Tonight for me was pretty much a dead rubber.

Yeah it would have been good to take the two points to keep in touch but a defeat when you have so many injuries doesnt mean a great deal.

Yeah we could be 2 points further adrift of Wigan but there is still a lot of the season to go.

As I put to Rob Burrow tonight which he more or less agreed with, so long as we can win our games when we get our players back (and lets face it, we all know Leeds have won the GF in the last few years when they have been written off - more or less to shut certain people up) then I would rather lose games now with the injuries than in a few months.

Leeds are one of the only teams in SL that can go on a long unbeaten run and to look on the positives of what is happening at the moment, I feel this is still the case.

So for me, lets get people writing us off, lets get long odds at the bookies (so I can get my money on!), then lets hope the players again think - We will show you!

And you never know, the 4th GF Trophy could still well be in our cabinet come October.

I think we'll go on a killer run at the end of the season as well!

Bit like bradford in 2005 though not as dramatic a turnaround.

But it's gonna take time because once injured players return we won't click into form straight away.

Leeds are one of the most tried and tested teams currently around when it comes to reaching grand finals.

I still think we'll win it. I'm not worried.

How many league losses would you say you need to avoid to stand any chance of making a decent dent in the playoffs.

To be fair you haven't played Saints / Wigan / Wire either home or away yet.
Even on top form you'd struggle to win all six games.

agreed danny! Agreed sir!

I think the team that finishes top will lose 6 to 8 games this season.

But we might lose to one of those who might then lose the week after to a less fancied team. Wigan flying high, still lost to Crusaders was it?

I remember Wigan way back having a mare and losing 5 or 6 at the start of the season. I think they then won their last 30 games. Saints went 20+ until the 2008 GF, we did something similar last year. It's just really hard to be on top the whole time over several years. 3 in a row was so tough nobody else has done it, Saints, Bradford during their best years have had to take breathers every so often. We know what these players are capable of. Yes, it's crap when we lose a game, and you feel bad - I feel bad now and I wasn't at the match, but it's a long, long season. It also looks like this year that more teams are beating each other, which actually means you could potentially finish top with less points and more losses. So this year you're right. I can see it being more like 8 than 6 actually for the top team.

i wonder if Leeds would have won the Grand Final if the play offs had actually been fair to all teams involved? i mean finish 1st or 2nd and you got a second chance after losing a game, is that fair? i think not, i seem to recall that in the 2008 play offs you where beaten by Saints in the Qualifying / Elimination semi-finals 38 points to 10, now if the play offs had been knock out all the way it would have been a Wigan Saints final that year

What, you mean the ones that were $h1t over most of the season and didn't manage to finish in the top 2? You mean the playoff system where the top two sides played each other first? Perhaps if it had been knockout all the way (like in the old days) the top two teams would have played the $h1t teams that finished 7th and 8th and p1$$ed all over them and we would have seen the same two teams in the final whatever?

But you hadn't thought of that because you're a t!t.

You were accommodatingly generous to us tonight, bombed what, three tries in the first half but you've still got the best squad in the competition.

Playing on that sand pit must be very frustrating for a team that likes to play attractive rugby.

Still the favourites for me.

If your auntie had b0llocks she'd be your uncle.

The teams who finish 1st and 2nd have been consistently the best teams throughout (usually) and deserve a bigger chance of getting to OT.

On top form we could win all 6 games.

Tough games to come no doubt but it's actually an opportunity to take points of our rivals and make ground back up.

It's a long season, write us off at your peril.

And if we got out of the cc early to hull, we're going to come on very strong in the last 2 months of the season.

Nice £60 after backing KR tonight, saw the late drop outs and quickly lobbed a tenner on.

if that had been the case then fair enough, but to get a second bite of the cherry after a game and then going on to win the final is bull also winning one play off game and then go into the final is also crap, to make things worse the new system is twice as e, the reason we have a play off system is so SKY can make more money, to be fair they should go back to the top 2 play each other for the cup.

btw foxtrot Oscar to your last comment tool