This is my take, largely based on how bloody upset and otherwise angry I am at the moment, so that's the grain of salt flavouring here as I stir the possum.
1.
I can't agree that KW "coached" us to a GF last year. Rather, he and Arey managed a team of superstars to get to the GF. Remove those superstars - Herbie, Flegs, Capewell, Palasia, Arey (injured) and here we are. This year our pack is soft, unfit and lacks direction without ARey and, dare I say it, without a class dummy half. No wonder we are where we are on the ladder.
About the dummy half situation, as I see it, none of the top teams have an average hooker like Billy. Putting it another way, I can never see us winning a premiership against the current top 5 teams with Billy Walters as our 9. For mine, Billy is a great choice as our bench utility but that's it.
Can you imagine how good we would be with say Api K as our number 9, even given our average pack this year?
2.
Major major problem: our fitness levels suck, and we lose against the better sides because we run out of energy, which for mine largely explains why we lost the GF, as well as this year's poor form. For mine, we are exactly where we deserve to be on the ladder given our form so far.
3.
Yet again, our recruitment sucked big time. Last year, we had the best pack of forwards in the comp, we had Herbie whose running metres were outstanding, Capewell's experience and class, Fleg's aggression, ARey's game management and kicking game. Take them out and without equivalent replacements, and here we are.
I am genuinely worried that we will finish this season 3rd last.
Hope I'm wrong.