pm sent

It looked to me like a well-coached team against a badly coached one. Tvoc elsewhere talked about lack of structure, and it was glaringly obvious that we have almost none. No plan to stop opponents making massive yards up the middle (multiple men into the tackle and controlling it anyone?), and seemingly no idea how to cope with dummy runners near the line. No plan on attack within the opposition half at all. That's down to the coaching.

As for the players, well we now have a really good set of outside backs, but they look flat because we have the most ordinary pack imaginable. There's not a single forward that worries opponents and forces them to commit numbers to the tackle close to the opposition line through sheer physical presence, nobody with an offloading game worth mentioning, and none of our 'hardworking' forwards do much work off the ball at all. McGuire's ability to get the ball wide through his speed was missed, and Leeds didn't adjust to his absence.

The paucity of the side is probably spelled out on the bench. Nothing there at all. Instead of an Ali we had a hardworking prop, a big lad who seems very Chris Feather, an OK hooker and perhaps most bizarre of all is seemingly actually PLANNING to move one of your threequarters. Dumb doesn't even come close to what a waste of a bench spot that is. Nothing against Keinhorst - putting him in that position was plain stupid.

In the end people can talk about being brave all they want. We were hammered in the second half (23-8 with our points coming late) - very much what you'd expect to happen on the scoreboard when a better team gets on top of a poorer one.

No doubt people will expect a miracle comeback in the playoffs, but that Wire team was massively superior to us. I'll be stunned if we get near the Grand Final again this year.

One thing you learn pretty quickly on here, is that 99% of what you read, regarding player's salaries and things they are supposed to have said and done, is complete bull.

Until proved otherwise, I would go along with the reality that Wire do things within the laws of the game.....To suggest otherwise just makes people look very bitter and jealous....

thats a great most. sadly reaching wembley will keep BM in the job for another year.
i honestly expect nothing more than mediocrity next season

They will get near the Grand Final again. And by that, I mean an elimination semi final at the very least which is one game away from a Grand Final. Which teams are going to stop them? Hull? Huddersfield? Bradford? Catalan? Wakefield? Hull KR?

Catalan away isn't the gimme fixture you're making it out to be if they end up 4th and we're 5th

A couple of big calls went our way.
I thought the right call was made re the Hodgeson hit.
The Briers knock on should have been given, but there were more serious issues with the way Leeds played.
It seems to me that you've only 1 kicker - Sinfield - and he's he's put under pressure then there's no alternative.
We've got Monas, Hodgeson and even Ratchford.
That to me is one of the biggest issues in your team.

I'm not sure what tactics I'd have played if I was McDermott.
TS has got a squad with real strength in depth and he's shown time and again he can get the tactics right.
This time he targetted your youngsters on the Watkins side after a lot of biff and bash in the forwards.

I actually thought there was little in it in the first half and that you more than held your own although the threat in attack was not as decisive as ours.

I remember losing to Wigan in the 90's final and it was horrible, so in all honesty you do have my sympathy.
I really feel for Sinfield.

Not sure of the Play-Off etiquette but isn't one game away from a Grand Final known as the Qualifying Semi Final these days under the present hopeless format?

Don't think we've had an Elimination Semi Final since 2008.

I'd fancy Leeds to beat them when it really counts. They got close last week with one of their usual abject tossing it off regular round performances. Catalan are not genuine contenders and neither are any of the other rabble teams I mentioned earlier.

The facts are, no matter how ordinary Leeds are, no matter how weak their pack is, no matter how structurally inept they are in defence and dealing with dummy runners, they remain almost guaranteed of reaching the semi final of the SL play-offs. The same applies to the CC unless they ever get an unlucky early round draw - they will reach the semi finals of that competition, bare minimum.

Since the overall competition is poor, even this current Leeds squad remain only one single good performance away from reaching a Grand Final or a Challenge Cup Final. That's all it takes.

I think you are being over generous to Leeds there. We'll have to play very well to beat them in France. I'd be very confident at Headingley, which makes me think 4th might be a better option than 5th this year.

Quite possibly.

It's all very confusing newspeak... the kind of which Orwell would be proud of.

Perhaps they are just plain, no-nonsense semi finals these days, the week before the Grand Final?

Think I preferred major and minor semi finals and finals

Didn't the ARL use to have finals rather than play-offs? Always confused me those.

__________

Les Catalans have had three home fixtures in the Play-Offs beating Warrington (46-icon_cool.gif and Hull KR (56-6) with ease but also coming unstuck against Wigan (26-50) The one constant there is that it's never been much of a contest.

Leeds have yet to visit Les Catalans in the SL Play-Offs (or Challenge Cup) but they have a Won 3, Lost 4 record in the Regular Rounds, sequence W, L, W, L, W, L, L

So coach McDermott has yet to win there with Leeds although he did win there at least twice with the Harlequins.

Hardly a fair comparison. Leeds have to travel - it was a local derby for Quins

From memory, the ARL Top 5 play-off system which we used for several seasons from 1998 to 2001 (I think, though not entirely sure)...

Week 1Week 2Week 3Week 4:
Winner of Major Semi Final V Winner of Preliminary or Minor Final (Grand Final)