Hull KR • Tim Sheens' Contract

If it is a choice, I much prefer winning to playing an attractive brand of rugby, no doubt about that.

I think, simply, the overall quality of our squads dropped after Morgan left, relative to the rest of SL. It was always going to be hard to replicate the recruitment we had for 2008. The club looked to become more sustainable, and obviously we have things like the North Stand now. But when good quality players didn’t come through our own ranks in anything like the numbers hoped for, the long-term planning for the development of the team backfired - leading to churn in chasing better results initially and relegation when we decided to be patient.

This is our first season after pulling ourselves clear of that mess, really. I think because we’d done a decade in SL and with hindsight we know we recovered, it is maybe taken for granted slightly - but look at Leigh and Widnes. In 2008, in the second season after our first promotion to SL, we got 23 points from 27 games. Around that level would be fair to middling in 2019, I reckon. Then in 2009 we kicked on a bit. Fingers crossed!