my biggest memory of this season was danny lima breaking the "high fiving" world record,he must have smacked mitts with every wire fan and some that year,
off the bench,two bullocking bursts,quick knock on or penalty,hooter sounds,high five time.
what short memories we have of andrew johns are encapsulated by his debut at home to leeds,pure class.

Of all the games that year, Joey's début against Leeds sticks in the memory. It took him forever to place the ball on the kicking tee, and when he did eventually kick off Rob Burrow was smashed by Chris Leikvoll. From the scrum, it went from Joey to Briers, Briers to Gleeson, Gleeson to Fa'afili who scored in the corner. Cue madness on the terraces. The whole game saw a near-perfect performance from the great man.

The funny thing was, I remember reading in the paper one day in August that it was either London or Wigan who were going to bring him over on a short term loan. I said at the time "Whats the point in that? They're wasting their money bringing him over here for that amount of time." Funnily enough an hour later it was announced on GMR that we would be signing him for the rest of the season, and I was ecstatic for the rest of the day.

I think the low light of that season was the two narrow defeats to Saints. Once at home where Andy Bracek (IIRC) was penalised for no good reason which catalysed in Saints scoring three tries in the last ten minutes. Then again at KR where we lost by a Sean Long drop goal 31-30.

But as you say, Sally. it was nice to see some consistent rugby being played. I think looking back it was fair to say we may have overachieved a little bit, but for once it gave us fans a a glimpse of hope that we can challenge for the top places in SL and break the old 'top 4' clique.

Finally I think try of the year had to have gone to Brent Grose that year for his one man attack on Wakefield at home. Not only does he catch the ball on the full, but he weaves in and out of the chasing defence to score under the posts. Unbelievable!

and then he banged the conversion over from the touchline.

Not sure whether this season or 2006 was the biggest disappointment. That Hull game should have well and truly put us into the playoffs, even moreso after the momentum of the back end of the season. The components were there, we just didn't utilise them correctly.

Everyone talks about Johns debut, but I was more impressed with his second game to be honest. We were porr at Hull, friday night game, Grose should've been sent off for a blaitant trip but wasn't, we won, not sure of exact scire, something like 34-22. I remember Toa got a brace, second try Bridge made a break down the wing [he played wing then and fed Toa to score, near the posts.

Reason I was so impressed was that we were so ordinary, I mean, not that good. Yet we went there and won and I thought that's what you needed, to be average but to be able to win at such places.

In the end, as Sally said, Hull got their revenge, Brough was excellent, and I'm pretty certain Johns went into the dressing room askign who their number threee was, who was a young Kirk Yeaman as Johns felt he'd been excellent all night in both attack and containing our own Martin Gleeson.

Highs for me that year, easy ...

Bridge Day - Bradford Away - He was amazing, easily his best game to date, just bossed the show, with Clarke at SH, we pulled around a 12pt deficit into a comfortable win, at Odsal, which was just insane, and unexpected, given our lack of halves etc.

Rauhihi Day - May Bank Holiday - vs Leeds, ball steal on Ellis, 48-6 I think, we played brilliant rugby, scored a try, Barnett I think, must have gone through 12 pairs of hands, the whole team was brilliant, but Rauhihi was better than that, he was special, supa amazing.

Overall, great year to watch Warrington, grose scoring worldies, Widnes Away, Wakefield Home etc, just an amazing year. Loved it.

Not you and this Rauhihi game again, can't you wait till the 2006 thread. Rauhihi was great in 2005, I think he was the top yardage making prop in the NRL.

Some good rugby played, but i've never felt so disappointed as i was at the end of that season. If i remember rightly, wigan didn't make the top 6, saints got at least 3 of their star players injured going into the play offs and we had the world's best player in our side. Bradford won the title that year from 3rd due to the poor form of all the other play off sides and i still believe to this day that it was ours for the taking. Just writing this has made me feel gutted again, i'll have to watch the cup final on sky+ again now.

Was it 06 When Briers kicked that drop goal at Leeds in the playoffs?

Yes.

I`ll remember 2005 as the year when one the greatest ever rugby league players pulled on a Wire shirt in Andrew Johns, on the down side the crushing defeat by Hull in our first ever SL play off game at home.

All the good points have been mentioned so i won't repeat them..
But after an excellent season i felt extremely flat after the playoff defeat V Hull...We missed IMO a great opportunity there...

It was a fantastic season, but the Saints defeat at KR was one of the best games of the year even though we lost. I remember Nat Wood scored towards the end after a Lima break, backed up by Baby Gleese and then Wood juggling the ball then eventually went under the sticks. Then Grose was penalised for sod all by the linesman then Saints equalised, then the DG was enevitable. Never left a game so gutted!!

