
As I’ve said before, I also like the way Matt Peet goes about his job, and the team he has built, with Bevan French and Jai Field big entertainers.
They have had an excellent season, and it could get better still. 9/10.
CATALANS DRAGONS
AS with Hull KR, I thought it could be hard for Catalans this time, suggesting the bubble might have burst in Perpignan.
But here we are going into the play-offs with Steve McNamara’s lads, even allowing for a couple of blips, one of them recent, looking capable of taking the Super League title to France for the first time.
They have both talent and experience in the ranks, and one look at the final table shows that on their day, Les Dracs are a match for anyone. 8/10.
ST HELENS
WILL the Saints go marching in again at Old Trafford?
A fifth straight title is certainly not out of the question, and praise should go to Paul Wellens who, knowing he has to go some to improve on what his predecessors Justin Holbrook and Kristian Woolf achieved, has some serious weight on his shoulders.
Winning the World Club Challenge was a pretty good start, and while there was some turbulence in the aftermath, Saints, so long the masters of peaking at the right time, have been looking strong of late. 8/10.
HULL KR
I HAD my doubts about incoming coach Willie Peters before the season started, suggesting Rovers would end up down in tenth place, but I’m happy to hold my hands up – he has been outstanding and so has his team.
Working with Danny McGuire, who I really rate, he has built an effective and entertaining side who came close in the Challenge Cup and will now have a crack at the play-offs.
I think there is still improvement to come, and with the firm foundations the folk behind the scenes at Craven Park have laid, the future looks promising. 8/10.
LEIGH LEOPARDS
IN my eyes, Leigh are the team of the year and Adrian Lam the coach of the year.
Let’s again give some credit to owner Derek Beaumont, who after the disappointment of relegation from Super League in 2021, embraced the challenge of a rebuild and duly dipped into his pocket to fund it.
He took some stick for his rebrand from Centurions ahead of this season, but the sight of so much leopard print at Wembley as Leigh lifted the Challenge Cup showed it has been a success.
Now I’m looking forward to seeing what can be achieved both in this year’s play-offs – and next season. 9/10.
WARRINGTON WOLVES
WHAT a strange season at the Halliwell Jones.
Eight games in, Warrington seemed the real deal, and set to make a powerful challenge.
But for whatever reason, the players didn’t appear to be totally on board with Daryl Powell’s way of doing things, and the season went into a downwards spiral, leading to his exit.
Results under his stand-in successor Gary Chambers have been mixed, although they have at least made the play-offs, and now comes another rebuild under Sam Burgess and newly-appointed assistant Martin Gleeson.
The players need to knuckle down and focus on being the best they can be week in, week out. 5/10.
SALFORD RED DEVILS
THE one consistent thing about Salford is their inconsistency, but given the tight finances and therefore relatively compact squad, you have to take your hat off to the club and to coach Paul Rowley.
He works really well with the resources he has available, and to have the Red Devils pushing for the play-offs while playing entertaining rugby – especially amid the injury problems faced, many of them to leading players – was no mean feat.
After a good few years of punching above their weight, you have to wonder what Salford and Rowley could achieve with some serious financial backing. 6/10.
LEEDS RHINOS
LEEDS are like the Titanic, sinking, sinking, sinking.
For a club of such stature, too many of the performances this season have been too full of dross, with most of the results as poor as the Rhinos’ recruitment.
I’d hoped and predicted my old team would edge into the play-offs, but I was sadly wrong, and like many supporters, which is what I am now and will always be, I’m not sure Rohan Smith is up to a coaching job of this magnitude.
As the man at the Headingley controls, Gary Hetherington needs to sort things out. 2/10.
HUDDERSFIELD GIANTS
BORING, boring, boring…
For a team with so many big names, Huddersfield aren’t half dull to watch, and given his investment, long-suffering supremo Ken Davy must be cheesed off with such a flat campaign.
You have to wonder whether the squad enjoy playing under Ian Watson, who seems to come up with excuses as often as he mentions processes, and not even getting to the play-offs is a real setback.
Those heady times he had at Salford now seem long ago, and along with the Smiths, Tony at Hull and Rohan at Leeds, he needs to deliver. 3.5/10.
HULL FC
LIKE Daryl Powell at Warrington last season, this one was a bit of a free hit for Tony Smith as he got his feet under the table on the other side of the city after bossing Hull KR.
But, as was the case with the Wolves, the pressure to produce is now firmly on, with the squad being reshaped and expectations rising.
Hull say they are a big club and still attract decent gates, but those fans demand both entertainment and wins, and Tony will know there must be more of them. He will be drawing on all his experience. 3/10.
CASTLEFORD TIGERS
POOR, poor poor…
The team of 2023 must be among the shabbiest in Castleford’s proud history, and let’s be honest, they have only stayed up because neighbours Wakefield were ever worse than them.
The Tigers’ season was as messy as it was unsuccessful, with Lee Radford departing early doors and the elevation of Andy Last from assistant to head coach a mistake.
Danny Ward finally got a bit of a tune out of this dad’s army of a side, and if he’d been recruited straight away after Radford left, Castleford would probably have done better. 2.5/10.
WAKEFIELD TRINITY
TRINITY went into the season with a rookie coach in Mark Applegarth and a squad that had even less quality than that which struggled in 2022.
Most people, me included, thought the past masters of the great escape would finally fall through the trapdoor, and so it proved.
It must be so disappointing for their loyal fans that Wakefield went down with far more of a whimper than a bang.
Now it’s all about the rebuild as Trinity, with a new stand and likely a new team chief in Daryl Powell, seek a Super League return through club grading. 2/10.
