The horrific Super League stat which underlines Catalans Dragons’ failure in 2024
Catalans Dragons head coach Steve McNamara
Catalans Dragons have become just the seventh team in Super League history to play in a Grand Final one year and fail to make the top six the next.
The Dragons‘ 2023 campaign ended with a 10-2 defeat at Old Trafford to Wigan Warriors last October.
But 11 months on, their 2024 season is already over, missing out on the play-offs for the first time since 2019.
Their absence comes having finished 7th, level on competition points with 6th-placed St Helens but vastly inferior where points difference is concerned.
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The horrific Super League stat which underlines Catalans Dragons’ failure in 2024
Steve McNamara’s side have joined a small list of teams to have plummeted the year after an Old Trafford appearance, which notably only started in 2016!
Leeds Rhinos won the Grand Final in 2015, but then finished 9th in 2016 and ended up playing in The Qualifiers as opposed to the Super 8s.
Then, 2016‘s Grand Finalists Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves both missed out on the top six in the ‘regular’ 2017 campaign.
The Warriors, who won the Grand Final in 2016, ended 7th in 2017 and eventually ended up 6th following the Super 8s – but didn’t make the play-off semi-finals.
Warrington meanwhile followed up defeat at Old Trafford in 2016 with a 9th-place finish in 2017, moving on to The Qualifiers and retaining their place in the top flight!
Leeds‘ 2017 Grand Final triumph was also followed up with a 9th-place finish and a spot in The Qualifiers in 2018, while Salford Red Devils’ first Grand Final appearance in 2019 preceded a 7th-place finish in 2020.
And before Catalans‘ failure this year (2024) having made it to Old Trafford in 2023, Leeds followed up their Grand Final appearance in 2022 with an 8th-place finish in 2023.
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