It helps if you have a long term settled half back partnership to get to final stages, Saints have struggled for the last 10 years to get a decent pairing a lot of it through injuries, our controversial grand final win half backs were the second rowers Wilkin and Flanagan.
I don't think Saints similarity as being early pace setters is quite right as the club have been the most successful side to make the play offs having achieved 20 play offs out of 22 seasons and the majority of those have been in the top 4 to achieve that. The club still head the all time super league table followed by Wigan with Leeds being a distance third.

This season so far the Saints looks as though its got good balance with a coach in Holbrook getting the best out of his players, we look as though we have reasonable depth to cover for injuries. But the majority of saints fans are not getting carried away with the 5 out 5, we know that the more they keep winning then the closer you get to losing one, at the moment without tempting fate we don't seem to be shaping up for a big loss at the moment and I should imagine the club will have impact at the business end of the season.

Why the essay? You won’t win because you are inferior. No need to try and justify it with a case of tl:dr

Regards

King James

You know that cockiness from Cas fans that everyone including the Saints Quasimodo was complaining about? Seems to have crossed the Pennines.

Leeds had a few key players missing too in Cuthbertson and Ward and Walker whilst made the bench on return from injury will be our starter down the line. It's very early days to make calls on most teams especially Leeds given our disjointed last month with the aforementioned issues. The Hull game had a feel like it was our season starter. Maybe Myler and Moon may not bring trophies but too early to tell yet, only their 2nd league game together.

Just for comparison the 4th league game we played in 2017 was against Cas and we got hammered 66-10 and we still won the GF so you'd be brave to write us off after only narrowly beating a top 4 rival at the same stage.

Please point out what I’ve said that was remotely cocky?



No they didn’t, Leeds were missing Cuthbertson, Ward and Sutcliffe. Whilst two of them are key players, Hull were missing Houghton, Kelly, Paea, Watts, Bowden and Faraimo. I expected Leeds to win a lot more comfortably than they did, in the end they were fortunate.

Dwyer, Keinhorst, Ferres and Peteru would've been in ahead of Handley, Walters, Ormondroyd and either Walker/Golding so we had an interchange hooker instead of FB on the bench.

I’m not writing you off I just think there’s something missing at Leeds, like there is at Cas without Hardaker. I think now we’ve got Barba fit and firing as well that could well be the difference this year, no one else has a player like him. Also, I get your point about it being a disjointed first month but I think Hull were in a similar position and as I say, with the two VR decisions I thought you were very fortunate to win when you probably should be winning by a comfortable margin.

Obviously you’re right about winning the GF last year despite the thrashing at Cas and it’s what Leeds do every season - peak at the right time. Having said that I do think you were lucky with the whole Hardaker fiasco. If he plays in that final Cas win, as it was they didn’t turn up and Leeds did what they usually do.

You’ve got a solid squad but like I said that half back pairing doesn’t convince me - I don’t see either as players to guide you to trophies, Moons not a stand off and Mylers average for me. Of course I could be completely wrong and I wouldn’t be surprised if I am. I think you’ll definitely make the top 4 but I’m not sure beyond that.

Forgot about Dwyer and Peteru tbf, Sutcliffes generally starting centre (even though he shouldn’t be) isn’t he and would there have been space for Ferres if Ward and Cuthbertson were fit? I agree Leeds had injuries of their own but I think Leeds have better depth than Hull and Hull had more key players out.

If everyone was fit would Ferres (or Keinhorst) get in. Possibly not especially the latter, but they'd be ahead of what did play. Handley 3rd choice LC, Ormondroyd and Walters are around 7th choice prop/backrower respectively. Add in several guys hadn't played since Melbourne then at this early stage of the year will still be scratchy on match fitness.

I'd agree that Hull were more impacted by injuries but it wasn't by as much as has been made out.

Who said anything about not turning up at all, the question was asked and I gave my opinion that I don't think Leeds will beat them. Get back into your cage

Must admit, I wasn't ecstatic when we signed Myler. But there are signs that he's beginning to add a dimension to our play. Rather than being missing something, I think we might actually be in the process of gaining something.
As for Thursday, a draw would've been about right. We looked like controlling the game until we had to draw on the bench, after which Hull were right back at us.
As for Hardaker we were lucky there too. Not in the sense he'd have turned round the Cas non-show - can't remember him having many stand-out games in a side playing badly - but in as much as he'd taken his distractions elsewhere long before.
As I've said elsewhere, a Saints win on Friday wouldn't astound anyone, me included. I think they're the team closest to where Cas were this time last year. But as we saw, it's an incredibly hard act to maintain.

If Hardaker played we may well have lost the GF, but what was your excuse when Webb was injured for two of the GFs we beat you?

Myler and Moon do have a few question marks, but no more than your half backs- a guy who played fullback for the past 5 years and a relatively unproven kid

Having said that you will be deserved favourites for next week, with Ward and Cuthbertson unlikely to play, especially given our poor record away at saints

Saints look good and the team to beat right now, but you can take nothing really from this time of year apart from seeing who is likely to be challenging for the 4 spots.Nothing is handed out yet and the semis and of course the final at OT are a different beast all together than the regular rounds. I think Cas have learned a lot from last season and they will be looking to go a bit more under the radar this year and peak later.they have not looked anything special so far compared to last season but have only lost the one game.