DESPITE seeing his side fall at the first hurdle of the play-offs, Steve Price insists the 2019 Super League season has not been a failure for Warrington Wolves.

The Wire were beaten 14-12 by Castleford Tigers at The Halliwell Jones Stadium in last night’s elimination final, meaning they will go no further down the road to Old Trafford.

It proved the culmination of a run of league form that has seen them win just once in nine matches either side of their Challenge Cup Final victory last month.

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Having sat in second all season, Warrington ended the regular season in fourth and have now seen their campaign ended.

Price believes the physical exertions of his two seasons in charge – where they have featured in every round of every competition until now – may have caught up with them.

“We had a team to go really deep into the finals but it’s gut-wrenching that it’s finished the way it has,” he said.

“I wouldn’t say this season has been a failure in Super League – definitely not.

“We were running second for three-quarters of the season.

“I think it was game number 32 or 33 tonight and we’ve used one of the least amount of players throughout the competition.

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“The boys haven’t had a weekend off for over two years now. We’ve played every competition game.

“Whether that caught up with them in the end, I’m not sure but we’ve got some thinking to do.

“To go to Wembley and beat the raging favourites was phenomenal, but we haven’t really recovered.

“Whether it’s through tiredness, a bit of a hangover or what, I’m not too sure but there’s some sore, tired boys in there. A lot of the boys have been playing busted for a while now.

“We gave ourselves every chance tonight – we just weren’t clinical enough.

“From an offensive point of view, our decision-making could have been better but we created enough opportunities to win the game.

“Our execution – especially in transition and good-ball – needed to be better.

“In finals football, you need to be at your best and for the past couple of weeks, we haven’t been.

“There’s been some really good attacking plays in the past 10-12 weeks, but we have been a bit clunky at times.

“We’ve got to look at things and at what we can do better, myself included, and we’ll do that over the coming weeks.”

Full video reaction above