damned with faint praise indeed.

for one so concerned with stats and seemingly with success rates you seemed to have somehow overlooked something in your post...care to fill us in on the match yesterday ????

Castleford 10 Leeds 23

Not sure whether it was Wayne Bennett or Brian McDermott who said it but hard to disagree with either.

The faintest of praise indeed by one of the usual suspects.

Bet he hated the cheer for McDermott lifting the cup (which was one of the best moments of the day IMO)

I still don't agree with his 3 man substitutes, but he got it spot on in the final for me. After a dominant first half for us, Cas were always going to come out with a win at all costs response. The "negative" tactics were spot on for me and were pretty much the same we used to nullify Vainikolo several years ago.

When he was nearly in tears during the BBC interview it really showed how much it meant to him and that's all you can ask for from a coach. Long may his reign and sometimes baffling uses of substitutes continue

Yep. And it didn't allow Dorn or Carney to counter attack when returning kicks.

There's way too much bitterness on these boards ATM. We should all revel in the success, and perhaps agree to leave the past behind?

I was a BM doubter early on. What he clearly has is the support of the spine of the team - Sinfield, Peacock et al - which is where, seemingly his predecessor fell down after a good start. Coming in to manage players with their records couldn't have been easy, and I for one take my hat off to him.

His biggest challenge lies ahead though - managing the gradual (even potentially not-so-gradual) replacement of the core players over the next few years.

The "game plan" was obviously designed to stop Cas getting any momentum with the ball. It worked superbly in that regard because the players worked tirelessly and Leeds kicked to the left corner and boxed Luke Dorn in. The Cas kicking game was shocking by contrast. Kicking straight down the field and allowing Briscoe, Haradker and Hall to get Leeds to the 40 nearly every set after 2 tackles. However the main difference was Leeds dominance in the collision. You can say the game plan was "dour" on attack but the easy metres were there on offer every set for Leeds - particularly the first half where the stats were rediculously unballanced. So why not take them?
I think you have to give credit to Cas for Leeds not scoring more points. We did make half breaks and we did look dangerous on both flanks but Cas are a good side and they worked really hard to cover defrend those. What Leeds players didn't do in those situations is force the play and make mistakes - so in that respect maybe Leeds were a little conservative.

As for the subs, maybe Achurch or Singleton would have been more useful on Saturday on the bench instead of Sutcliffe, but I guess the thinking was that Sutcliffe was there for a situation that never occured, where we had to chase the game from behind, or perhaps a situation where Cas were not as comitted defensively.

I also thought Powell made mistakes. Huby was poor selection. He may have not made any glaring errors but the number of times he was left on the floor clearly in pain after a tackle leaving only one marker made him a real liability IMO. Clarke also had too much defence to do, good tactics by Leeds but Powell must have realised Leeds would try and target Clarke to make him defend. However, they did shut down Ablett on the left near the line and they did very carefuly watch Hardaker linking on the right.

In the end we got a dominant perfromance that got the result. Against a less committed defence Leeds could have posted 40 points or more but Cas did defend their line tremendously well.

By the way, what a winey little b**ch Luke Dorn is. Tried to maake up for his lack of metres running with the ball and being dominated in every collision by crawling along the floor after every tackle, bitc**g to the ref and trying to milk a penalty. A headbutt would have been well deserved.

Totally agree Brisbane/DHM.
I've got to say I disagree the tactics were "dour" it was a clear game plan executed to almost perfection resulting in ending a nightmare 15yr wait to get the CC.
Just as in the semi v Wire and ST's earlier in the comp the game-plan was spot on imo and proves the Coach does have plans and structures to implement which btw is very reassuring to see when you consider some of the past efforts but as has been suggested that was then this now and we celebrate an extremely job well done.
FWIW DA/Printer I have no problem at all admitting I was cheering loudly when MC lifted the cup & would never wish a player or coach to fail at our club.

Well I for one know that already.

I only have issues with those that consistently seek out individuals as scapegoats or bleat and moan about what it costs them when the team loses.

Its a team game and they succeed or fail as such. Be part of the team and enjoy the highs and the lows will look after themselves.

DA-Fair point well put!