The greatest Super League bounce back seasons including Leeds Rhinos and Hull FC

Plenty of Super League sides will be very disappointed with their 2024 campaign.

In particular, underperformers were St Helens and Catalans Dragons, who were two of the favourites for last year’s Grand Final, and Leeds Rhinos, who always expect to be near the top of the pile despite their disappointing recent campaigns.

However, there is hope for these sides: here are some of Super League’s greatest comeback stories.

The greatest Super League bouncebacks

Leeds Rhinos

The Rhinos themselves have some precedent for this: they finished ninth in 2016 and finished the regular season with just 16 points – and 10 of those games in the final six games.

Prior to this run, they had lost five in a row, but this upturn in form saw them see out their 2016 season on top and that was something that they carried over into 2017 where they would finish second in Super League.

They may have been hammered by Castleford in the regular season, as well as finishing ten points behind them, but they went on to win the Grand Final just a year after looking like one of Super League’s worst sides.

Catalans Dragons

The Dragons have a precedent of bouncing back, also.

When moving into Super League from the French system, they finished 12th and 10th in their first two seasons, before finishing third in their third season.

Not long after, in 2010, they finished 14th in an expanded Super League, but were not relegated due to the licensing system.

That gave them the opportunity to improve again, and they took it, making it to the play-offs after a sixth-place finish, but falling to Wigan Warriors in the preliminary semi-final.

Hull FC

In 2014, Hull FC finished 11th, just as they did this year – although in 2014, they were ahead of three sides: Wakefield, Bradford and London.

Just three years later, they had just won back-to-back Challenge Cups and finished third twice in a row, in what was certainly the best the Black and Whites have been in the past couple of decades.

It is possible, Hull FC fans. Just believe.