Good post...

Just to add, is it really worth playing 28 games to qualify for a one off match?

Depends if you win......

ah, now that is a different thing.however we all play by the rules the RFL set

I have to admit, it has somewhat diluted the importance of league matches and the season in general. For example, noone on here seems massively bothered about losing to Saints on Friday. Why? Because we know we can and will play a lot better when it really matters, and because we know the odd two points here and there don't matter in the slightest.

Of course it'd have been great to win, but losing matches here and there throughout the regular season never stopped us winning the major prize in 2007 & 2008. We know that, given the depth of our squad, it's going to take a big effort from someone to push us out of the top 2, and an even bigger effort to deny us another Grand Final appearance.

So, it's that old debate again - is the regular season a bit of a drawn out waste of time? As Bradford proved in 2005, a team can be average at best for most of the year (didn't we spank them 3 times in the league that year?), then come good in the last month or two and walk away with the prize. Granted there were mitigating circumstances, notably Saints' injuries that year, but the fact was that the team who peaked at the right time became champions, despite being garbage for most of the season.

The only league games I get really up for nowadays are those against Saints (because they're the only team to be on a par with us throughout a full season) Bradford (because Leeds Bradford games will always mean something, no matter where each team is in the league) and Wigan (because they usually lift themselves massively against us in league matches, which always adds that "uncertainty" factor to the build up). I Hate to say it, but beyond that, not many other games get me that excited nowadays.

That would depend if you'd call Leeds getting beat 10 - 42 in one of the two fixtures at Headingley as handing out a spanking.



Terry Newton.

Nice come back.

Hey - when we're wrong, we're wrong, and sometimes we have no option but to hold our hands up and cop for it

For all the derision that statistics often get, there's nothing better than a simple fact to derail a hastily made comment...

Hope it doesn't detract from my point in general though....

Not at all, good point which was well made.

The 10-42 game at Headingley was in Round 25 and Bradford's run to the GF win had started in Round 21 after a Round 20 loss away at Wakefield.

Cheers!



Just out of interest, do you know what Bradford's win/loss record for the season was immediately prior to the start of their late season run? And was their overall record for the season the worst achieved by a Championship winning team in the Super League era?

Sure

Bradford after their Round 20 defeat at Wakefield lay 5th in the table with a record of Pl 20, Won 10, Drawn 1, Lost 9, 21 Pts. They won their last eight regular round fixtures and finished in 3rd on 37 points.



Leeds also won the Championship in 2007 after gaining 37 points in the regular rounds although that was from playing one less fixture.

Thanks tvoc. Just goes to show that if a team who only won half of their first 20 games and only 64% overall can go on to be champions, how little losing a few games here and there means in the grand scheme of things, and how daft it is to use a team's regular season record to judge their right to be called "the best"!!