I was going to post this on the Leeds forum but figured I would get some bad repsonses.

I have to say that Storm really won the mind games at Elland Road. The forwards of Storm such as Blair really frustrated Bailey with some scrappy play around the play the ball. Plus did you see Blair when he pushed Diskins head down when he was marking, really set Diskin off. Cameron Smith was constantly laughing at Leeds, you could really see Leeds getting more frustrated and making mistakes and I think this largely contributed to Storm winning, they were very professional but were able to control and frustrate Leeds.

Overall was a brilliant match and to be honest I expected Leeds to win it with the awful conditions but Cameron Smith really controlled things. When Maguire got the loose ball and went the field I thought game over but Storm really responded well. Was a good match as a neutral, unlucky Leeds, well done Storm.

It felt to me that Melbourne were toying with them up until Leeds scored the try. Then they set the ball rolling and really went into it.

I thought the referee gave Melbourne a lot of latitude when it came to holding down and that frustrated Leeds and they lost a bit of composure. I thought Silverwood's approach was a bit inconsistent at times.
However no doubt that the Storm were the better side.

That said, had Watkins taken his chances Leeds would have got the win.

Thought Blair was a bit of an idiot and a let down to watch.

Agree that silverwood just allowed them to do far too much around ptb.

Very reasoned and valid points on this thread.

And to the opening poster, I doubt you would have got stick for that post. It's pretty close to the truth.

Cameron Smith is the Aussie James Lowes, he can and does get right under anyone's skin, including Silverwood on Sunday. Pastmaster at it.

Leeds bombed 2 tries which any decent winger would have scored, the first by inexplicably choosing to first raise the ball, the second by inexplicably failing to dive to ground and slide in. Also mystified why Peacock didn't reach out the necessary 6" to score under the posts. Senior made an utter prat of himself (and apparently compounded it afterwards, crying like a little girl).

Leeds could and probably should have won, but let themselves down repeatedly, for which they paid dearly, and also tbf were badly disorganised by the injury to Sinfield. They have mostly not been playing anything like so far this season, and didn't produce much at all of the form that won them the title.

I found it quiet funny that the 1st half Storm were holding down and apparently at half time Leeds complainted to the RFL about Silverwood, second half the first team to be penalised for holding down....Leeds. That aside Storm got penalised a lot.

I found that Storm had 3 men making the tackles all the time and the ref seemed to give them more time to get up compared to one man tackles.

Not a bad summation at all, that!

I've always loved the Cameron Smith/Danny Buderus sledgefests.

To of the biggest sledgers in the current game and the IMO the 1 and 2 ranked hookers in the current game lining up against each other makes cracking viewing whether it's SOO or the WCC.

Buderus has nothing on Smith these days though.