Saints and Cas will finish in top 2. Has the top 2 ever looked less threatening? Funny old game.

Yeah there's still a lot of what ifs involved but IF Wigan lose on Thursday and finish 5th then we could see a scenario of Wigan and Leeds being the two choices for the clubcall team to make in the semis......good luck to whoever could have that choice.

The key difference to finishing 6th compared to the 5th of other years is that we face the highest ranked loser from the top 4 games if we get through the first week, not the lowest ranked like in 2012 and 2011.

Had we had to face the highest ranked loser in those years it would've been Warrington away instead of Catalans in 2012. It would've been Wigan away instead of Hudds in 2011. This year I'm not sure facing the highest ranked loser will present such a difference compared to the lowest ranked. Looks like it's going to be a top 2 of Saints and Cas.....and I don't think both will win in the first week of the playoffs leaving us to go to one of their places.

People have mentioned we weren't able to win at Saints earlier in the year but it was one that even McDermott admitted a few weeks later that he got the tactics wrong of thinking we could just barge over the line. If we were to go there again we are a different prospect and team in playoff mode, win or lose we definitely won't employ the same tactics that we did that night.

And Hudds may well be in the top 4 too, and they're constant playoff failures. If Warrington complete the top 4 then there's hardly a GF winners ring to show between those 4 teams apart from the ones Roby and Wellens picked up many moons ago and Lunt's win with us.

Pretty similar to our team and the CC... until this year

I would hope most top sides would consider a home venue an advantage? especially in what is likely to be a tight game. Unless you have injuries to key players a week off is no real benefit in some case it can be the opposite.
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Home games can be an advantage, but it can also add to the pressure. Leeds have shown that they can win away in the play-offs. Some of the teams we could be facing in week 2 it could be debated that they haven't shown ability to win play-off games, of any sort.

A little O/T but a post on the saints board suggests they've actually performed better away from Langtree Park than they have at home since the stadium opened. No idea whether this is true but no other poster has contradicted him.

Not really a surprise.Knowsley Road always was a tough, intimidating place to go for the away team, much in the same way Central Park was for the pies.Langtree Park is a great stadium but doesn't hold the fear factor yet.

So likely top 8 ofCastleford v Huddersfield
St Helens v Wigan
Leeds v Catalans
Warrington v Widnes

Week 2Leeds
Huddersfield v Warrington - too close to call

Week 3:

would think Cas would club-call the winner of the Huddersfield-Wire game, sending us away to Wigan again.

Not in the style of an AP/Keith Swiftcorn/William Eve league table where games against those teams he chooses and only those games count.

So those were a sub-set that only included matches involving those five clubs. Ok, get it now.

Only Leeds and St Helens of those five clubs have qualified for all ten Play-Off campaigns. Wigan eight, Warrington seven, Huddersfield six.

Hull made it into eight Play-Off series (including a Grand Final appearance) but miss out and while Bradford have now fallen away (no appearances in last five Play-Off series) they made every series until 2008 and were a three time winner, including making two GF's in the specified period - winning one.

Weren't Swiftcorn's limited to individual season/s?