The fourth time in five years, the club won’t see finals action but finished on a winning note with a 28-26 victory over Newcastle on Saturday. It was a final game-day farewell for departing club-captain Ben Creagh who enjoyed a final bonding session with his teammates on Monday.

“It is fair to say the entire playing group would have much rather been on the training field today preparing for the finals but unfortunately that is not the case,” Creagh said. “We have a great group of blokes at the club, we have certainly shared many highs and lows and today is probably the last time that we will all be together as a group so we will enjoy each other’s company.”

While they players enjoyed a day of dress-ups and end-of-season shenanigans, the rest of the week may look pretty bleak for the club as they look back over the 2016 season. Creagh has experienced all the highs and lows with the club in his 12-year career amid the scrutiny that goes with playing for one of the game’s most famous clubs and is confident the club has brighter days ahead.

“It definitely hasn’t gone to script this year, it’s been a tough year for the boys,” Creagh said.

“It’s unfortunate things haven’t come together for the boys. I’m sure there’ll be a fair bit of honesty in the off-season with a lot of players and hopefully with that comes, not so much change but improvement at the club.

“If you brush over things that went wrong this year and act like they didn’t happen the club will be in the same position next year but I think at the end of the season when the dust settles a lot of people will get their opportunity to speak and there’ll be a lot of improvement next year.”

“In saying that I think the future’s bright. We’ve got players coming through from the 20s who’ve had a great season. A guy like Luciano Leilua’s been great coming in. He’s a huge talent and he hasn’t even had a preseason yet so give guys like that a preseason and a bit of confidence and we’ll have a really strong side next year.”