Apparently Mac stood back and let McGuire do all the pre match talking

I think the worst Grand Finals of all time are those ones that Leeds did not reach!

Regarding the 2017 final it has to be said the handling conditions were terrible but we should not underestimate how good Leeds were. McGuire was magnificent and did to Cas what Gale has done to us in the past. Our defence and line speed never let Cas settle or gain momentum. We created and took our chances well. Yes 3 of our 4 tries came from kicks but that was the right tactic under the conditions and Briscoe’s 2nd try was made by a lovely bit of centre play by Moon even if there was a suspicion of a forward pass.

It's true that mate, I heard it from a player's mouth.

With McGuire suspended we only scored the one early try but Sinfield took kickable penalties when given the chance and a drop goal in the first half. At the end 1 point behind with 3 mins left and 45m out most would've tried a drop goal which would've been unlikely to land but Sinfield shows great patience and puts up the bomb so even if the FB catches it we can hopefully get field position for one final set. When we end up with the ball again such smart play by Burrow to run right at Farrell to win the penalty where again many others may have run for the line looking for a try. That 10/15 secs shows perfectly why we've had the success we've had in playoffs and exactly why people say playoff rugby is different and point out Cas turning down kicks as a massive mistake.

To quote Sinfield's post match interview after that game

"Look it wasn't great, it wasn't pretty, but it didn't have to be, we just had to win"

Not the worst GF.

But definitely the worst performance in a GF by Cas.

But also their best

Agree.
As a neutral though, the biggest thing that obviously came out of it, was that after all the hype the Cas team built up over the season, they actually stank the place out in a way that non of their fans expected even in their worst nightmares and that was the disappinting thing. Especially when it came down to it, it was 1st v 2nd in the GF.

I perosnally don't think for the vast majority of fans there's any bitterness or whatever you want to call it towards Leeds for winning - I just think most neutrals wanted a new name on the GF Trophy first and foremost, whether that was Hull at one stage or Cas. Somone posted earlier that quite a few fans had been put off by some Cas supoorters thinking they were the next Melbourne Storm, I think some jumped off the bandwagon at that time.

As for the game, no it probably wasn't the worst but it certainly was generally a poor game. Not taking anything away from Leeds. They came in assessed the conditions and played RL accordingly, whereas Cas seem to do the opposite. There were always going to be errors, but the amount that were unforced was very higgh, even taking into consideration the rain. Also I haven't seen McGuire play that well all year. I said at the time , he was rolling back the years with that performance

As for those that said it should may have been a Saints final, if they'd have had a better kicker. TBF Saints shouldn't have been in the top 4 imo. If not for a mistake from Grix in the last minute of the game, that he probably wouldn't make 49 times out of 50, their season should have ended that night, they were the 2nd best team and got a gift from god but tbh even with the mistake, we should have put them to bed earlier and carried on playing as we had been.

It's Scott Grix's we're talking about here so more likely 25 times out of 50.

Didn't he make a similar mistake that gifted the League Leaders Shield to Leeds in 2015?

'twas a final where an experienced team played the conditions better than the novice team. Big Mac outsmarted Powell (cue the anti Mac brigades venomous put downs).

Even for Grixy that one against Saints was something special.

Tbf to him though he's been excellent all year and the brain farts were kept down to an absolute minimum, except for the monster aganst saints.

I just popped onto the casforum (the independent, don't want off comers posting one) and found this gem of a thread starter.



ah bless The thread continues in a similar vane.

The win just keeps getting better

That forum is hilarious.

Some of the pettiness and outright hatred over nothing is breathtaking.

There’s one or two sane posters fighting against the tide but massively outnumbered by an entire legion of grade a whoppers.

their silly attitude in the build up to this GF was by worse than we saw from Saints fans in 2008 .they actually thought they wee invincible

I’m surprised there’s so many still out on the bakers indy site. Most of them have crawled back under their rocks.