But it's not an overreaction is it. We're in a completely false position in the table. If it were first past the post, does anyone seriously believe we'd be top? Leeds deliberately coast along and Warrington have been pacing themselves this season as well. We'd be forth or fifth if everyone was going all out, as will be exposed in the Play Offs. People, particularly Eamon and the positivists on here and Redvee will point to the fact that Walsh and Lomax are out as an excuse, but it wouldn't have mattered if they were fit. This side and particularly this pack simply doesn't stand up when it matters.

I agree that the pack particularly has been unacceptably inconsistent this year, although the lengthy lay-offs for Wilkin, Amor and Manu have to have played a significantly disruptive role.

However, I think you go too far in dismissing the impact of Walsh's absence. It's not just this last few weeks he's been absent. This whole campaign was built around Walsh, who showed in the first month that he is easily the best player in superleague. If he had remained injury free, then our team would probably have developed those "unthinking" rhythms which power the best teams, where players are in the right places because they are used to going to those places. Even without that season-long practise, if he was injury-free now, I would confidently tip us to go to the Grand Final.

We can certainly argue that we should have been able to cope with injury disruption better (although being top of the league isn't a bad answer to that accusation), and we can certainly argue that we should have had more back-up in key positions (although losing your first 3 choice halfbacks simultaneously is pretty unforeseeable). But to argue that the long-term absences of the best player in the competition, plus our main attacking back, our strike prop-forward (Amor), plus our pack leader and replacement half (Wilkin), doesn't excuse the outcome of the year is going too far. It really does.

There are issues : the forwards need more consistency, the backs need to sort out their defensive frailties, and we need to work out what the hell is going wrong with our conditioning that our players are so prone to very long-term injuries. But while the GF is almost certainly beyond us now, we need to keep our heads screwed on and accept the reality that we're finishing at the top of the pile despite a massive injury-caused handicap. That doesn't make the whole team and all its players pants.

Yet we've took more points off any other team in the current top 8 and top of the league with one game to go.

Maybe the other teams are just as bad as us and the quality has dropped dramatically.

I think we got a few lucky 50/50 calls in the first 6 matches and played a couple of teams off form. Leeds looked unbeatable in that period until a Saints wekened side beat them.
Its a funny season this year, lots of teams not putting the effort similar to Saints making Superleague really poor with some unpredictable score lines.
If we had Walsh playing for most of the season the LLS would have stayed out of the box a couple of weeks ago, if the top teams had all there playmakers missing like Saints again the LLS would have been heading our way.

The quality of Superleague is the worst its ever been which has seen a shift of prepping for the play offs
having increasing value.

Dead right.

So why is the standard so bad now ?

For the most part, I agree, but there's something about Saints and Brown that just doesn't make sense. Performances like Friday's seem all too common, but as pointed out, we're top of the league and have taken plenty of points off the big teams.
Its all very well saying that if the big prize was for first past the post the other teams would have upped their games, but maybe we would have also and those half dozen weeks when we've not bothered wouldn't have occurred. Other big teams have had some shocking weeks, is it right to say that they're saving themselves for the real prize, but then go bananas when we give away weekly points with an under par performance?

The memory of performances like Friday's suggests we'll crash out of the playoffs. Indeed, that's what I'm expecting, but if we go on a decent run (which we are capable of), will we all look back and say/think/hypothesise/remark that during the season, we too were just coasting?

I think key injuries (and lack of a back up half) have realistically done for us regarding the playoffs, but it is a point to ponder that we say Wigan and Leeds have only dropped points with poor performances because they're not taking things too seriously, but then go off the deep end when we do the same.

Fans want the LLS because we've had nothing to polish for a while. I wish the team had realised that and tied it up last week, but [imaybe[/i they are just saving some juice for the real business?

Here's hoping.

Every piece of silverware is 'the real business'. If it isn't then there is something wrong with the club. We were knocked out of the Challenge Cup so that left us with two potential pots (even if one is a plate). We should have been going all out to secure top spot because then we would have had silverware and our team would know what it was like to win. That in turn might have had a positive effect on any hopes for further silverware at a grand final. As it is we're now probably depending on Cas to lose and that's no way to approach the play offs.

The fans did indeed want the Shield. It's a pity that the coaching staff and the players couldn't give more of a dman what the fans want, especially at home.

It's the money in the NRL. A few of the best British players are now playing in Australia, and quality Aussies who used to finish their careers over here are now staying put. It does at least mean that more young kids are getting a chance, though.

Totally agree. The sad thing is, with some decent rulings, we could do a lot to redress the balance with massively over inflating prices for clubs:

-increase the cap £2m, it's not much, but creates space for another quality signing.
-introduce the home grown cap where all home grown players only count for upto 100k on the cap, with further reductions for England knights and England caps
-reduce the overseas quota from 7 to 5 (and eventually 3) which will force clubs into recruiting quality from abroad as opposed to quantity, and thus bringing more kids through for depth...

I can't see the fact 4 burgess brothers and James Graham are in the NRL can make so much difference to how poor this league has gone.

Maybe we just not producing players like we once was.

Its the second part of Dux's post that carries the real weight. There's no Kevin Iro, there's no Darren Albert, Darren Britt, Darren Smith, Sean Hoppe, Willie Talau, Caylass or David Fairleigh.