We really should have won that first playoff game at home against Hull, but even if we had I think the trip to Odsal next week would have been too much for us. Bradfordwere unstoppable for the last couple of months of that season, in their last 7 games Vainikolo got 17 tries and him and Hape just tore everyone up. Even Warrington at their best of 2005, would not have been able to live with Bradford at that point in time, it must have been galling for their fans knowing that basically that team was going to disintegrate at the end of the year because loads of their players had signed for other teams.

When did you stop believing in PC Sally? You are usually reasonably insightful - were you an early adopter or part of the long tail ?

The 2nd half of the Bradford match at odsal was just fantastic, considering we had no Briers and Nat Wood had gone off injured at the end of the first half, Iestyn Harris scores for Bradford early in the 2nd half and I'm stood there thinking 'how many are we gonna get beat by today'.

The Bradford match at home comes to mind also, where both teams were playing in white!



And I'm sure that this was the year where the dark clouds came over and it chucked it down just before the start of the home Salford match, mixed with the dramatic pre-match music - it was like a scene out of independance day.

And who can forget Grose's full length try at the JJB, think he even had time to have a chat with Bridge on his way to the line.

Great memories these. The greatest game?.......Dead right.

And although the play off loss was a massive disappointment, having the best player in the world at the HJ playing for the Wire will live with us forever.

I was still a big fan of Cullen in 2005, in 2006 I started to think that we were never going to do anything better than we had already done under Cullen, and to win trophies we needed a coach who had been there and won trophies before (Lang, Folkes, Hanley, Smith, Murray, Noble). From what I remember you had crossed the divide a year or so earlier...?

2005 was a mixed year really. After the hype of the new stadium it was a time where we dared to believe things might be on the turn for us, but unfortunately it affirmed us as a club with fur coat & very little knickers - in the right light & with little pressure we looked fantastic, demolitions of Wakefield, Widnes & gritty wins against Bradford & Hull back this up; however when the going got tough at the business end of the season we fell woefully short.

The Johns Effect was a little like the Emporer's New Clothes to me - we dared to be carried away by the hype, the club played it fantastically & the players & Johns played their parts too. However at the end of the day he wasn't fit & didn't have long enough at the club to be able to have impact on the pitch other than in the Leeds game where the fairytale was in full swing. Hull away & at home in the play-off showed how even the best in the world needs players around him able to match his brilliance in order to progress - away at the KFC we carried though on the back of a gutsy forward performance (particularly from Logan Swann) & a player wanting to show the home fans what he was capable of (TKL). Hull at home was awful & showed how a well coached team with a flexible game plan will beat a team playing on emotion 9 times out of 10 with Brough's barrage of Chris Bridge on the wing. I think that game started to show the flaws in Cullen's package for me.

Relegating Widnes will always be a special match, as will be any win at Odsal but ultimately our side of galacticos were sadly missing the "X-Factor" Cullen often spoke about - only here it was off the pitch we were starting to show lacking.

Players of the season - Gleeson, Fa'afili & Briers formed a lethal partnership down the right with Grose immense as an attacking fullback the like of which Wire had not seen since Brian Johnson's heyday. In the pack, Clarke was showing his worth with Wainwright Swann & Westwood forming an intimidating back row while Lightbulb had his best season for us. And farewell to *** ****, a player who typified Wire - unpredictable, sometimes brilliant, an entertainer who was occassionally awful & quite often ignoring the blindingly obvious pass to try & go it alone only to mess things up!

I'd made my mind up after the terrible 2004 season. Hopes and expectations were high, and we underperformed in an unacceptable way. 2005 was indeed better in terms of league position but at no stage did I ever feel our underlying problems were solved and we were in danger of winning anything.

I feel that now under Tony Smith. I'm sure you will agree all I ever called for was a coach with a credible coaching CV and a proven winner.

The funny thing is that if PC had gone earlier we would not have got Smith. I suppose there was an upside in Cullen desperately scrambling to remain in position when he should have done the decent thing and resigned earlier.

Anyway I wish him well with Widnes but I don't think for one minute he will coach a SL side again.

i think he will. widnes.

They'll get bumped behind Toulouse and South Wales RL in line for a SL license.

[size=50I'm joking of course.[/size

Hull KR in the CC the decider?

I did that for you.

Stood on an open terrace at Brentford in Round 1 freezing my knackers off. Threw that game away in the last 15. We all started chanting "theres only one paul cullen" because we thought we seen him come out of the tunnel in the far corner and it wasnt even him.



Bradford at Odsal. First win there since 93? First time we did the double as well? Chris Bridge was outstanding.

I had moved away from Warrington at that point but the Joey game was still very special. Huge dissapointment losing to FC at home. They were by far the better team that day.

Spanking Widnes at home and Faffili try celebration.

Really enjoyed this season.