We had an awful second half.. Simple as... No excuses. The 50/50 "try" was not a try... We DID knock it on, so did wire, if in any other game the oposition recovers a knock on it is play on.. Unless THEY knock on.. Then it is a scrum to the oposition.

The ref wasnt great... For both sides. the only real bad call was the briers clear knock on... We still wouldnt have scored.

Well done Warrington. Deserved Win. I just hope this Leeds team can get a winners ring for thr CC... we have some great players and it would be a shame for the sport if one of Leeds' greatest teams misses out.

After seeing the weather forecast, I wanted to bet Leeds on the outright, but seeing a lack of pre-match rain and more importantly, Sinfield at hb, I did'nt bother. Sinfield sees the game an awful lot better at loose forward, than he does at hb. Feel Leeds lost the game in his 1st choice 13. Ward ( really like the look of him), Burrow, Lunt and Sinfield at 6,7,9 and 13, would have been my choice. And as for Bailey................. dear god.

No matter what the Ref decides IF we stay composed and strong on our line ala GF's his calls become irrellevant.
I agree with Tad the pack needs an over-haul and not just Achurch to arrive either.
The best side won but with our outside backs so young we have something to build on as long as the old guard are moved on and we finally get a defensive structure we are capable of sticking to for more than 5 games a year.

I thought the Briers knock on was a terrible decision. I said to my sister after 20 minutes we'd had the rub of green and would probably suffer for it later on which I think we did. I'd love to see the difference between the offside penalty on the first tackle when we tackled Hodgson on the goal line in the first half and the one where Hardaker was trapped in goal in the second.

Having said all that, the way Warrington controlled possession and were clinical after the Briers "knock on" was fantastic. It was like the Grand Final from last year but they just had a little bit more quality to finish us off. A well deserved win.

Forget refereeing decisions, forget 50/50 chances - we were beaten by the better team. Warrington were better on the day (without really having to get out of second gear), and have shown over the course of the season, they are are a better team than us.
When you look at the players, man vs man, I think we can more than match them for talent - however... For me, what today showed is that it's very dificult to coast through the season and then try turn it on for a single big game. Yes we did it last year in the run up to the GF, and that was great, but you can't do that year after year.
At the end of the day, Warrington were worthy winners, and we would have to catch them on an off day to win. We're simply not the best team anymore, and I can live with that - and even playing to our best, I don't think we could live with Wire or Wigan at their best.... Just one of those things - although I do feel that with better coaching, a few personnel changes and a change in attitude to the regular rounds, we can return to being the best team all round - and I still wouldn't write the team off for the GF.
I do have a feeling that this season could just fizzle out though - and long term, that might not be a bad thing. As a team and a club, we need to show more respect to the weekly competition.

I'm not even sure it's disrespecting the rounds. I think we clearly the 4th or 5th best side which our League position reflects. Having said that on our day we can still match the best sides if they aren't firing on all cylinders. Unfortunately these days are becoming more infrequent.

Disrespecting the rounds probably isn't the right term - but the focus and effort clearly isn't there for every game - certainly not in the first half of the season. And I can seriously see this having an affect on attendances and season ticket sales moving forward!
I do tend to agree with the rest of your post though - we can beat anyone on our day - but for the better teams, we also need them to have an off day.
We can't be the best team always - there is no shame in being second (or third) best to the current wire squad and coaches.... They are currently better in all aspects, and by quite a clear margin.

I agree. Wigan and Warrington are way in front and one of the main reasons are structures put in place by SMith & Maguire. Despite being proved wrong on more than one occasion, I'd still like to see us appoint a new coach next year.

I wouldn't say we had no game plan. In fact it worked quite well in the first half when we still well in the game. I think our game plan was to hold them early doors and then go onto the attack. The selection of Keinhorst over a forward rather backs that theory up. But the rain came down and meant different substitutions.

I do agree with you regarding our average/below average props with the exception of JP who was head and shoulders above our other 4 props and as a unit were not good enough. When Lunt came on and Burrow went to 7 we lost our shape IMO.

Had Bailey and Co. kept their discipline in a crucial period of the game the score would have been closer but without McGuire and with Sinfield a bit below par (and his effectiveness well closed down) it was always going to be an uphill task.

We have to accept that there are other sides with better players now and despite needing some new props with better go forward we are still knocking on the door for honours.

Relevance to 25th August 2012 ??

This is how to Lose badly!
We were beaten by a better team. The Delaney try if it had have gone our way may have been a different game but we will never know. At the game I thought it was a bad decision and went against us. (cracking tackle though)
Watching it back on tv think the right decision was probably made. I still don't think it was clear cut and I imagine some would have given the try, but probably right decision made.

Thought we played poor after the delaney decision but you have to say well done wire the better side on the day. Saying "come back when you win a GF" has no relivance and not needed.
You have to be a good loser as well as a good winner and admit the other team deserved the win