but you don't play professional sport so how would you know??

there was, i think, 9 weeks between the QF and SF. the cup should have put to one side for at least 6/7 weeks

I understand your dilemma, I really do. You've become so accustomed to witnessing mediocrity in this SL competition for so long that justifying a 6th placed finish comes naturally.

6th out of 14 where 8 are whipping boy SL rabble clubs, and of those 8 whipping boy SL rabble clubs, 2 of them absolute basket cases who have been relegated. And Leeds managed to toss it off and lose to both of them, including one who lost every other game they played.

You keep justifying that 6th placed finish by whatever means.

Thankfully, it'll be the last season you (or anyone else) are able to do so.

and thats how it should be. we want intensity every week. you always get odd blow outs but we want more leeds v saints or leeds v cas games

I don't know, but I'm not foolish enough to dismiss it and think teams can just click like that.

Can the posters on here HONESTLY say they always performed whenever they played sports, RL or other? Does getting paid and being classified as a professional mean you have a control over your mind and the tricks your brain can play with you when you play?

Regardless of what people think, nobody ever wants to lose when they play sports, whatever the sport is. I play golf quite a lot which I think is a good sport to play to realise the effect the mental side can have on your performance, on days when it's not going right for me I often try too hard and overthink what I'm going and it can lead to more errors and bad shots.

I agree but the difference between first and second half of the season is massive. Nobody has mentioned ageing legs in key positions bug I think that's been a factor

No one has mentioned doomed.

Since the end of May, nearly for months we have played 12 league fixtures, a quarter final against a championship side, and a semi and final in two weeks.

Of the 12 league fixtures we won 4 and drew one. Two of those and the draw we were extremely lucky to get anything. That isn't a balancing act or anywhere near acceptable, it is shocking for a top side.

Had we not beat Catalans with the last minute penalty, which we shouldn't, we would be one point in front of them, the seventh placed team. Nobody would argue Catalans have had a decent year, and I bet no one at Catalans would be silly enough to try.

The league form has been poor, and the cup is just an excuse. We have been in CC final plenty of times previously, and never been this bad in league.

It might not be accepted by some, but in the league we have been poor, and it is not to do with the cup. The point is next year you have to finish top four to have a go at the top prize, not top eight. McDermot in his coaching career has managed that once. We all know one off matches we can win, but to get that chance from next year, you have to be able to handle a 27 round league campaign first. Something based on our last few years we struggle to do.

It has gone dodgy in the 2nd half of the season but as I keep mentioning, McDermott himself admitted the side got Wembley fever as soon as they beat Saints in Round 5 and were given a favourable draw for the Quarters (even though they made hard work of it. From the end of April we were fairly certain of at least a Semi Final place in the competition that had continuously eluded this side.....can people honestly say a trip away to Belle Vue and The Hive would've seen their concentration and focus remain at top levels with Wembley in touching distance?

They are professional rugby players. They should always be focused.

Is it been suggested that come May time next year and we get an easy quarter final, that that will be the season ended for the league?

The cup wasn't the problem at all for why we will finish 6th. Two defeats to Saints which we should have won, and two defeats to Wigan are as much why we are where we are, as results against Bradford and London are.

The attitude in the club and the squad management seriously needs to change next year with the new format. It is laughable the excuses used for this club, when poor little Castleford, with much less squad strength, and the team who also got to Wembley, and only second time in 28 years, could still manage to put up a better league campaign than us.

If Leeds rested 'the first team en masse' V Bradford what status are you affording to the following (listed in squad number order) who all played - Hardaker, Jones-Bishop, McGuire, Burrow, Leuluai, Aiton, Jones-Buchanan, Delaney, Kirke, Achurch, Briscoe, Sutcliffe, Singleton.

One of the obvious absentees was unavailable through suspension.

No you're missing the point. They didn't get distracted because they had a chance to win just A cup. They had a chance to win the cup that had eluded them for 10 years, the trophy that was thought of as the missing piece. To think of it as something that could distract them every year from now on is foolish.....can't believe people will try and play dumb/stubborn and try and ignore how significant winning that particular competition was to the careers of those players.



How did Castleford get on at Wembley?

It doesn't matter how they got on. The fact is they have much less resources, yet followed the same path, yet had a better league campaign. If what you are suggesting is true, then you are saying the Castleford players were much more professional than ours. Am not convinced I agree with that.

We have finished 6th in the poorest standard Super League I can remember. Disgraceful. Now the Golden generation have their much sought after Challenge Cup medals they can all retire gracefully to Belle Vue or Odslum and we need to build a new team now along with a coach who encourages attacking football and not the dross he has been serving up for years.

I think it really does matter how they got on at Wembley.

Funny thing is, last year an improved league placing was dismissed seen as we'd taken an early exit in the CC compared to previous years and was 'proof' that this team couldn't be relied upon to come good in the important games. This year we win the thing and lower league placing is the focus of people's complaints!

It's laughable the flip-flopping hypocrisy of people's mindset.

Regarding Castleford, they do have a chance to win the LLS next week IF Saints slip up, if only Cas had won one more game it'd be in their hands........remind me of the team they put out at Warrington the week before Wembley?

Lol. I sometimes wonder if some people actually understand what sport is.

It does matter how they got on ! They came second without a trophy. With or without the resources .They even had a relative easier journey in Batley, Sheffield and Widnes. In the league they may pick up the peanut dish if results go for them. With 2 main trophies to pick up in a season I know which ones and a lot of other Leeds fans would like them to lift