I think the heat & humidity had a massive effect on the team, allied to our errors & poor discipline we had to do so much defence early on that it took a very heavy toll on all the players.
The Dragons are used to those conditions we aren't & there is never enough time to acclimatise.

The only positive from Saturdays game for me was Lilley at dummy, I wouldn't be disappointed so see him start on thursday.

A little lightweight in defence but that's to be expected, we certainly looked a bit sharper (not hard) when he came on an freed Sinfield up.

I thought Lilley did well given he hasn't played much first team and was playing in a beaten team

40 odd missed tackles, and 23 errors says it all really.

Mental/physical fatigue? Tired minds and bodies coming towards the end of a longer than previously normal season where they haven't had a week off?

With the new format, there aren't any games at the back end of the season like a Salford or Wakefield where you could coast and still pick up the two points. Every game is approaching play-off levels in terms of its physicality and speed.

Seven of the Super 8s got a nice week off to refresh and recuperate at the end of August. Leeds didn't. Are we seeing a reaction to that in the last couple of performances?

Possibly, although neither saints nor wigan looked especially refreshed last week. Maybe it's loss of focus arising from the distraction of Wembley. But unlike previous play off series, there ain't many easy matches available to rebuild that focus.

Shouldn't you had used the word fellow then?

As others has said the final was far from a tough "play off intensity" game, It certainly doesn't justify the drop in form since, let hope we can go some way to fixing it on Thursday.

No, but there will have been a lot of mental energy invested in the occasion and the build-up, followed by a slump afterwards when all that adrenaline wears off.

Can sometimes be difficult to top the tank back up after big occasions mentally as much as physically.

It wasn't but that wouldn't have stopped us from training and preparing ourselves to peak for that weekend. Also the Cup Final was our 10th win in our last 11 games. Would've been quite hard to keep our form going for 16/17 games towards the playoffs.

Hopefully this is just a 2 week lull and not a 4/5 week lull.

I know it seems we fell away completely last year after the CC final, but who knows, if Briscoe hadn't have dropped that ball with the game won in the playoffs against Catalan, We may have kicked it up a gear the following week at a Saints side who were no great shakes with no half backs and then on to OT. its obvious the side are holding back right now, we have done this every year under Mac and it worked a treat in 2011 and 2012. I would be very surprised though if we are not right back at it against Cas this week after a 2 week mental break, with the opportunity to wrap up the Hub Cap if Saints can turn Wigan over on friday.

The Friday game's an interesting prospect. On the one hand, I haven't seen a right lot from saints to support Wilkin's bleating about them being one of only two serious challengers for the GF. I think Walmsley's sitting it out too, which won't help their cause. Then I look at Wigan who results-wise would seem to be coming good at the right time. Performance-wise they've been little better than saints though and some of their away form has been dreadful. Really don't know who to tip for this one. Perhaps Wigan, if only because it's probably not in Wane's nature to turn his back on a potential LLS. Wouldn't surprise me if he plays his strongest side, psychs it up to ridiculous levels, then pays the price as they hit a slump straight after a demolition job on Saints. Here's hoping.

I expect Leeds to shake off the lethargy of the last two weeks and put in a performance that will really put Cas to the sword. The senior players will be/should be embarrassed with their performances last week which should be a spur to an enhanced showing against a side they should be able to beat at a canter.

Having watched the Golden Decade DVD there seems no doubt that last year winning the CC wiped the team out for a long period of time. I'm sure they planned to get past Catalans and then ramp it up, but IMO they left it too late to try to regain form. This year the mental effect will be lessened.

Hopefully they've learned a bit from last year in terms of not waiting till sudden death to try to get into form. At most they've got four games left in their Leeds careers, I just can't see Peacock, Sinfield and Leuluai not at least giving it a good shake this time.