The Liam Farrell Column: The story of our year has been one of inconsistency. It'll be a tough off-season

If we’d finished with a win, it may have been a different story. But our performance in the 32-0 loss at Wakefield, a week after the no-show against Castleford, was tough to take.

You can take it when you play well and the game’s not gone your way. But the feeling among us all is one of 
disappointment.

After Cas’ lost last Friday – and our hopes of making the play-offs went – it was always going to be tough to get up for it. But the standards of this club are much higher than what we dished up, and to go down without a fight was really 
disappointing.

Credit to Wakefield, they had enthusiasm and energy and they schooled us a bit.

The story of our year has been of inconsistency. 
We’ve already reviewed the season and we couldn’t remember too many games when we played really well.

There were times we did well under the circumstances, and times we got some good wins – but the number of really good performances was not as high as it should be.

The World Club Challenge was the obvious highlight, and we performed well in a couple other games, but if we want to be a top team we need to be playing better, more regularly.

I mention the World Club, that was definitely the highlight of the year.

To win a trophy which many great players of this club haven’t had a chance to win was pretty special. As for the low point, the biggest disappointment for me was the way we ended the season. I honestly thought we could kick on and get into the top-four, but we let the season fizzle out.

We’ve got our end of season dinner on Sunday, when we’ll reflect on the season and also say farewell to the lads who are leaving.

I’ll obviously still see my brother Connor a lot! And I’ve got to say a word about Kyle Shelford. I know he’s only played one first-team game, but there aren’t many players who put in as much effort and dedication as he does, and I’m confident he’ll go on and do well elsewhere.

I’ll start England training next week.

Lads who aren’t involved in the play-offs will meet up for a few sessions, and then we’ll find out next Sunday, the day after the Grand Final, whether we’re in the World Cup squad.

I’ll watch the semi-finals on TV.

Saints have beaten Cas’ twice this year but I think the Tigers will win the first play-offs game – they’ve been too good to blow it at this stage.

In the other game, Hull FC are a good side but I think Leeds will be too strong for them. They seem to have gone under the radar over the last few weeks, but they’ve been doing well and I think it’ll be a Leeds-Cas Grand Final. Two greats of Super League will bow out over the next few days. Gareth Ellis was someone I looked up to when I was younger. And the biggest compliment I can give Rob Burrow is he’s the worst player to see running at you when you’re tired! Honestly, I’d rather have the biggest prop charging at me, at least there’s more to get hold of! Rob’s taken some shots over the years. They’ve both had great careers.