Woooaaah - how many years do you have to go back till last time the whites missed the four??
It may of been 2005-2006 - from memory the Whites were struggling and then somewhat out of the blue basically the whole St Edmunds 1st XV - led by Dan Penca joined the Whites and then they won the Premiership in 2007.
Only reason I remember this is due it that being my junior playing age group/year - so there was a lot of talk around why Penca and a lot of the St Eddies players didn't take up the offers from Vikings. Also the year most of the Marist players went to Royals instead of Vikings - the only notable player I can think of out of that playing group/age group was Michael Henry - who stuck it out for years in lower grades and has now become a bit of a club legend/1st Grader.
So its possibly been over 10 years since they missed the finals - I may be wrong - I went a bit MIA in the Club Rugby scene for a few years.
I think they are lacking leadership/experience - Penca can't take everything on his shoulders - he is trying to lead a side + trying to take up some of the slack of the inexperienced players around him - you could see a huge difference when Saia and Les were on yesterday - it gave Penca abit of time to simply play the game. I honestly believe if Les and Saia had been left on they would of won the game - I know this would be of somewhat controlled by the Brumbies Management. They are really missing the likes of Barbaro also - who was a natural leader and technically the best scrummager in the comp.
I guess let's see what they can do when some of the injured players start to flow back into the side - they have Easts next week - 1. they need to get the win and 2. they really need to put some points on them to help with ladder standings.
I believe after this weekend Queanbeyan will be sitting 2nd last.