No surprise to me, as a Saints fan. In recent years, the attitude in your first paragraph has been all about not getting there yourselves and trying to belittle Saints' achievement in getting there so often in the SL era.

I don't know whether you've been to the new Wembley before but if you haven't you will find the atmosphere outside the stadium to be a a crushing disappointment. However, once you sit on the vertical slopes of seating and have managed to stop your head from spinning, the noise and atmosphere is like nothing else. You'll be an instant convert. It's the best final even now with all the hype over the Grand Final. IMO can't beat the Challenge Cup final and it has to be kept alive.

I still feel the same. I would give up a win Saturday if it meant we won our 4th title in a row. The SL will always come before the cup for me.

Well, luckily this year we have finalists that have sold it out.

The Challenge Cup is great, a prestigious trophy, one of only two meaningful ones a club can win each year. I always want us to win it.

However, despite how much the fans may enjoy the day it still is not as significant as winning a championship.

Absolutely. It's a fabulous memory (can't wait to see the full re-run of the 1978 cup final promised on BBC4 in Sept)....but winning the GF is the pinnacle.

Ditto.

Ask any premiership footy team if the FA cup is unimportant or the cricket team if the ashes dont mean owt.

The Challenge Cupp will always be a MAJOR rugby tournament with all the drama, romance and poassion of an entire SL season packed into 80 minutes. Yep GF win would be great by Wembley victory will always be sweet.

[sizeshame you'll only get to look at the cup as the Wolves parade it round the stadium for the second year running[/size.

i agree and have said as much in the past when saints fans have waved their cc record at us, but in monetary terms its (CC) serious money into the club isn't it?

It is but whether it is as much as the GF not sure.IIRC GF winners get a cheque for £390,000 plus the added bonus of a shared gate from the WCC.

I always want us to win the cup, I love cup final day. The GF is still the one to win, but if we win the CC this year we'll have beaten all of the other teams currently in the top 5 in doing so, so it will be a great achievement.

Seeing as there are only two trophies to play for then I would say the Challenge Cup is more important these days than it was a couple of decades back when there was the Regal Trophy, Lancashire/Yorkshire Cups, League title and Premiership.

In football the reason the FA Cup has lost a bit of its shine is because of the Champions League, ie clubs would rather finish 4th in the league and win nothing, than 5th in the league and win the FA Cup, which is sad. In RL you don't have that.

Given the choice of the Grand Final or the Challenge Cup final then I would rather win the GF, but I don't think there is a great deal in it, the CC is the most historic competition in RL.

No, it's not. It's full of Happy Clappers in Jester's Hats doing Mexican Waves.

The CC used to be important. In fact it was too important in the pre-SL era, insofar as it overshadowed the championship. Nobody remembered who were the champions but everyone fondly remembered the CC winners. The CC Final at Wembley was the de facto champions trophy or grand final. The rounds of the CC also used to rack up the highest attendances.

Post SL-era, it's been relegated to a Mickey Mouse Cup with Mickey Mouse rounds which are organised way too far apart, hence it's lost it's focus and continuity. Attendances during the rounds are now embarrassingly low and the Semi Finals struggle to pull in the crowds. The Final itself maintains it's popularity but primarily as an excuse for sundry clowns and bandwagoners to indulge themseves on a boozy day out in the capital or a weekend away.

As a competition it still exhibits some credibility because it's inclusive and open to most teams to enter from amateur and professional levels, unlike SL which is an exclusive and elitist competition open only to clubs considered worthy enough or who fit the prevailing criteria agenda.

In order of importance (my opinion)
League leaders . Finish top over 27 rounds and you are the champions of SL
CC . It is up there for everyone to have a bite at . If you claim it you are the best .
GF . A good day out . But pretty meaningless while there is the possibility of a team winning from below halfway down the league final table . Should include the whole 14 teams as an end of season KO cup . Yes I know it has been good to win it , but while we were diong so we weren't really the champs were we .
Surely you can only be the true champions if EVERYONE is allowed to compete for the title (hubcap for the league , CC for everyone)

i think most peoples opinion will vary depending on how long you've supported leeds or how old you are
my kids are more excited about this years cup because they havent seen leeds lift it yet,they almost expect us to win the grand final as thats been the norm for them
to lots of leeds fans our last cup win was just something that happened last centuary and they cant relate to it in the same way as they can to current successes

of the 2 i'd prefer leeds to win the cup purely because for super league to gain any credability it needs 2 different teams contesting this seasons grand final, another saints v leeds suggests a weak competition or players that cant handle big game pressure

I'd say saints fans get most of the stick for always going on about all trophies(including the hub cap) as if they're equal. But you are right that the only reason anyone goes on about "the Mickey Mouse cup" is to wind up plastic scousers!

In order of importance it's clearly:

Grand Final
Challenge Cup
...
...
...
(Big Gap)
...
...
Championship Grand Final
Northern Rail Trophy
SL Hub Cap (Token gesture unless you win the follow on competition)
Championship Hub cap (as above)